Since I was immensely impressed with Gangnam Chicken, Uncle Lee’s faced fierce competition. Because Uncle Lee’s only delivers to certain areas which did not include my address, I paid the restaurant a visit.
At first, I thought that I had come to the wrong place as the ‘restaurant’ presented itself as an industrial fried chicken ‘factory.’ I saw flour bags and chili sauce containers stacked on top of each other in the back. The cashier (who I suppose also was the cook) even dressed in a white factory attire; already, this place had successfully captured my attention.
I ordered the €19.95 combo which came with four bolts, four wings, a medium-sized boneless chicken box, pickled radish, rice, coleslaw and a can of Coke. There were five types of sauces (Sweet Chili, Super Soja, Fire Chicken, Honey Combo and Extreme Fire), so they did offer a wider variety than Gangnam Chicken. I decided to try the Super Soja, the Fire Chicken, the Honey Combo and the Extreme Fire. After waiting for a while, the much-anticipated chicken came out with an irresistible and intense fragrance (which became a slight concern for me because I planned to travel back by public transport). Its skin crisped up nicely but had already become mildly stale due to the never-changing Amsterdam wind. Nonetheless, I fell deeply in love with both the Fire Chicken and Extreme Fire sauces, where my taste buds buzzed and my brain pumped with adrenaline. Despite the sauces being somewhat sugary, the flavors played very well with the fattiness of the skin and tenderness of the meat. I was not a fan of the soy sauce as it was too salty for my taste; I don’t recommend the honey sauce either because, quite frankly, it didn’t have a defined taste. The coleslaw was also slightly disappointing because it didn’t feel refreshing, which was fortunately saved by the crunchy and freshly pickled radishes.