Review: Gami Chicken, Southland

After hearing many, many good things about Gami chicken’s various branches across Melbourne I decided to pop into their newly opened Southland store to give it a try.

With its wood finish, bold colours and trendy central bench seating, Gami chicken tries to bridge that gap between take out and restaurant dining. We were greeted by friendly, cheerful staff and received full table service throughout our meal, including some great recommendations. Despite being brand new, everything was laid out to perfection on the tables, and they enjoyed a constant flow of customers throughout our time there. The unit is pretty small (although there is extra seating out on the walkway) so I imagine Gami is going to be a popular choice – be prepared to queue for a table.

The menu is fairly limited, there’s fried chicken and more fried chicken, but they offer a great range of sides and a specialised lunch menu (and to be honest, what else would you want to order at a place called “Gami Fried Chicken”). We went for the Gami boneless chicken – half original and half sweet chilli, and the Mandu (fried dumplings). The chicken was delicious, it was moist and had a great flavour. The individual pieces were also large which to me is always a sign of good quality fried chicken. We regretted the sweet chilli sauce as it made it crazy difficult to eat and also the original chicken was so delicious. With the sauce you lost some of the awesome crunch of the batter. In future, I’d order the sauce on the side. The mandu were also great, and had a real crisp. I liked that they were veggie as it was a good alternative to the chicken.

On the face of it, it seemed quite pricey, but we actually had far too much food for two people and we didn’t really need the dumplings, I’m just greedy. It is excellent fried chicken, and there is an effort to present the food well – despite how difficult this may be.

Overall, we had a delicious filling meal. Gami works well in Southland, where you are typically looking for a quick bite, but offers somewhere more intimate that the food court to catch up with friends and take a break from shopping. I love the shared style of their dishes too, and the range of seating they had available. Overall, it was a win for me and has officially taken it’s spot as my favourite eatery in Southland!