Chicken Institute

How good is fried chicken! It’s EVEN BETTER at this place.
Boneless and tender, with unique flavours to choose from.
We tried the garlic ones and the peanut butter ones which were both really good! I couldn’t decide which was better. Also tried the kimchi poutine, which was unique and didn’t taste amazing, just alright.
We booked in advance on the day through email, and they got back to us within 1 – 2 hours.
Price is a bit expensive for $ 24 a bucket (which is only around 6 pieces of chicken), highly recommend trying at least once though.

A colleague recommended this place was I was looking for pouting and apparently they do kimchi poutine here… I wouldn’t even call if poutine here! It came with thin cut fries and grated cheese rather than cheese curds. The fried chicken was passable but a little too sweet for my taste. Bibimbap was interesting and the wagyu and pork belly ssam was done well but quite expensive for the portion size. I’ve given this place two shots but I think it’s two strikes out of two… Definitely not coming back!

Waited almost two and a half hours for our meal. Like some of the other reviews service was inconsistent. The table next to us was served with 20 mins.

I’d say I had here the most elegant Bibimbap that I’ve ever had. Barely any rice at all (but lovely purple rice hidden underneath the centre) and mostly an explosion of colours and fresh and picked veg. It was delicious. I kind of missed the crunchy bits of rice you get when it served in a stone bowl, and there’s something satisfying about mixing everything together in the cheap and non-​elegant version, but I loved this. The food instagrammer #PrincessPorky told me that this is actually the way bibimbaps are supposed to be. Who knew?
In any case, here I was, at the Chicken Institute in Surry Hills, just across from 4fourteen. It’s smaller than I thought it would be, just a narrow hole in the wall. Elegant though. I thought they nicely combined this feel of traditional… with modern. I liked the take on Korean Fried Chicken. Tasty, crisp, a bit too salty perhaps for my liking, but deep-​fried chicken. What’s not to love? Their interpretation of the ubiquitous pork bun was ridiculously tasty. Instead of pork, an ‘eggplant cutlet’, deep fried and crunchy. It was surprising, and surprisingly good. Which leaves us finally with some BBQ meat, we got a mix of the beef and the pork belly. Tasty. I kind of loved this place, inexpensive, casual, unusual and super tasty. They took reservations, which seems kind of necessary as the place was packed. I’ll be back!

We agree with the big name comes big expectations… NOT.
We made reservations for 8:30, stating that if we were late by 15 minutes they would give our table away. How ironic that we in turn waited almost an hour for the so called damn good fried chicken and garlic chicken.
Being civil customers, we questioned the waiter where our food was as we had our poutine (which was cold by this time). He told us that there was a line when the chefs cook. However, there were other customers around us who came in 30 minutes after us and had already got their meals.
This waiter told us that their manager was behind the counter. I approached this so called manager who then claimed that the manager was absent.
All this confusion left us in anger and just left the restaurant.
This place did not meet our expectations AT ALL.
Shitken Institute.

Food here is actually pretty decent, and the chicken is bang on… but it’s overshadowed by their piss poor service.
Made a booking and we were seated at a small bar-​like table.
After being seated we waited 10 minutes for someone to finally come by to take our order.
Ordered the bibimbap, bbq pork+wagyu, eggplant bun, and sticky fried chicken. I wanted to order the burger but they ran out.
Bibimbap came first along with the bbq, and I have the say I like the bibimbap much more than the bbq pork+wagyu due to taste and bang for buck. If I were to come back I’d order that again and pass on the bbq. Then the eggplant came and it was alright, they went a little overboard with the mayo which overwhelmed the eggplant… who puts mayo on the underside of a bun you’re supposed to eat with your hands?
Then we saw that two group of people that sat down after us got their fried chicken while we never got ours. We waited a good 10 – 15 minutes because no one came by to check on us even when we were raising our hands. The only way we got someone to check on us was because they were seating someone in our general area. When we asked about our chicken, someone else came out and said he mistakenly gave our chicken to another table and that a new order would be put in.
On the bright side the order came out quickly, and the sticky chicken is also actually really good, and boneless too. Definitely the highlight dish… it’s just too bad the service here is atrocious.
Probably won’t be back.

Great service and tasty food but you’re honestly better off going somewhere else as this place isn’t value for money.
Waiter said there would be 10 pieces of chicken but only received 7.
Be advised this place only has tiny servings so go on a full stomach.

Went here for the birthday of a friend who is obsessed with fried chicken. Seemed logical then that we would be at The Chicken Institute.
Our problems began with the storms on this Saturday which meant that Sydney traffic was a nightmare and 3 of our group of 5 were running late. We were told on the phone very strictly our booking would be invalidated if we were late or if our full group had not arrived. Imagine my surprise then when we arrived to see only 2 other people at the restaurant.
While we waited for the rest of our group, we tried to order some starters to tie us over (kimchi poutine!!!) but the one waitperson at the restaurant insisted on pointing out that we couldn’t hold our table unless the rest of our group arrived… even though the restaurant was almost empty!
We managed to hold our table until the others arrived and thankfully the night took a turn for the better when the chicken was served. We had the peri peri chicken (fyi not fried), the damn good fried chicken and the damn good fried garlic chicken. All very tasty and the fried ones were the right level of crunchy!
We also tried the bbq corn which was OK (though you should definitely try this at Mejico!) and the kimchi poutine which needed way more kimchi to live up to its name.
Overall, glad we crossed it off the list but wouldn’t come back due to the service and inflexible group policy.

Diff to the traditional Korean food. The fried chickens r amazing. Sweet potato donuts with peanut butter sauce are very interesting combo. The place is very cozy too!

We had the most awful experience here. It was so bad that by the end we weren’t even angry– just utterly shocked at the ridiculousness of a restaurant manager telling our group it was «policy» that more than six peole cant sit at the same communal table in a half empty restaurant, even though they happily acccepted our booking for 10.

Amazing new modern Korean.
Love their sticky sauce friend chicken with peanuts. The kimchi poutine? Omg, it blows my tastebuds.
We’ll be there again!
Currently byo while waiting for their liquor license.
Loads of traffic so make sure you come in early.
Staff were super friendly.

With big name comes big expectation. I was hell excited to try a place called Chicken Institute. I even debated with my friend (Hi Jayne!) prior whether it was intended to be a study-​facility of chicken or an instant institution specialising in chicken. After trying them out, I concluded neither.
The eggplant schnitzel in the eggplant bun was way too thin that it could’ve been any vegetable, the sticky chicken was good-​ish, the kimchi poutine was quite delicious actually but the sweet potato dough was just doughy and not much more. My review may be biased due to my high expectation for such an epic name, which unfortunately was not met. Left feeling a little deflated after, thank goodness epic gelato was just a block away…