After watching the Korean drama of ‘You Who Came from the Stars’, my girlfriends were craving for Korean fried chicken and beer. As such, we decided to head down to Chicken Up!

Reservation is strongly recommended. When we reached on a Friday night at 7.30pm, there was a big crowd waiting along the pavement. Although the crowd seemed to be queuing for Chicken Up and 2D1N Soju Bang. But I say, it’s always better to be kiasu. Keke.

After informing the staff of our arrival, we were expecting to be led into their air-conditioned unit that’s decorated with bright orange. However, we were led to the next unit which design is totally of the opposite. Instead of bright orange, the walls were of dark red. Apparently, they have taken over the space of the now defunct Speakeasy. The open concept of this (other) unit allowed us to be noisy without inviting rude stares (since it’s designed to have the pub feel) and we did not have to walk out of the restaurant smelling like smoke. Keke.

As we were a big group of 8, we were led to the back where there were 2 long, tall tables. However, they did not have enough (high) seats for us. The other big group at the 2nd high table had one lady standing through out her dinner. Hmm…

And from the menu, we ordered:-

1) Soya chicken wings, $24 (whole, ~8 pieces) (above) – Crispy fried chicken wings coated with Korean soya sauce. We could barely finish 1 full chicken wing each because it was so salty!

2) Mild up, $34 (whole, ~8 pieces) (above) – Crispy and juicy fried chicken with an original taste. My friends somehow compared this to KFC, commenting that for the same quality, they can get it cheaper at KFC. But really, I do think Chicken Up’s is better than KFC’s. Just look at the size (of the wings) and the batter. The wings are consistently big (sometimes you get a scrawny drumstick from KFC, especially when you order original and take away) and the batter is not loaded with flour. Skin was crisp while meat was juicy.

3) Yangnyum, $38 (whole, ~8 pieces) (above) – Crispy and juicy fried chicken with a spicy taste coated with sweet and spicy sauce. This was my favourite!

4) Black noodles up, $9.90 (above) – Black noodles with crispy chicken. This was very normal. I had better elsewhere.

5) Truffle Fries, $8

6) Kimchi fried rice (above) – The portion for this gooey rice was really small. But I like how the rice is sticky. Very different from the normal fried rice I used to have.

7) Fish cake soup, $30 (whole, 4 pax) (above) – Various fish cake and vegetables in special soup.

8) Watermelon soju (above) – It’s not a very alcoholic drink since only 1 small bottle of soju is poured into the huge watermelon.

Overall, it was a decent dining experience. As with the name of the restaurant, Chicken Up specialises in chicken. So don’t come into the restaurant hoping to eat other Korean dishes as their options for non-chicken dishes are somewhat limited.

There’s a total of 7 options for their fried chicken; Spicy up (spicy taste), mild up, curry up (original taste served with curry sauce), yangnyum, suicide spicy chicken (served on a hotplate), soya chicken wings and popcorn (boneless crispy bite size chicken coated with choice of either soya sauce or yangnyum sauce).