My first meal during my short weekend getaway to KL kick started with a simple meal in KL Sentral while waiting for a friend to pick me up. Traveling alone this time on a 2.5 hour train journey, I have the liberty to draft out my food trail in the next 24 hours while taking a pause and reflecting on whats going on in life recently. Nu Sentral is a good spot to kill your time and have a quick fix as there are some shops which are not found in Ipoh. And here is one of it - 4Fingers Fried Chicken. Having heard of the craze for Kyochon few years back, I always wanted to experience it for myself to understand why Korean fried chicken is the "in" thing. (Well, definitely not because of the mini 'dumpster' provided to dispose the bones as shown above - photo credit to Li Jie)
Tracing back their origin, the first outlet of 4Fingers commenced operations in Singapore, which some people may label them of a duplicate of Kyochon (which is directly from Korea). Nevertheless, 4Fingers is indeed very visionary and committed in offering something different from the famous fried chicken fast food franchise here - check out their claims in the printscreen above from their website. A quick browsing on the "pioneer" in our shores shows that Kyochon also made similar claims - despite being pricier and a longer wait, the fried chicken are made to order to ensure freshness and crispiness (unlike kept warm in a heated cabinet like some fast food chain) and they also made the claim that Canola oil is used, which is one of the technique to ensure premium quality fried chicken to appease your tastebuds.
The waiting time of 10-15 minutes seems true as per claimed. After ordering at the counter, you will get this "UFO beeper" which lights up when your order is ready (the first time I saw this was at Snowflakes many years ago). Take a sip on your soft drinks - I had my drink upgraded for additional RM2+ to the Yuzu Honey - a citrus fruit from Korea which is a cross between orange and lemon. Ordering is pretty hassle free if you follow their "decision tree" - choose your main meals - fried chicken, burgers, rice box or salads and have the option to upgrade into a set - with fries and drinks. Then opt for the sauce for your meal - Hot or Soya Garlic. then opt for the seasoning for your fries - seaweed or kimchi. Simple right? Then proceed to get a seat and wait for your order to be ready
The fried chicken arrived as claimed in their website and as described by other food bloggers! The skin is crispy without being too oily. It was as though there was minimal or no battered coating the chicken but through proper control of the temperature, frying time and quality of oil used, they indeed earned the rights to rub it on the face of the mentioned famous fast food brand! The meat within is most and came piping hot, neither undercooked nor overcooked. I opted for the 3 pieces of drumsticks (RM15.90 for ala carte, RM20.90 for the combo - same price for - 3 wings and 3 drumettes ) to have it done in mixed sauce - 2 pieces Hot and 1 piece Soya Garlic. The Soya Garlic is has a pleasant savoury taste but could turn out to be slightly salty to some tastebuds. The Hot was surprisingly not that spicy afterall, as yours truly could bear the heat, as opposed to how spicy some Korean want their food to be. I was been told that the spicy version in Kyochon is one step (or a few level) spicier than the one here. Irregardless of the sauce, the chicken was indeed fresh and succulent and non-greasy crispy skin. Well, yes! They deserve to charge a premium over such detail put in the ingredients and preparation.
The Mixed Seafood - combining shrimps and calamari is priced at RM22.90 for the combo meal. The seafood is more heavily battered compared to the fried chicken. The tempura-like exterior is still light and crispy but I will suggest you to skip this and stick to their chicken instead - or try their rice meal or chicken katsu burger. Nothing special for the fries as they just sprinkle seaweed flakes or kimchi powder to season it. From the first photo above, they have a fusion side dish called Kims-law! Yes, you got it right, its Kimchi+Coleslaw. After tried the famed KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) in Doma Modern Korean Cafe back in Ipoh and also a franchised version in 4Fingers, there is something really different from the generic fried chicken you get from those fast food chain, hawker stalls or pasar malam or even the ones fried by your family members. Will I return again? Probably not as there are many new things to try in KL, but I don't mind having a light snack while waiting to board the ETS train back to Ipoh. :)
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