For some reason I had a craving for fried chicken. Well the precise reason was I saw the $42 fried chicken platter at Public in Manuka the night before and this had caught my daydreams. Even though I could have simply gone there, the lure of Korean FC had me searching online to see if Canberra had this available. I came across two options - a blog post with a Korean flyer and a mobile for home delivery (which after calling has now relocated to Sydney) and B-One, a place in Civic.
Chicken Gourmet's fried chicken is pretty average to be honest. It's convenient and edible but not particular good. KFC has good taste but you always regret it later on. Melbourne's Gami and Da Rin are the ones I've decided must be authentic, so I was interested to see how B-One would stack up.
It's refreshing to walk in on a weekday and have the place quite full with nearly all Koreans - families, students, couples etc. Obviously they like something about the place, hopefully more than the location.
The three samples of beanshoots, tangy kimchi and savoury beancurd started things off. Jujube tea was a hot fruit drink that reminded me of plums (it's a date I've discovered). Then came the stars of the night:
- Bibimbap - a steaming hot stonebowl of ingredients with your own gochujang sauce to top with. The flavours were nice, but most impressively the bottom rice was beautifully browned crisp;
- Fried chicken - the sweet and soy versions complemented each other well. I preferred the sweet version as the soy had a little too much soy (not salty, soy) flavour. The mild quantity of sauce meant the coatings maintained excellent crunch;
- Rice cakes with beef - I bought this to takeaway for my next day lunch. The savoury version was nice and the rice cakes soft and gummy. I'd probably opt for the chilli version next time.
B-One has elevated itself to the top of my Canberra Korean restaurants list (to be the fair the only other one I've been to is Tosung in Manuka which is far from bad).