Juniper
Genting Highlands has expanded so much that I can’t recognise most of it and I’d most probably get lost walking within one of its massive hotels. This is where I spent the better part of today as I was invited to the official opening of Malaysia’s first Nene Chicken outlet at Sky Avenue. I needed some cool and fresh air but it was rather warm there and I didn’t need my jacket. I only wore it because I didn’t want to forget about it and accidentally leave it behind. Back to the main topic, Nene Chicken from Korea is finally here!
Malaysia is the fourth country in the world to have a Nene Chicken restaurant after Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong. Nene Chicken’s menu has its famous wingettes and drummets in four (4) different flavours for customers to choose from (two of them are spicy and extra spicy, these will really fire up the Malaysian palate!). For the time being, the flavours offered are Swicy, Original, Freaking Hot, Bulgogi with two (2) more flavours to be introduced later. There’s also the Original Burger and Kimchi Burger with a unique twist featuring charcoal buns and its signature Black Sesame soft-serve ice cream.
Founded by C.H.Hyun in 1999, Nene Chicken rose to become one of the favourite fried chicken chains based on natural ingredients, fresh and wholesome tasting chicken. This philosophy has been replicated with great success in Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong.
The expansion to Malaysia is a joint effort between Nene Chicken Korea and ST Group. ST Group has been instrumental in the expansion of Nene Chicken in 12 locations in Australia since 2015. These locations include New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia.
While Sky Avenue will be the first Nene Chicken restaurant in Malaysia, plans are underway to open more Nene Chicken restaurants from 2018 to 2020. The plan is to have 20 Nene Chicken stores which includes East Malaysia by 2020. The next location will be at Starling Mall, Damansara Uptown, scheduled to be operational by the first quarter of 2018.
For lunch, I tried a variety of Nene Chicken which included Original Chicken, Bulgogi Chicken and Original Burger. Original Chicken is served with mustard, I think mustard may not be to everyone’s liking and wished there was another sauce option. The chicken is tender, not too dry but tastes better with sauce. The best is the Bulgogi Chicken as it is sprinkled with sesame, the sauce is thick and smells/tastes good. Bulgogi Chicken is moist, succulent and juicy, simply wonderful. I would be salivating at the sight of this Bulgogi Chicken (perfection). Original Burger is big and would be enough for 2 people if you ordered some sides. The chicken in the bun is a generous size. However, the sauce can be slightly too spicy for some people (me included).
