Gigino Restaurant - Fairfield West - Sydney, Australia

Gigino Restaurant

Blink an eye and you'll miss this place.

They say good things are usually hidden away and even though this place isn't hidden, people usually drive past it without noticing. Gigino Restaurant is located in the suburban neighbourhood of Fairfield West. An area you wouldn't usually associate with excellent restaurants or good food.

This corner eatery occupies the space of an old newsagency that has now been transformed into a funky and modern pizzeria.

It's furnished with long communal style steel tables, wooden chairs and benches, together with walls that are lined with blue tiles and black boards. It lets off that casual and relaxed vibe that you would usually experience in a cafe setting.

Gigino Restaurant specialises in Italian cuisine, namely woodfired pizza and home style dishes.

The menu is short and simple, and it all fits onto a sheet of paper, so you don't have to flip through pages and pages just to get to the pizza section. That makes ordering relatively easier but deciding on the pizza topping may be a challenge. Most pizza's on offer at Gigino have minimal ingredients. Just like how it is done in Italy and that's also how I like my pizzas.

The 'Incazzato Pizza ($18.00)' was a sure winner. The pizza is topped with pomodoro (tomato sauce), mozzarella, salami piccante and chilli. It was so big in size, it took up most of the table bench and was on the verge of slipping over the side.

 The base was thin, light and crispy, yet it maintained that slight fluffiness.  Salami piccante means spicy salami or otherwise known as pepperoni. The salami pieces were huge and the addition of the chilli gave it a nice kick. And boy, the cheese was stringy and gooey.

As we were here on a Sunday, we also ordered from their Sunday brunch menu. The 'Pancetta Pizza ($17.00)' is similar to a bacon and egg pizza.

Toppings consisted of pancetta, eggs, mozzarella and parmigiano. It wasn't as good as the Incazzato Pizza but it certainly delivered in terms of taste. Though, the pancetta appeared to look and taste more like bacon.

At this point our stomachs was pretty full but out eyes weren't full, so we continued with dessert.

Most desserts are made in house but are pre-made and stored in the dessert cabinet. They've also got Nutella pizza and gelato.

The 'Tiramisu' is served in a glass cup.  It was creamy, spongy, moist and they were generous with the Marsala. Unfortunately, we couldn't pinpoint anything superb about it and wouldn't go out of the way just to order this.

The 'Strawberry Puff' was surprisingly delicious and satisfying. Strawberries and cream enclosed between puff pastry makes an excellent combination.

We also had some Santa Vittoria ($3.00), an Italian soda and a 'Latte ($3.50)'.

*Credit to Lulu for the photo

The Italian fare here is simple and honest. The pizza is awesomely tasty, prices are reasonable and the portion sizes are decent. Service wise, they were quick to take our orders and food arrived promptly. I definitely recommend this restaurant to those wanting to eat authentic Italian cuisine and for those who live out west, then the is the place to go.

*Credit to Lulu for the photo

My good friend Lulu recommended this place and I'm thankful she did. She notes it as being one of the best pizza restaurants out west and this is also one of her favourites. I couldn't agree more.  The funny thing is she found it by sheer coincidence as she and a friend happened to go in and try it one day out of the blue.

Whether it be for lunch or dinner, I suggest you make a booking as the restaurant isn't very big and is very popular with the locals. We assumed that they wouldn't be busy at lunch so we didn't make a booking. Our assumptions were wrong as it was a full house due to the birthday that was on. The only seating that remained were the bench seats, and we had no choice but to take that up. I didn't mind the bench seating, but it was hard to share food and make conversation between a group as it more suited for individuals or twos.

This urban eatery will definitely be attracting a larger crowd once more people find out about it. I will surely be making another visit to try out some other dishes in the near future. They have also been mentioned in the SMH Good Food Guide recently.

