Restaurant Review: The Fry

Address: 6012 Yonge, North York, ON M2M 3V9 (North of Cummer)

Hours: Dropped the ball on restaurant hours, will edit in after a return visit

I have been a fan of fried chicken ever since I could remember. I'd be willing to go out on a limb and say you'd be hard pressed to find a child in North America whose eyes wouldn't light up at the sight of the famous Colonel on a greasy paper bag and I was no different. Now I'm not knocking the Colonel (actually scratch that I am) but my fried chicken preferences have since evolved. I've learned to appreciate a good seasoning, a great batter (or lack thereof) and of course a great sauce. So although I am very familiar with KFC, I only recently experienced the Colonel's Asian counterpart, Korean Fried Chicken.

The Fry is one of a growing group of establishments in the GTA that specialize in Korean Fried Chicken and out of the ones I've tried they are definitely my favourite. Located on a strip mall (Man I eat at a lot of strip malls) north of Cummer on Yonge, The Fry is a small establishment, with probably only six or seven 4-seat booths (you already know the takeout option is well exercised). The menu is also small, which is usually a sign that you serve something worth eating (because why order anything else amirite?) so it didn't take us long to pick out things to order.

To start the dinner off we were brought two sets of appetizers. The first can be seen above, a simple plate of pickled radish, lettuce salad and macaroni salad. Definitely selling the East meets West theme with this one, as the first two appetizers are frequently seen in Korean and Japanese restaurants in Toronto while the latter is a fried chicken staple. Although the radish and the carrot-ginger dressed salad were typical (enjoyed them nonetheless) the macaroni was a nice surprise. Maybe it reminded me of the Colonel, for better or worse, but I like it either way.

The second appetizer was oiled hot plate of sweet corn. The corn itself had a sweet almost nutty taste due to the carmelization that was happening on the hot plate. I've never had corn served like this and it was a pleasant surprise to tide us over before the main course.

The first of the fried fowl to reach our table was the green onion fried chicken tenders. This was my favourite dish of the night; the tenders were extremely crisp and crunchy that held up well under the sweet soy-based sauce drizzled over neath. The spring onion strips impressed me by retaining their bite despite being extremely thin. In addition to this they were tossed in the aforementioned sauce which solved the issue of watery tasteless green onion ruining my chicken (an issue I had at Home of Hot Taste). I still can't get over how crispy and crunchy they were, the coating wasn't even overly thick. All in all it was an extremely satisfying dish, something I would order again.

Next up was the Korean fried chicken that we came for. We decided to get the half-half version which meant half of the chicken was smothered with sauce while the other half had the sauce on the side. I am pretty sure we were given the non spicy sauce by accident (we failed to specify and assumed we would get the spicy version) since this was not spicy at all. Like some of the KFC I have tried before the sauce was very sweet although this was less of a problem here than at other places. I would have enjoyed more seasoning in the breading as the lack of seasoning really shines through in the sauce-less basket. The coating was a standard thin Asian breading as opposed to the thicker craggy Western one that is often seen with fried chicken. Although both baskets were juicy on the interior the sauceless basket I would not order again. However I did enjoy the sauced basket and would come back again to try the spicy version.

The last dish of the night was spicy chicken with cheese. I love Korean dishes that feature cheese so prepare for some bias (if you're a return reader you would know that I'm hugely biased anyway :P). The dish contains pieces of chicken marinated in a gochujang based sauce (Korean chili paste) over a bed of cabbage, onions, and a variety of other shredded veggies. The whole thing is then baked with cheese (mozzarella in this case) until everything is goey and melty. The mozzarella was stringy and delicious, offering a rich accent to the spicy and sweet gotchujang. Like a true Asian I felt like this dish would have gone great with rice which is as good of a compliment as you can give to something you taste at a restaurant.

In the end I enjoyed my visit to The Fry. Whether or not you will enjoy yours will hinge on how you feel about sweet and spicy Korean dishes or juicy fried morsels of chicken.

Yea, I thought so.
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