A lot of anticipation followed the opening of Chimek in Northbridge. I finally went there on a whim with Vanessa and Martin for lunch which was then followed by another unplanned dinner with some church friends a few weeks after that. I like the small restaurant that they have and how they were able to serve alcohol (yay for Alcohol Licence), fried chicken + beer = true chimek.

We skipped on Gochujang and Dak Gang Jeong because we usually ordered those at Chimek Freo Markets. As a fan of spicy food somehow I preferred the flavour of less spicy Gochujang because the Dak Gang Jeong wasn't spicy enough as indicated on the menu.

The burger at Chimek was alright, it wasn’t top of the range compared to other burger places although the colour of the Charcoal Burger will draw in customers out of curiosity. Then again their main focus is on the fried chicken range that they have.

The Southern fried chicken was very crispy and delicious. This is the flavour that I’ll go to if I go to Chimek with some picky eaters because there’s no way this ‘original’ fried chicken can offend anyone (except if they don’t like crispy skin on the chicken).

My favourite is still the honey soy sesame fried chicken and I think it’s due to the sweet runny sauce that came with it. The sauce basically goes with the chicken as well as the chips. So I usually dipped all my chips inside the sauce. The good thing is that you can ask for additional sauce on the chicken if you feel that your chicken is a bit dry, which is unusual.

The Tennessee Bourbon BBQ fried chicken was another one of my favourite due to its tangy flavour. The fried chicken has rich glazing of Bourbon BBQ sauce on it and topped with Buckwheat Puffs and Banana Chips. The mixture of sauce and topping just worked together really well although I'd recommend that Chimek put more of the Buckwheat Puffs on it. 

It was my first time trying the Guadalajara Cilantro from Chimek and I must say that the Mexican inspired sauce on top of the fried chicken works really well. The topping was Mexican style salsa with fresh coriander, red onions and jalapenos.

Just like their Dak Gang Jeong, the NY Hot Buffalo wasn't as spicy as indicated on the menu but it gave a good kick of chili for chili intolerant customers. The chili sauce gave a nice kick and we like the generous amount of the blue cheese aioli that the staff gave! We had a bad experience the first time we ordered this because the chicken was quite dry and we barely got any blue cheese aioli sauce.

Just a little bit of a tip if you’re watching your money: order the non-boneless chicken because Chimek provides you with some clean gloves at the restaurant and you can save a good $4 per meal by doing so. When we shared our chicken we just put a couple of serviettes on the table to act as the make-shift plate which works really well. Tap water is also available at the restaurant if you don’t want to order any water.

I heard from the grapevine that NeNe Chicken will open right across Chimek and Tennessee style fried chicken store Meat Candy will open in July as well. Soon it will be the battle of fried chicken in Northbridge and I can’t wait to satisfy my fried chicken cravings!