- Delicious fried chicken
- Great Coeliac knowledge
- Friendly staff
It was a cold, wet and miserable night, when Michael suggested we eat out. As we left childcare with the girls, we could smell something greasy and delicious in the air and fried chicken just made sense!
We hopped in the car and headed to Fricken in Braddon. I’d seen a lot of positive reviews and lots of praise for their gluten free stringency so I was pretty excited. It had also been about seven years since I’d last had fried chicken! We arrived in Braddon around 5:15pm and managed to get a car park on the street, a few shops down from Fricken.
The restaurant wasn’t particularly busy although there were already a few tables taken and two or three people waiting for pick up. There was a steady flow of clients coming in though while we were there. We took a table for four by the window and I grabbed a couple of menus from the bar.
The menu is well labelled with what is available gluten free and dotted around were posters with their gluten free FAQs. The info outlined included the crumb used for the gluten free chicken, made from starch, a grain flour and the Fricken secret recipe, some info on their dedicated fryer and utensils, info on the pricing, and ordering options. A lot of the menu can be made gluten free and there’s the added benefit that they also have a couple of children’s meals.
I headed up to the bar to order for the family. I ordered the Lil Fricken Box and Lil Fricken Slider for the girls, the Spicy Slaw Burger for Michael and the Fricken box for me, both served with fries. The kids meals both came with juice and I ordered a coke for Michael and I. The meals we ordered could all have been done gluten free. I explained when I ordered that I was coeliac, and the very friendly staff member was great! He took it all in his stride and knew exactly what was needed.
The table we sat at was near the entrance. Looking into the restaurant, the place looks clean and modern. The walls are mostly white with a black feature wall at the back of the room and black ceilings. The seating is white and the tables are a pale pine. There’s lots of contrast in the décor and it make the place look modern but relaxed. The bar and counter is along the left hand side and there is seating opposite. There are a couple of TVs dotted around but they’re not distracting. The most noticeable thing about Fricken is the smell – unsurprisingly, the place smells like delicious fried chicken! This did stick to my clothes and hair when we left but that’s the burden of eating something so greasy and delicious!
We waited quite a long time for our food. There is a disclaimer on the menu stating that everything is made fresh and you might have to wait so we weren’t to bothered about it, although it’s worth taking something to entertain the kids with because they were both pretty restless by the time our food arrived.
All the meals were substantial including the kids meals. The Lil Fricken Box contained two pieces of chicken, fries and tomato sauce plus the choice of a carton of apple or orange juice. The Lil Fricken Slider meal contained the same but with a little chicken burger in place of the chicken strips. Milly slowly and steadily ate her way through almost the whole chicken slider meal, saying that it was good, while Belle picked at her chicken and chips – she is pretty picky with her food at the moment!
Michael’s Spicy Slaw Burger was good. The burger came on a milk bun with fried chicken, pickles, coleslaw, American cheese and sriracha. He was a bit nervous about the American cheese because we weren’t sure if it was going to be some of the violently yellow stuff from a can but it was recognisable as cheese, and the sriracha made the whole thing nice and spicy. The chicken was cooked nicely and had a good crispy crumb.
My Fricken Box contained some pieces of chicken, fries and the special Fricken sauce. My fries were thinner than the gluten-y fries eaten by Michael and the girls and the crumb on my chicken was different. The fries were scalding hot, salty and yummy but they did need sauce of some kind so I ended up going to the bar and buying a tub of the Fricken special sauce. This sauce is really good – I don’t know what’s in it, it was a slightly sweet and smoky mayonnaise maybe with a little paprika.
And then there was chicken! It looked great. It was a lovely, light golden brown drizzled with pinkish special sauce and it was beautifully cooked. Nice and moist inside with a crunchy, crispy coating. Plus it had been filleted so I had nice big pieces of chicken without any bones to worry about and could just take nice big bites. I was very impressed!
There was so much food on the plate that eventually I had to admit defeat. I didn’t finish all the chicken or the chips so I let Michael do a taste test between my gluten free chicken pieces and Belle’s chicken strips. And I’m happy to report that although the non-gluten free chicken was good, the gluten free chicken crumb was better! Michael said it was lighter and crispier!
Although I was full to bursting, I was aware that Fricken offered a pretty special gluten free dessert – the deep-fried chocolate brownie. We decided to grab a couple of these to take home and gobble up once our dinner had settled. I ordered two brownies – one with chocolate sauce and one with butterscotch.
When I went up to order I had a brief chat with the staff about their gluten free chicken. I had assumed that someone on the staff was likely to be coeliac or intolerant so I asked the staff member why they were so diligent with the gluten free options, and was simply told that “Everyone deserves fried chicken”. This made me really happy. A gluten free diet is not always accommodated by restaurants and it’s really good to know that a restaurant takes coeliac requirements around cross contamination as a matter of course rather than as a burden.
We waited about 10 minutes for the brownies then packed the kids into the car and drove home. By the time we were home, we were ready to try the brownies and oh my goodness! Being deep fried, they were obviously quite greasy but they were so good!
Extremely sweet and still warm, the batter was like doughnut batter and the brownie was gooey and melty. They were very rich and didn’t need the accompanying sauces, and I’d recommend one to share rather than a whole one each!
All together we paid $91.00 for two adult meals, two kids meals, two cokes and two brownies. It was quite pricey but well worth the money. The food was yummy and the service was great. We’ll definitely be going back!
58/10 Lonsdale Street Braddon ACT 2612
0452583745
https://www.fricken.net.au
Get Behind Me Gluten 