THE EMPIRE
Hey team
apologies is been a little while between food reviews, haven’t been to that many new places lately – but this came up in the inbox so being fried chicken lovers, had to check it out
Sidenote, Recently went to Oyster and Chop ( again ) and had the Wagyu, $50 – fuckin awesome
But I digress,
The Coop,
This came up as apparently its a friend of a friend that owns it or something to that effect, that will have no bias on review however.
So back to the usual format,
Why here? – we like fried chicken and its new, been around about a month.
Parking – its on hurstmere road Takapuna, so subject to how busy the area is, we found parking close.
Venue – So, this is kind of important, if you’ve ever been to any of the Mexico chains, they go really over the top making you feel like you’re in a shitty cantina in the asshole of nowhere and I appreciate the shit out of that, sure their wall art is printed off and stuck on the wall but.. a couple shots in and a bowl of chefs chicken you’re starting to make up Mexican names for each other.. This place has zero character, I should have got some pictures of the place but the walls were bare and simple, there was no theme – little to no effort into creating a vibe around the place.. which was highly disappointing – all the places that have popped off lately are all about vibe, as much as the food. Take note Coop.
Staff – friendly and easy to converse with, they were happy to answer questions, no complaints – perhaps a bit too friendly if you’re an introvert but, if you are.. maybe stay home?
So the all important food,
We ordered a selection for 2 from their menu – everything else is create your own share meals but we wanted to try as much as possible
Tasting Box – $49
Any 2 Jerk fried chicken – we went with original and Smokey Vietnam
Enough hand cut fries for two people – true
rough Chop Salad – meh
Hushpuppies to share – not shoes
2x 330ml drinks
Right so, Hushpuppies were not shoes.. I thought from what he explained they were gona be jalapeno poppers, ya know like the nuggets of pepper with the corn and the cheese? well it had those things but it was more like a deep fried corn bread with those things inside, not gooey or cheesey – just corn bread with corn and jalapenos inside – not bad, just not what I expected. Salad well it was there, nothing wrong with it, it just wasn’t what we were there for – Hand cut fries for two was fair, plenty there and nicely done, big fat fuckers like you might make yourself – they could have used a little season when they came out but nothing we couldn’t resolve with table condiments
side track
Table condiments were good – they have legit franks hotsauce and they had a local hotsauce Kaitaia Fire which I’d had before and is likely up there with one of the best locally made, kudos for supporting local
So the chicken, something disappointing – we ordered the original and the smokey Vietnam chicken – turns out smokey Vietnam is just BBQ sauce on top of original with some nuts on it, a slight let down but – The original was really really good – Now in the last few months fried chicken has really become a thing here, to the point where I’m gona get a dutch oven or something to the effect to have a go at making our own on the Meaneats show – so needless to say we’ve had a fair bit, this was up there.. not the best but very good – the important things to me in fried chicken is the crunch of course, and the flavours of the coating – they nailed the crunch but the coating didn’t have a huge amount of depth to the flavour, it was good but not mindblowing – the chicken was well cooked and still very juicy – they hadn’t dried it out at all – over all as far as stand alone fried chicken goes i’d give it a solid 7.5/10
BUT
A single portion of their original fried chicken is $16 – there’s a decent amount there but that’s not nothing, all others are $17 I would be interested to try some of the other flavours but I get the impression that its just condiments on top of the original so.. maybe flag it
They have a good base to work off, I think they need to get some creative flair with their other flavours of chicken and jazz the place up a bit so its a fun experience and not feeling like you’re eating in a subway tunnel or something.
Until next time team! You can find their full menu on their website here – www.thecoop.co.nz
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