Where?
Shop 3, 338 Hamilton Rd
Fairfield West NSW 2166
Australia

Phone no: 02 9609 6264

Opening Hours
Monday - Wednesday
5pm - +
Thursday - Friday
10am - +
Saturday
5pm - +
Sunday
9am - +
Closed Tuesdays

Website
www.gigino.com.au

Two Two Fried Chicken - Myeongdong - Seoul, South Korea

Two Two Fried Chicken

Fried chicken has become a part of the Korean culture and it's literally everywhere. It may be a shocking fact, but the Koreans are famous for their fried chicken and many have even proclaimed it to be another version of KFC but even better, known as ‘Korean Fried Chicken’. It is usually eaten with beer and the term ‘fried chicken and beer’ has become the norm. Sharing is a big thing in Korea as they like to enjoy food with family and friends, bringing about the popularity of the fried chicken.

One thing that differentiates Korean fried chicken from normal fried chicken is the process of cooking the chicken. The secret to that ultra-crispy, crunchy, minimal oil and juicy interior fried chicken is a process called ‘double frying’ which involves deep frying the chicken twice. This ensures the fat from the skin is rendered out, creating a thin and crispy outer shell.

Two Two Fried Chicken is located in the shopping central of Korea, Myeondong. It is a franchise outlet and part of one of the biggest chains in Korea with over 500 stores in Korea alone. They have also expanded to a number of locations worldwide. It is relatively easy to spot as the words ‘Two Two’ in are English so you shouldn't have much trouble locating this place.

This small restaurant is family owned and operated.  The male elderly does the cooking of the fried chicken at the front and the female elderly appears to be the waitress as she escorts you to the table and takes the orders.

I love how the menu was in full colour, written in English and had photographic images of the dishes, which made the ordering experience very easy as the waitress spoke limited English. The menu does have options other than fried chicken but we were here just for the fried chicken. 

Side dishes is essential in Korea and here they serve the plain daikon pickled radish instead of the usual kimchi. It was so yummy!

Salt and pepper for extra seasoning if needed. 

As we couldn't decide between the original or the marinated, we got the ‘Chicken Mix and Match (KRW 17,000)’ which allows you to choose two types of fried chicken from a range of marinades such as spicy, garlic or teriyaki. 

We choose the original and spicy. The serving is not the biggest so best shared between two at most, unless you’re not very hungry, then it may feed three. For the price, we were expecting much more chicken. 

The chicken was coated in a light batter and the skin was fried to a golden brown colour, leaving an extremely crispy and crunchy exterior. The interior was still moist and tender but the breast meat was a bit dry. 

 It came with a side coleslaw like salad with cabbage, mayonnaise and chilli sauce. Strangely addictive and really good with the chicken. The perfect side accompaniment.  It was finger licking good.

The chilli fried chicken was drenched with a sweet chilli sauce and we found that it too saucy and a bit hard to eat. Nevertheless, the chicken remained crunchy. 

The original fried chicken was the preferred of the two. Simple and plain but still flavoursome and scrumptious without that horrible greasy after taste. I was amazed at the lack of oil on my fingers as I usually associate fried chicken with a lot of oil but this was near grease free.

Plus the mandatory ‘Korean Beer (KRW 4,500)’ which we later found out was actually German style beer.

The fried chicken here is good but it wasn't the best as parts of the chicken were dry and lacked that juiciness, as the chicken may have been left to rest for too long after the first fry.  However, the positive is the location. In terms of location, it is easy to find and get to so if you want decent fried chicken then this is the place to go.

The Two Two Fried Chicken branch is in Sydney! Their first outlet in Australia is located in the Korean dominated area of Strathfield. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me when this came up in Google search. Woohoo! Can’t wait to try their version and see how it compares.

Where?

6-4 Namsandong 2(i)-Ga
Jung-gu

Seoul

South Korea

Phone no: +82 2 2275 2297

Opening Hours

NA

Website

http://www.22chicken.co.kr/en/