Remember Hawker? Malaysian street food which took Sydney by storm, oh say…4 years ago? Good…so now you have a point of reference in where Chicken V is situated, as Chicken V now stands where Hawker used to be. Sydney trends? ‘One day you’re in, the next day you’re out!
A common complaint people have of Korean Fried Chicken joints, is the inability to order smaller servings of Chicken. Thus when dining in a small group you inevitably end up only trying a flavour or two, or at worse end up having 10 big pieces of chicken each, all of the same flavour- leaving you with no appetite or stomach space to try anything else. Boring!
But Chicken V solves this first world problem! Let me introduce to you their ‘9 Sampler’, offering to you all 9 flavours in moderation, so that in one sitting you can try every flavour on offer! Imagine that, it’ll be like going to Gelato Messina and trying all 40 flavours a teaspoon at a time; or going to Zumbo’s and having one of each Macaron flavour, one mini Macaron after another! Interesting concept hey? The premium for this experience, being $8 more than the cost of a full-size plate of one single flavour (that is around 25% more). **Note: They also do half-and-half.
The 9 flavours Chicken V had on their menu were: Crazy hot, Traditional, Honey butter, Curry, Soy, Seasoned, Onion, Shallot, and Snow flake.
And as we waited for our food, we took in the décor of the restaurant. There was a Spiderman soft toy dangling from the ceiling, a poster of the green Hulk on one wall, and if you can read Korean sub-titles you could fully immerse yourself in the Marvel movie which was being shown (muted) on the flat screens (this arvo it was Ant-Man). So that was a little bit quirky and different. And we also enjoyed the Korean pop-playlist, one artist sounded like a Korean Ed Sheeran. Haaha. Although the tables were a bit squishy, they were set for four and we had to reposition the wooden stools which we weren’t using, to give ourselves some more space around the table.
When our KFC arrived, the trays (there were three) took up almost the entire table. And to wash it all down, we tried one of their fruit beers, opting for the pomegranate flavour.
Why I was so excited (and you can tell from my re-telling), was that we’ve eaten a fair share of our KFC over the years, but we’ve still never tried Honey Butter, Curry, “Seasoned”, nor Onion, so given that the Sampler offered us between 5-8 pieces of each flavour, thus at a minimum we had 50 pieces of chicken shared between 2. Woohoo! Before you accuse me of being a glutton, each piece was sized just right to fit whole into your mouth. Picture irregular shaped chicken nugs, or large pieces of popcorn chicken. Thus the crunchy batter ratio to tender moist chicken flesh was high, which meant more crunch per munch, and no bones! Yay!
The stand-out flavours for us were Curry, Onion, Snow flake, and Crazy hot…. Crazy hot because it was pretty crazy hot! If you’re familiar with your usual KFC offerings, you can picture the fried chicken coated in a thick layer of sauce where the entire piece of fried chicken was probably dipped in a vat of sauce. But at Chicken V, each flavour had the same base fried batter, but instead only drizzling the different sauces onto the cooked fried chicken. Thus on the positive side, each morsel of chicken was crunchy right through to the last piece we consumed like an hour after we first started. But on the flip side, the flavours weren’t as intense as other KFC joints, that being a good thing, as even just a drizzle of the Crazy hot sauce was enough to initiate a chilli-induced runny nose. **Note, if the majority of your group wanted chicken, but you felt like something else than fried bird, don’t despair as they also serve ramen, stews, stone pots, and hot plates. +Pay cash and get $2 off the bill.
Our end verdict, 3.5 stars (1.5 star on the napkin test = box of cheap facial tissues), we loved the fact that we were able to ‘eat the entire KFC board’ in one sitting, however it didn’t have the same explosion of flavours as Sparrow’s Mill or Red pepper (our benchmark for KFC). But I can see the venue’s appeal as a Uni crowd’s hang-out, with fried chicken, beers, good music and front row seats to some Marvel flicks! Pretty good combo hey? Ah, to be young again…
Chicken V- Sunday 7 October
PH: (02) 9267 5401
345B -353 Sussex Street, Sydney NSW
Mon-Sun 11.30pm – 1am
Four Senses: Touch Smell Taste Sound
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