Gami

Ok so we randomly walked past this restaurant today (our tummies were grumbling in hunger) so we decided to walk in and try this restaurant. Located : In Central Park Shopping Centre (ground flour) roughly 10-15 minutes walk from Central train station. We ordered Wings — 8 pieces $13 Mixed of wingettes & drumettes with chilli and sweet chilli sauce. We also ordered the Gami Chips 🍟 it came with tomato sauce. The chicken was nice & crunchy. The chilli sauce was not too hot, more on the sweeter side. But perfect bite sizes if you’re not too hungry. The chips were no different to any other chips, no seasoning etc just plain tomato sauce. No side dishes, only pickled radishes cut into squares and cabbage and vegetables with tomato sauce. Alert 🚨 No kimchi side dishes! Say what? 🙀 The restaurant was clean, no one was inside which was great since social distancing is a must! The Place was nice but not amazing! I probably wouldn’t go there again.

Okay, when I heard that Gami was opening a store here in Sydney, I was literally on the verge of tears because it was the best restaurants that I tried in Melbourne. I found the service amazing, and the interior design absolutely modern with a touch of nature. The food was so good! Potato Heaven and the Corn& Cheese was exactly the same as the one in Melbourne. I do have to agree though that the chicken was slightly dry, but it was still really good, finger licking chicken! I would totally come here again!

(3.5 stars) Gami Chicken & Beer are an Australian chain of Korean fried chicken stores. The popular chain is the work of four former Korean students who studied together at Monash University in Melbourne. Central Park is the first of two NSW outlets, with another one in the ACT, and a pair over on the west coast of Australia, joining the tonne of shops across Victoria. While it begs to be treated as late night drunk food, Gami Central Park closes at 9pm each night, with an 8.30pm last order deadline. We start drinking early and scrape in at cut-off time, joining a crowd of mostly young people. We’re quickly seated in the brightly lit space, decorated with a shipping container corrugated iron aesthetic painted in the brand’s key colours – bright yellow and royal blue. Taking in a mural by Brooklyn-based Aussie artist, Brolga, our heads are quickly bopping to Kideko’s The Jam. The whole soundtrack feels like being at Day Club – a phenomenon that Sydneysiders enjoyed before the current NSW Government ruined everything (including late night kitchens). Needless to say, as hungry drinkers, our first need is beer, and Gami obliges with on-tap Gun:Bae ($6/300ml) that you can also have by the Jug ($19.50) or Oak Keg ($64) if you were smart enough to descend upon Gami with a big enough crew. It’s a quaffable, slightly cloudy pale lager made exclusively for Gami by Thunder Road Brewing in Brunswick. We clean our palates for the Korean fried chook onslaught with cubes of pickled daikon. From the selection that includes their popular boneless chicken, we opt for a Half Chook ($19.50). These tasty, bone-in fried chicken morsels are coated with Gami’s signature seasoning mix of mystery herbs and spices, then slathered with sweet chilli, soy garlic or spicy chilli (each of which can also be served as a dipping sauce on the side). Taken in spicy, the RSPCA-approved chook is genuinely hot – the fierceness sets it apart from many other over-sweet Korean fried chicken that I’ve tried. Moderate it with forays into the accompanying cabbage coleslaw or pile it up onto your plate with a topping of stringy-sweet Corn Cheese ($11). While the keen-to-close kitchen rushed out this hot plate of seasoned corn kernels topped with scorched mozzarella cheese, meaning it was a bit too milky, it’s still delicious smeared over chook or jeon. At Gami the traditional Kimchi Pancake ($16) sees coarsely cut kimchi, onion and shallots coated in pancake batter and fried until it’s a semi-crisp orange disc. It arrives with a soy and rice vinegar dressing that cuts through the stodge rather nicely. With the aptly named Potato Heaven ($16) being somewhat of a Gami signature, we’re unable to say no to some layered cheesy potato goodness. While it’s slightly sweet from plentiful lashings of sweet chilli sauce, the sour cream topped dish sandwiches melted mozzarella cheese between creamy mashed potato and wedges – it’s nothing a pot of Spicy Chilli ($2) can’t fix. When you combine this mash, the coleslaw and your spicy fried chook together, you’ll wonder why all your childhood memories of KFC family boxes suddenly seem lifeless and bland.

This Korean fried chicken restaurant manages to do one thing that many others cannot do, which is to keep the chicken moist and tender. The kimchi pancake and japchae were both rock solid. On top of this, service is attentive and efficient and the place is very clean. Because of this, I decided to return with a large group for a work farewell. That's when trouble struck. We waited over an hour for our meals and in the end we had to leave with only 7 of the 17 meals delivered. Bad day in the kitchen I guess, but it must have been chaotic as we saw meals going out to other tables. One waitress had a "whatever" kind of attitude when we asked about our meals, which pissed my workmates off and triggered the walkout. In the end, we got a 20% discount on the 7 meals but 10 people walked away hungry and disappointed.

Nice place for Korean fried chicken and would come back to try other things on the menu. Good Korean fried chicken. We got the whole boneless chicken with dipping sauces, the chicken was tender and the batter was nice and crunchy (but not super crunchy and a bit more on the floury side). The spicy sauce was great, had the right amount of tang, sweetness and heat to give it a kick. The chips were fantastic - chunky, crispy on the outside and fluffy in the inside. They had a decent selection of beer, including their own lager on tap that was light and paired well with the chicken. The space itself is open, bright, clean, airy and medium sized with a casual clean and contemporary industrial aesthetic (shipping containers, wood, metal). The staff were great, friendly and attentive.

If you are craving for seafood pancake and KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) then this place is the place for you. Good quantity and quality for the price you pay. You have an option to have the flavoured chicken sauce mixed or served seperately (which was interesting). I would personally recommend the sauce mixed in for richer flavour. I loveeeee the seafood pancake here, one of the best one I've ever tasted!