Summary
Chicken 9/20
Sides 9/10
Service 9/10
Magic 9/10
Total 36/50
The story
Let me start by saying that I’d never heard of Pagewood before jogging past this KFC and commencing research for this review. I didn’t know that it existed and still don’t think that it’s a real suburb. It’s one of these imposters that’s really a couple of traffic lights trying to creep up the bracket. That said, those traffic lights stand beside a luscious Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant, so I found myself whipping down there in between showers on a damp Friday afternoon to sample the local delights.
The order
A trusty standard, I ordered the Ultimate Box. The box comes with an original fillet burger (no mayonnaise strongly specified), a potato and gravy, a drink, chips, and a piece of original recipe chicken. All this for the low low price of $11.45. That’s approximately 968 yen for my international readers.
Feeling slightly giddy with my Friday afternoon freedom I also jumped headfirst into a limited availability that was enticingly advertised. I topped the order up with two hot rods for $4.95.
Chicken – 9/20
The chicken, as you know, is ultimately paramount to the overall KFC experience and was unfortunately lacking. It really truly is unfortunate through, because APART from this paramount area KFC Pagewood was fantastic. Granted that’s a a bit like apart from the Taliban, Helmand is lovely, but there you go.
First, the hot rods. What on earth is a hot rod I hear you ask? Great question. Basically, I discovered, a hot road is a chicken shish kebab coated in hot and spicy sauce and then deep fried. Definitely an intriguing idea but ultimately, to save you from the disappointment I felt at discovering this for myself, a dismal failure. The chicken itself was extremely slimy presumably thigh off cuts / floor sweepings. It was coated in hot and spicy which, if it’s your thing fair play to you, but it certainly isn’t mine. I also have some suspicions that the coating wasn’t legitimate 12 herbs and spices. I ate half of one hot-rod and shamefully threw out the rest.
The standard piece I was given was a drumstick and I had no qualms about it. It wasn’t immaculate, but it was more than passable. The fillet in the burger was slightly sketchy though. It was fine for the most part, but the texture was a little off and when I looked to investigate, it was slightly undercooked. Don’t get me wrong it wasn’t raw but pink chicken is always a slightly stressful experience.
Ultimately a fail mark for Pagewood’s chicken. 9/20.
Sides – 9/10
Moving on from the disappointment of the chicken, the sides were exceptional. The chips were perfect. Look at that picture and the visible seasoning on the chips. KFCs of the world take note, this is what extra seasoning should look like! Phenomenal.
The potato and gravy was also very good, but not perfect. A reasonable blend of potato and gravy, good consistency and solid taste it was probably at 8/10 level. The chips though, were 11/10 and pepsi is pepsi so ultimately, it’s an impressive 9/10 for traffic light city.
Service – 9/10
Another great job from the Pagewood team, the service was almost perfect. The girl behind the till gave the impression that she knew the responsibility that she was entrusted with as the face of the franchise. There were a good few bizzarros in there too and she handled them with aplomb. It did take a little while to get my food to me though so 1 mark off the perfect score.
Magic – 9/10
Tidy marks here again. There was a lot going on at the Pagewood KFC and all of it was good.
To start with, the restaurant was just the right blend of dirty and clean. A spotless KFC is a KFC that you can’t trust and a filthy one is gross. Just the right amount of residual grease around the place lets the customer know that the team is too busy making magic happen to be worrying about a little chicken grease.
There was also a telly playing MTVs feel good Friday top 100. When I walked in Lola by the kinks was playing which is one of my favourite trans love stories and great background music to some perfectly seasoned chips. It was a feel good Friday indeed!
They also had a beautiful al fresco dining / smoking area. It wasn’t the afternoon for it but if it was it looked looovely. 1 point is lost for the no smoking signs in what god obviously intended to be a smoking area, but a bonus point for some interesting trivia on the wall (see below).
Overall, there were some highs and lows but I would definitely go again. Keep it up Pagewood.
Mingin or Finger lickin?
Finger lickin 🙂
KFC Reviews 