NeNe Chicken

I first tried NeNe Chicken way back when they opened their first location on Kingsway in April 2021.  The KFC was awesome and that prompted me to return a few more times including their new location on Davie.  However for some reason or another, I didn't blog about any of these experiences.  Fast forward to the present and I still am a NeNe chicken fan, so on my last visit, I decided to finally write up a post.  For those who are unfamiliar, NeNe chicken is a chain out of South Korea and they are actually imported special deep-fryers to ensure that their KFC fries up perfectly.

Of course we have to start this post in talking about the Original flavour.  We ended up getting a half and half order with the other being the Snowing Cheese.  Both were boneless, which makes it much easier to eat.  Every time I've had these boneless little dark meat nuggets, they have been juicy and tender.  Moreover, the skin is completely rendered and crunchy.  I find the chicken itself has plenty of inherent flavour of its own.  The snow cheese adds a cheesy sweetness that coats the entire piece of fried chicken.  The kids love it.

The fan favourite flavour has to be the Soy Garlic.  Hence, we decided on a full boneless order of that particular flavour.  Once again, each nugget of chicken was crispy with well-rendered skin.  It was coated in just enough glaze that the whole thing wasn't dripping with sauce.  About that glaze, it was sweet, sticky and garlicky with a touch of ginger.  Each order also included a cup of pickled daikon.

Off to the spicy versions, I got the bone-in half and half of the Hot Bling and Swicy.  I gotta say the hot bling did live up to its name by having a kick with some sweetness.  As for the swicy, it was more sweet than spicy, but still had some heat due to the chilis.  Since these were bone-in, it included some white meat.  Of course it wasn't as juicy, but it wasn't dry either.  So did I notice more flavour with the bone-in?  Possibly, especially for the drumstick.  However, I would go for boneless for the convenience and seemingly more meat.

On previous visits, I've tried all of their chicken sandwiches including the Hawaiian Terri Burger, Hot Bling Burger, Twin Cheese Burger and Yes Burger.  My favourite is the hot bling due to the spiciness.  They use fried chicken thigh here and it is juicy and crispy.  I consider all of them to be pretty solid.  In fact, the chicken at NeNe is excellent and for me, consistent.  Wait times can be a little long due to the process involved and existing orders.  Best to do an online pickup order to avoid that.  Not the cheapest option out there, but worth the money IMO.

The Good:
- Juicy fried KFC
- Consistent
- Burgers are good too

The Bad:
- Wait times can be long
- On the pricier side