Feeding our obsession with fried chicken at Gami

Fried chicken. That's basically all I need to say to my best friends for their eyes to light up and our schedules suddenly clear. And so when it came time for us to pick a venue for a catchup dinner, it only made sense for me to suggest recently opened pan-Korean venue Gami Chicken & Beer. None of us had been, but we were all really excited to get our feed on and basically pig out. 

We arrived for an early dinner at 6.30pm and were lucky to scoop up one of the last tables available - definitely a case of good timing. Sadly could I have done it all again I might have rung and booked a table inside because while outside has fantastic atmosphere (especially with the live music next door), they have a serious moth problem. And I mean serious, to the point where they were landing in our food (gross). Some bug zappers are needed stat. 

While we're definitely there to devour chicken, we know we need some sides to accompany our meal. After a quick consult of the menu, we decide on the corn cheese ($9.80) and the potato heaven ($14.00).

The corn cheese comes out first and is steaming hot, a sizzling plate with corn kernels topped with melted cheese and parsley. You need to eat this quick! Otherwise the cheese sets and the effect of the dish is gone. We can't help but laugh at the sides we've chosen - it's like whoever designed the menu was super high... and yet it works.

The potato heaven was particularly true of this - creamy mashed potato topped with melted cheese, wedges, sweet chilli sauce and sour cream. I actually really didn't want to like this because it sounds nuts - but it was great! We foolishly made the mistake of ordering a second one which defeated us in the end, but the first one was like a crazy comfort food dish that ticked the boxes of satisfying and junky at the same time.

We were all in agreement that chicken is best served on the bone, so we chose two full chickens ($34.00 each) rather than the boneless option. They have four different flavours to select from, and since each chicken is cut into smaller pieces we figured we'd try them all! Obviously in the name of blogging research...

For all of us on the table it was unanimous that the original fried chicken was our favourite. Crunchy, lightly seasoned and juicy on the inside they were a popular offering. The sweet chilli is labelled on the menu as Gami's most popular but I actually found it much too sugary for my own tastes - then again I'm not the biggest sweet chilli fan out there.

The garlic and soy flavour was my least favourite for the night - the taste not quite distinguishable, and the sauce a little too sticky. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for a saucy chicken when the sauce is right, but if it doesn't hit a certain high, then I'll gravitate back towards the dry fried chicken. After all, I can't help  but take a little satisfied pleasure at the crunch of that crispy coating.

The final flavour I tried was referred to as 'spicy'. It had a little bit of a kick, nothing too serious for those of you who love your chilli (like I do even though sometimes I go in too hard!). Flavour wise it was my second favourite though as the sauce was well balanced and still kept the chicken crunchy. We didn't actually get to finish our chicken as you can imagine - predictably we over-ordered. But Gami do provide boxes for takeaway which was great to see... we gave them to Jay to take home since he's the biggest fried chicken devotee out of us all.

So what was the verdict of Gami Chicken & Beer? I like the concept, and I think this place has great potential. However I felt that the sauced chickens didn't like up to their reputation, and the original plain version didn't quite match the highs of other fried chicken offerings around town. But the search continues, and perhaps a return to Chimek to compare is in order!?