Ayam Goreng 99, Kingsford

Ayam Goreng is one of those places that was recommended to me by many of my readers and friends. Mostly, it's raves for the tender, perfectly cooked chicken. So one blisteringly cold Spring day we head off for lunch at Ayam Goreng, in a busy restaurant laden stretch of Anzac Parade.

We walk in and it's fairly busy. We sit down at a table for two on the side and take a look at the laminated double sided menu. Two choices are obvious, the chicken ayam and the margarine chicken (I promise the second choice is not just based on the name!). Most things are ridiculously cheap, Beef Rendang is $3.50 so we order a bit more than we normally would figuring we could take some away to eat at a later stage.

_Writing your own order

_

There is a section of a lined pad and a pen where you write down your order and hand it to the waiter and you then help yourself to water and glasses and wait for your food.

While we wait for our food, we take in our surrounding, including plant with the longest branches you could imagine that stretch as long as the wall (ok there wasn't much to look at).

The chicken is the first to arrive, a crispy golden thigh and drumstick piece (you can choose this or a breast piece). It's fall apart succulent and perfectly flavoured with no dryness to it at all. I can see why it gets the raves that it does.

The mushroom pepes is a slender wrapped package in a banana leaf. Flavoured with spices and chili is interesting, not quite to my taste although my husband enjoys this.

The margarine chicken arrives, a large plate with cut up chicken on the bone that has been deep fried and then covered with a sweet soy sauce. There's some lettuce leaves on the dish and there is apparently 1/2 a chicken's worth on this plate which is more than enough for two if you just ordered this and rice.

The rendang is soft and tender, obviously cooked for a long time until it can easily be pried apart but I'm missing the complex spices and flavours and coconut that I usually like with my favourite rendang. Not bad by any means but I think the pick of the flavours is most definitely the chicken.The coconut rice is delicious, perfectly dry and scented with coconut and goes well with the rendang.

We've obviously over ordered so we ask them to pack up our Margarine chicken in a takeaway container to eat at a later stage which they do. And we leave the restaurant into the bone chilling winds, clutching the container of Margarine chicken for warmth.

Ayam Goreng 99

464 Anzac Parade Kingsford

Tel: +61 (02) 9697 0030

Open: 11:30am-4:30pm, 6pm-9pm

Closed Mondays and Tuesdays

Vegetarian options: not many but you could always ask for meat to not be included in the noodle dishes