Chez Kimchi, Civic

It's about time that we got a taste of K.F.C. in the capital - the Western world has been discovering Korean fried chicken in stages for the last couple of years. Chez Kimchi is only fairly new, springing up in the spot that used to be one of the Chong Co restaurants on Bunda Street opposite what the Canberra Centre, rather oddly, calls the "North Quarter". 

There are 14 different types of fried chicken on offer here, garnished with a variety of Korean-style toppings from "snow cheese" to spring onions and hot sauce. It takes a while to arrive but there's plenty to look at - there's the endless and endlessly fascinating people-watching parade along the street. A pair of young Korean women drop in and order a hot pot. They proceed to gossip and chat while dipping vegetables and meat into a bubbling chilli oil broth. Inside is modern, if rather generic, with banquette seating carved out of the room, and fronds of greenery along the wooden panels. Or sit outside under a tree in the breeze and soak up summer. 

But then it arrives. Two platters of fried chicken, one dusted with slightly sweet powdered cheese, another drenched in sweet soy and honey sauce. A collection of small plates, offering kimchi, cubed potatoes in soy sauce, and pickles, form a phalanx around the main prize.

What to say about this fried chicken? Only that it's incredibly good - beautifully crisp and clean on the outside, without a hint of oiliness and plenty of battered crunch. Inside it's steaming hot but the meat is juicy and tender. This is golden perfection from the first bite. The snow cheese lends a savoury edge to the chicken. The sweet sauce is a fraction less appealing, mainly because that sauce softens that admirable golden crunch. It's so good that it's worth going back a couple of days later to pick up some plain fried chicken takeaway - in cute Korean boxes with a cut-out rooster head - just to get more of that crispy fix and near-perfect fry. 

There are other things to savour on the menu. A list of pancakes, including a simple, crisp thing filled with kimchi, good with a beer as a quick afternoon snack, and a couple of small, sweet dessert pancakes like hot pockets filled with crushed peanuts and brown sugar. Worth exploring. Hot pot is clearly popular here too - the sizzle of portable gas burners competes with the crackle of fried chicken. And there are other Korean staples such as bibimbap.

Drinks are limited and mostly Korean - there's soju, beer and a short list of flavoured iced teas which makes the whole thing a topsy turvy Asian version of southern food. Instead of buttermilk fried chicken with sweet iced tea we have hot sauce fried chicken with a tall glass of bitey ginger iced tea. 

The genealogy of Chez Kimchi is a little mixed. It appears, as far as we can make out, to be a semi-franchise of a popular fried chicken chain called Gangjung, which features in restaurants across Sydney and Melbourne. The owners also run Hangari Kimchi in Dickson, a more traditional Korean eatery that doesn't include the fried chicken franchise. But who cares if it's a chain or not - the fried chicken is just too good. Get in, order a platter or two or three, and some soju or beer, and sink your teeth into that delightful golden crispness.