Summary
Chicken 17/20
Sides 7/10
Service 9/10
Magic 3/10
Total 36/50
The story
I’ve recently moved to Co. Randwick, the 33rd county of Ireland. There are pros and cons of the move, but the biggest impact to my day-to-day life has been the change to my local KFC.
This review isn’t the first feed that I’ve had at the Randwick KFC but it’s the first time that I’ve been in a sufficient state to consider it for a review. As my new local I’m potentially casting a harsher eye over the establishment than I might otherwise, but with great privilege comes great responsibility.
This particular meal was a lunch time treat, scoffed down while watched NZ beat Australia at Cricket on my lunch break.
The order
I ordered a classic Ultimate Box for a very reasonable $11.45.
If you’re new to the game, the ultimate box has 1 piece of chicken, a medium chips, a potato and gravy, an original recipe fillet burger, and a drink.
Chicken – 17/20
Very good.
The fillet in the burger was perfect, crispy, chewy, juicy, flavoursome. You name what you want out of a fillet and this bad boy delivered it. The bread was soft and sweet too. Bloody cracking burger.
The baseball was good but not great. I was there as part of the lunch time rush so the chicken hadn’t had a chance to let its juices settle yet. It came out hot and crispy, but the flavour wasn’t quite on point. Certainly no complaints though.
Sides – 7/10
Again, the gravy and chips were good without being great. 7/10 is an awkward middle zone where there’s nothing to moan about but also nothing to be inspired by.
Everything was cooked properly. The chips were salted and crunchy. The gravy to potato ratio was fine. The lumps were in the right ratio. But nothing was just right either. There could certainly have been a heavier hand on the salt and a bit more grease in the gravy wouldn’t have hurt at all.
I opted for a thirst crushing Solo for the drink. It’s extremely sweet which I’m a fan of but doesn’t have the same negative connotations as a Mountain Dew. It was tight.
Service – 9/10
Wow! The service at KFC Randwick was exceptional.
As I said earlier, I arrived during the lunch time rush. I was greeted by a gentleman who treated his job with appropriate seriousness and got things done in record time. He didn’t blink an eye when I asked for no mayonnaise and a baseball, which is extremely rare. The rule of thumb is that 1 menu change is fine, 2 is a big risk, and 3 is impossible. Whether it causes an information overload or whether people spite me for making their jobs more difficult I don’t know, but things always go wrong with three changes. I have every confidence that this bloke would have handled it though, and I regret also not asking him for extra seasoning.
The order also arrived in astonishing time. It was so fast that I was sure they’d made a mistake and had to unwrap my burger (even though it had the special-order wrapper on it) to double check. No issues and a very impressed customer!
Magic – 3/10
Unfortunately the magic was the issue at KFC Randwick. The food was good, the service excellent, but there was none of the je ne sais quoi that separates the king from the pretenders.
The shop was clean and orderly but there was nothing interesting going on. The service was efficient and polite, but there was no heart in the process. Not at all what you hope for in a KFC experience.
I know that this sounds nit picking but it’s the magic that makes the difference. It’s magic that makes Kanye different to Macklemore, separates Sachin from Kallis, or makes skateboarding cool and scootering humiliating. It’s hard to pin down but it’s the heart of human endeavour.
Mingin or Finger lickin?
Finger lickin 🙂
KFC Reviews 