Tricky Wondalund…

This blog entry is only relevant to those of my closest friends that share the chicken cluck cluck connection with me. You know who you are…while others may bond over sports cars and engine, I have a small set of girlfriends that bond over KFC, fried chicken and scrabble.

Now, we had heard rumours for a while now, that a veritable competitor to KFC had emerged, somewhere in the dumpy east side of Singapore, in one of the oldest, most retro looking shopping centres called City Plaza. I finally made a trot down there to take in the views, and sample Arnold’s Fried Chicken. New converts have claimed that Arnold’s tasty fried chicken is far superior to KFC. This had to be put to the taste test.

City Plaza is like some relic from the early 80’s. The building was repainted about 5 years ago, but the property owners obviously decided that its only fitting image is to look like it was from the 70’s , not even the 80’s. The mall sells a smorgasboard of fake bags, mobile phones and trinkets at such low cost that you wonder how these vendors make rent.

Arnolds is on the 2nd floor of this mall and the whole mall is pretty dead, except for this corner. A long queue awaited us! we had to take numbers to get served and numbers to get a seat! how unbelievable. THis better be good, because as far as i know, kfc has free seating. always.

The restaurant is painted with some kind of jack-in-the-box theme with crazy colours. very festive. i almost wanted to sing, while we waited for chicken to arrive. The only visible differences between  arnolds and kfc’s menu is that they offer whole and half fried chicken, criss-cut fries and lo and behold…ice bandung and teh tarik!

The meal arrives!

My verdict: Arnold’s fried chicken is tasty! The chicken is floured with a slight chilli spice, so it is more akin to KFC’s crispy chicken, but without the brittle flour bits that impede dainty eating with the kfc option. The chicken was served hot and just freshly cooked, which is impressive; it seemed to me that its staff placed special emphasis on Quality controls. The meat was succulent and tender, but the skin fried just right. An added bonus is the cheap tomatoe/ chilli packets that squeeze out some alien form of neon sauce. Adds to the flava of the place i must say.

Good enough for me to convince Douglas to set aside his diet regime!

Sadly, the mash potatoe was a bit wanting, since it tasted too much of volaille (chicken cube stock) — sorry ally, this would be a pet peeve for you. The coleslaw was also no match for kfc taste-wise, i think it was overly mashed.

Price wise, Arnold’s was a bout 50 cents to a dollar cheaper than KFC. Overall, it reminded me of these coffeeshop western food places that serve the fried chicken and frozen fries from a bag, but with an improved delivery mechanism and in a retail concept.

not bad way to spend a sunday! I liked the local feel to Arnold’s — it was definitely a place for a lot of young school kids, chinese parents and malay families just eating a massively good meal together.

so, next scrabble session at arnold’s? although, kfc just opened a sexy floor to ceiling glass panel building right by the Singapore Flyer — how does one compete against the value proposition of retail footprint??

Arnold’s: http://www.hungrygowhere.com/restaurant_details.php?urlname=arnold_s_fried_chicken&offset=5