I’m not sure how I ended up at this one? 😂

After a last minute cancellation, I found myself at a loose end wandering around Regent Street. I stumbled into an unusual looking place called “Ji The Chicken Shop”, a Taiwanese street food chain that focuses predominantly on chicken.

It has numerous locations across the country and is famed for fried chicken. It differs from other rivals by offering a wide variety of customisable seasoning powders, ranging from cheese to paprika, and even plum. It sounded interesting, so I thought I would take the plunge and see how I got on.

The menu is in English and what I presume is Mandarin Chinese. It offers an extensive list of chicken options but I also noticed squid and tofu. Fresh fruit teas, bubble tea and desserts are also available.

The place itself is small and functional. There is a hint of Taiwanese decorations but it felt like an everyday takeaway/fast food place. The venue is empty in the photo but there was a lot of traffic throughout my stay, suggesting that it is quite popular.

Chicken wings

I started off with their signature fried chicken. It took around 10-15 minutes to come out, implying it was cooked fresh but it didn’t offer that speedy service that you would expect from a fast food joint.

The chicken wings are much larger than ones from other chicken outlets, something I definitely preferred. You can see from the photos that there is a range of spices and herbs on the chicken skin. I decided to go for their standard recipe to get an idea of what their textbook chicken tastes like. The skin was light, which allowed the flavours added on to dance on your palette uninterrupted but it was painfully salty. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, as I quite enjoy salty food but I know this might be a little much for some people.

Bubble tea

I washed the chicken down with some bubble tea. The Chicken Shop is clearly big on being able to customise your food and drink, as there is a list of different flavours you can mix and match together. I even saw a guy walk in and ask for a “seaweed and cheese” bubble tea 🤢

I decided to go for my favourite – vanilla, a nice sensible flavour. This was a fairly ordinary bubble tea but I couldn’t fault it in any way either. A textbook example of an inoffensive product from a restaurant chain.

Takoyaki

I grabbed some takoyaki to see how The Chicken Shop manages non chicken items. These are popular Japanese street foods made from octopus but this take is filled with a type of mozzarella cheese too. The octopus portion in the middle was measly but I really enjoyed the dish overall. It was crispy on the outside, gooey on the inside, with something similar to Worcestershire sauce drizzled on top. It really worked.

Chicken curry

I asked the lady behind the till what she recommended. She encouraged me to go for the katsu curry, which she felt was one of their strongest dishes. Not overly Taiwanese but a dish I have had many times in the past, which will make it easy to compare with other restaurants.

The chicken was nice and crispy with a separate bowl of curry sauce to pour on top. It comes with a bowl of rice and a generic side salad. The dish tasted great, especially for the cost but it isn’t going to compare to authentic Japanese restaurants in the area. The chicken was far less salty than the chicken wings I had above. I think the chicken skin actually tastes better without the seasoning on top but that could just be personal preference 🤷‍♂️

Conclusion

Ji’s Chicken Shop is an unusual place that offers a great alternative to places like Chicken Cottage and KFC.

The food feels like a step up from these rival outlets, making it also better value. The service was relatively slow but the food felt fresher and better prepared. This is something I prefer personally but I know will irritate others (especially being a fast food restaurant).

The wide variety of customisable options through their seasoning also gives you a reason to come back and experiment. With that said, everything was so salty. I cannot remember a place I have visited with as much salt in everything. This will no doubt put people off but a part of me quite enjoyed it.

As you can tell by reading this, the experience was swings and roundabouts, so it will be up to you whether you take the plunge yourself, as there is a lot of competition on Regent Street. The place was busy, so it has clearly struck a chord with many.

Thanks for reading!