Gami @ Little Lonsdale Street, Melbourne

One of the first things we wanted to quickly find in Melbourne was for our Korean Fried Chicken joint. Most would have read about how we obsess over the version we get in Brisbane but since the owners has changed after the new year, we were disappointed. Hopefully, with the new owner settled in, the place is back to its full glory, still as memorable as the one in our mind.


Our first try was at Hallah and our benchmark is not the original one which I know most would say is the version to have but the spicy one and the sweet soy version. Sad to say, the one at Hallah was a big fail.


So it was left to Gami, so famous that it has one outlet on each end of Little Lonsdale Street. Will it pass our picky palate?


Like most good restaurants in Melbourne, if you don't eat early, make sure you have a reservation. We went in at 5.30 and took the last available table. Every other table was filled up or reserved.

It was a pretty hot day so a beer was a must. In any case, they sell the place as chicken and beer.

Some vegetable is provided to hide the fact that you will be stuffing yourself silly with high fat content chicken.

I presume it must have been the fact that the lady dropped a piece of chicken when serving the whole plate to us so she went back to the kitchen and gave us a complimentary plate of duk bokki which is like a hard rice roll. These were deep fried and served with a spicy sauce. I guess it was alright since it is free.

What we were waiting for. Now at first sight, we were slightly disappointed. The version we loved had a very dry coating but this had a pool of sauce at the bottom of the plate. Thankfully the flavours were close enough to the chicken we frequently feast upon in Brisbane, especially the spicy one. Their sweet soy which was more like honey soy was one dimensional and quite sweet. Looking around, a lot of people were digging into the original version, so it looks like the next time we are back, we know what combination to junk on.

After the excessive meal, the Wife suggested we walk back home and surprisingly we did the almost 5 km trot (hoping we would have burned off the calories but by my count, we would have barely scratched the surface of what we gorged upon).

If you are into chicken and beer, this is the place (until I find a better one).

Address and contact details:

Verdict: 4 stars out of 5 stars. Korean Fried Chicken, nothing more, nothing less. Perfect for the meal when we feel like jun! king (a term for gorging junk food).