I love it when food takes you back down memory lane! I remember as kids we used to have fast-food once a week (after evening music lessons)and I remember when KFC first introduced their whole roasted chicken, and thereafter my parents never bought us Colonel Sander’s secret herbs and spices deep fried chicken anymore, but preferred this healthier option.
So is this what Basax Korean Chicken and Dining is doing to the Sydney Korean Fried Chicken scene? Creating a behavioural change from deep-fried to baked chicken goodness?
Standing out from their competitors, Basax is offering an entire menu of baked-not-fried Korean chicken, and I have to say it captures 95% of all that is good about KFC, but without all the unhealthiness of deep fried food.
Today we opted for their Basax signature baked chicken with their secret seasoning, with 2 types of dipping sauce, and also ordered the Spicy tofu stew with seafood.
As we waited for our food, we took in the restaurant’s ambience which was located in a smaller space but gave off a very modern and relaxed vibe, from the yellow schemed lounges and yellow ceilings, the Andy Warhol-esque artwork, and mellow K-pop. The cutlery was neatly placed in your stainless steel bone collection bucket; the cups and bowls were cute conical implements, although the “napkin test” only returned 2 stars as it was pretty thin and small, considering the type of food you were going to devour was more likely than not going to be eaten with your hands.
We were pleasantly surprised to be served the complementary Korean sides (although it wasn’t mentioned on the menu), so we nibbled away at our kimchi, seaweed salad, crunchy noodles in mayo, and egg omelette, until our Spicy tofu stew with seafood arrived. The pot contained silken tofu, egg, squid, prawns and clams. It wasn’t too spicy but just nice and tasty.
And when the star of our meal arrived, the serving platter on which it arrived rightfully took up the majority of our table space. The whole baked chicken on the bone was perfect, each piece of chicken was coated in a light batter which was baked to a golden crisp, and because it was baked it wasn’t oily, but the outer coating was nice and dry, and the chicken inside was truly tender and juicy. Nice, nice, nice, nice! The secret seasoning was subtle, so that you couldn’t work out what was the predominant spice, but it just left a nice tingle in your mouth, and if you wanted a stronger taste, you just had to dip your chicken into one of the two sauces, the creamy orange coloured one was like a sweet mayo, while the darker sauce was like a BBQ sauce, with a hint of spice to it.
So our first experience of Korean baked chicken was a memorable one, for it’s perfectly tender flesh and crispy outer coating thus justifying a 5/5 rating from us (our first 5/5 restaurant rating), and because of its healthier nature, I’m considering bringing my parents here, when they would otherwise baulk at the idea of deep fried chicken at their age. So we’ll definitely be back with family and/or friends, so we can try more of their BKC flavours and try their waffle fries which looked delish!
Basax Korean Chicken and Dining – Saturday 22 September
PH: (02) 8880 5543
415 Pitt Street, Haymarket NSW
Mon-Sun 11.45am – 10pm
Four Senses: Touch Smell Taste Sound
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