Sparrow's Mill - Sydney CBD

Sydney LOVES fried chicken...well, I guess fried chicken is a universal thing. But to elaborate on my point, we have a lot of chicken joints: Two-Two, Chicken Institute, Naruone, Red Pepper, Work In Progress and Sydney's most well known (and my most disdained) Arisun. I mean, how can you not love fried chicken? The crispy exterior coating the succulent, juicy meat...I could eat fried chicken all the time if it didn't make me fat.

It's this adoration for deep fried poultry that lead me to Sparrow's Mill. The sister restaurant of Red Pepper in Strathfield, Sparrow's Mill is much more accessible to the general public by being situated right in the middle of the city. This made it a prime location when I decided to treat my mum to lunch (she loves fried chicken equally as much as I do)

We went slightly after the initial lunch rush so despite it being a Saturday, it really wasn't all too busy. One thing I love about Sparrow's Mill is that the service is spectacular. I mean it's all smiles all around and the staff are attentive, welcoming and communicative. We ordered two orders of chicken and a Dolsot Bibimbap (stone-pot rice for the uninitiated) which was the perfect amount of food for two eager diners.

The bibimbap came first along with the banchan (korean complimentary side dishes). It was good but to be honest, nothing to really speak in detail about. Being that it's such a simple dish, it's really hard to differentiate good ones from bad ones (what I mean is that I haven't had one in Sydney which has blown my mind). I mean if a korean restaurant doesn't do Bibimbap decently, I personally don't think it's worth returning. The banchan had a good variety though.

Shy egg yolk...hiding under a leaf.

But let's be honest, we didn't come here for the typical Korean fare. We came for the chicken and on that front, Sparrow's Mill definitely did not disappoint. We ordered the Original Gangjung chicken and the Snow Cheese chicken. The Gangjung was a delicious mix of tangy and salty with the still crispy pieces of chicken coated in a soy based sauce. The garnish of peanuts and sliced chillies gave it a nice kick of heat and really pushed it up a notch. 

My personal favorite though was the Snow Cheese chicken. It tasted like fried chicken...covered in the cheese packets that came with kraft easy mac with crumbs of chicken flavoured twisties. I fricken LOVED it. Every bite of chicken lead to an explosion of flavour, juice and crunch all compounded by my favourite childhood junk foods. I reckon if I came with mates, I'd down a full plate of this by myself.

If you know me and you've dined with me regularly, you'll know that I'm not normally the biggest fan of Korean food. But it is absolutely undeniable that they do amazing things with fried chicken. If you put amazing chicken, superb service and reasonable prices together, you end up with a place that even I wouldn't mind coming back to again and again.