Truly the honourable, more classy successor to the letters KFC, Korean fried chicken is starting to have its moment in the sun.

Varieties of popcorn chicken, chicken tenders and schnitzels are getting the super sticky, super salty treatment of Korean cooking. So to help spread the gospel of huraideu chikin, Flying Tong in Enmore offers a huge serving, dripping in sauce, in its pride of place. The brother-and-sister team of Julie and Jeff Oh have concentrated on blending Western and Korean influences to create truly inspired comfort food.

Seated outside, with a good view of Enmore Theatre revellers lining up outside the box office, I can easily and wholeheartedly recommend everything on Flying Tong’s menu. However, I obviously have my favourites. Try the goji fries – covered in rich, sweet bulgogi beef, they are simply to die for.

The night pancake is thin and crispy on the sides, filled with all manner of spring onions, mussels and calamari and Asian greens. It’s hot and battery towards the centre, and comes with a soy vinegar dipping sauce, which perhaps is a little too soy for my tastes. Nevertheless, it’s filling and not oily like some Korean pancakes, so it makes for a relatively light meal.

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But we’re here for one thing: that double deep fried, steaming hot plate of chicken. And it’s good. It’s really good. The coating is closer to a cornflake consistency, rather than the beer batter finish of traditional fried chicken, and the double fry means it has a real crunch to it.

Break a piece open, and inside you’ll find moist, steamy and perfectly cooked chicken. In our basket we receive four pieces – a breast, two thighs and a wing – but for $20, I would have liked a bit more meat or an included side dish. The chicken is practically drowning in soy-garlic sauce, which makes for sticky eating. But we tear into it (albeit slowly, as they are piping hot) with a glazed grin.

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Inside, the restaurant is dark and ambient, with one long table for larger groups. While it can become quite noisy when full, there is a quiet ambience to the place, like you’re eating chicken with the rest of a community you didn’t know you were a part of. Smooth jazz plays over the speakers, and you can see the chefs preparing your food at the back of the room.

The service comes quickly and with a smile, and all our dishes are brought out together, which is great – except for the lack of table real estate. We wash it all down with ginger beer – Flying Tong is BYO at the time of our visit, but it has just been licensed, so next time we’ll hold the ginger. In fact, chicken and beer bars are currently in great demand – Barangaroo recently opened the similar Jean’s Chilli Chicken, which has been raking it in. Here’s hoping Newtown’s newest nod to KFC (remember, Korean, not Kentucky) does just as well. Geonbae!

Key: 

$: $0-10

$$: $10-20

$$$: $20-35

$$$$: $35-50

$$$$$: $50+

Flying Tong is located at 99 Enmore Rd, Newtown. Open 5pm – 10pm Monday – Friday. To make a booking call (02) 8056 5985.

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