MAKIMAYO – Halal Korean Fried Chicken

Halal status: halal

At the Shoreditch PUMP Food Market, there’s this stall that’s called Makimayo. As you can guess from its name, it’s a place that sells Korean food. To be precise, it’s a place that sells yummy halal Korean fried chicken!

Fried chicken is always an awesome diet splurge idea. As for one of the best fried chicken ideas? Korean fried chicken is undoubtedly THE type of fried chicken to go for. A variety of sauce and topping combos are available for the fried chicken at Makimayo . The chicken is then served over a bed of salad. For a small size portion, the chicken will be served in paper cones – proper street style. For medium or large sizes, they will be served in a aluminium tin.

We asked what’s the most popular item on the menu and the staff replied the Gangnam Chicken. We followed their recommendation and then also ordered the Spicy Mayo Fried Chicken. We ordered both in small size but we had them as take-away so we didn’t get it in a cone.

In a nutshell, the Gangnam Chicken involve fried chicken pieces in a sweet and spicy chilli sauce with sesame, and topped with grounded peanuts. Just by the looks, it reminds a bit of a traditional Chinese sweet & sour chicken. After all Korean culture and Chinese culture cross over a lot.

Anyway, the chicken was fried perfectly. It was crispy on the outside and extremely succulent on the inside. The sauce has a very well balanced sweetness and hotness. The flavours were simply incredibly exciting to the taste buds. Every bite was like an explosion of flavors inside your mouth. It’s succulent, juicy, flavorful and saucy. It is now totally understandable why this is the most recommended dish of the shop. The dish is the very definition and representation of the phrase ‘finger-licking good’!

Although it was only a small size, the portion is actually unexpectedly big. They are really generous with the chicken pieces (which are quite big themselves) and layered them nicely on top of a bed of salad. The Gangnam sauce actually complements with the salad pretty well too!

As for the Spicy Mayo Fried Chicken, again the chicken is fried perfectly to a golden brown color. The chicken carries this beautiful crisp on the outside and remained super juicy on the inside. Although it is fried chicken, it doesn’t feel greasy at all. Especially with the bed of salad underneath these freshly fried chicken, it actually feels quite balanced and refreshed instead of tasting like mere junk food.

The spicy mayo has a subtle hint of spiciness. It was nice but nothing particular impressive or anywhere as wowing as the Gangnam sauce. I personally think it would play the trick better with a bit more spice added to the mayo. Since the Gangnam sauce tasted so exciting, I wished the spicy mayo could be bolder in flavor just so it can generate a more stimulating sensation. I was thinking how awesome it would be if the Kimchi Mayo from Bibimbap is used in this fried chicken dish. My mind keeps on saying it would be BOMB because that would give a really good kick of flavors as well as fully representing Korean flavors! Regardless, it was all decent and we were both very satisfied with it.

We were only thinking of grabbing some snacks in the first place but these fried chicken filled us up with their generous portions. This is a place I definitely recommend. Incredible flavors and big portions – that’s the happiest thing every food lover can ask for! Additionally, it’s located at Shoreditch PUMP Food Market. The place has a great vibe and atmosphere – an absolute bonus to fantastic food!