Chicky's: 100 Chicken Wings!

I haven't blogged for a while: partly because I've been swamped in work and partly because I haven't really found anything worth blogging about. Until now that is. The establishment in question is Chicky's, a burger delivery place competing with the likes of Simply Burgers, Burgering House etc. Only thing is, there is no competition. Chicky's wins hands down without even breaking a sweat! On size, on quality and on value!

First time I came across Chicky's was a while back on Onemans Blog, as a side note to another burger place I was looking into. I made a note of it; a ToDo if you like, and that was as far as it went. To be honest, its sixty's diner décor put me off a bit, and the photos of towering burgers seemed too good to be true. A month later I get an e-mail from a burger loving friend about this place, same blog, telling me we should try it.I thought to my self, 'same blog?... not too much media coverage out there... how good can it be?', and that's as far as that went. Until, that is, by some perverse twist of fate, that friend of mine and I happened to be hungry on the same day, at the same time, and craving the same kind of food! Ok, I was going for drama there, it's actually not uncommon for that to occur: we're always hungry, and any time is burger time, the twist however was that my friend called me to suggest trying the new burger item on the New York Sandwiches menu.

Long story short, on the way there I remembered that Chicky's was close by so suggested trying that. My friend went one step further by raising the question 'Why can't we do both?'. A valid point, and so we did. Problem was we got carried away at NYS and ordered two burgers and two sandwiches between us. By the time we were done, we were more stuffed than a turkey on Thanksgiving! But, that wasn't going to stop us! We promptly made our way to Chicky's, telling ourselves that the walk was going help us work up an appetite. (On a small side note, after the NYS meal, my opinion of the place hasn't changed a bit since I first went: nice but well overpriced!)

We soon arrived at Chicky's and started going through the menu. First impressions, not really the sort of place you'd go out to eat. Effort has clearly been made on the décor but it doesn't really have that warm inviting 'sit here' feel. The fact that there was nobody else eating in didn't really help that anyway. We went though the menu and decided on chicken (given the name of the place). I went for the Spicy Louisianna and I believe my friend went for the Chicky's Classic. We went to the counter, ordered and waited. Not long after, the food arrived.

The Décor 

The Menu

Towering above the counter, monuments of glorious burgers 

Oh my god! Now, baring in mind that I was stuffed, the burger went down like it was custom made to navigate effortlessly through my mouth and down my oesophagus! Not to say that it was small - because it wasn't - but eating it was easy sailing. After a few bites I was left wondering why this was. I had to put some conscious thought into it. Like riding a bike: it's easy to do so you don't really think about what you are doing, but try to become conscious of your unconscious and you realise that you're making tens or hundreds of tiny adjustments in order to keep the bike balanced.

I first slowed down my chewing. That's when I realised that every bite I could feel the crunch of the chicken crust. Then I looked into the burger. It was clear why it went down so easily: thick hearty slice of tomato, similarly the onion: as if to make a bold statement. The condiments were part of the burger, they were put there to make a difference, not just something to claim is in there and for which to charge more. The tomato added the juicy lubrication that made swallowing so easy. The same with the onion coupled with a pleasant 'crunch'. And then I looked at the chicken: juices oozing out of it, screaming, 'I've been cooked to perfection and not a second longer'.

My friend concurred and we made a point to say that we have to come again when we are actually hungry and try more stuff. To that end, we went back to the menu to ponder what we'll be trying next time we visit. Clearly we had to try the beef burgers, but two more things stood out. One was a couple of their burgers that used Texas toast. If not for novelty value alone that had to be tried (and when it was tried, novelty value wasn't the only thing we got!). The other interesting thing was the chicken wings. The interest was twofold. On the one hand the they offer a choice from ten different sauces to go with the wings. More interesting however was their choice of how many you could get. Six, twelve, twenty, thirty, fifty or one hundred! One hundred wings! I was drooling just thinking about a mountain of chicken wings in front of me. Of course they would have to be served in one container (which has not been confirmed yet), but just imagine!

This was all about a month ago and since then I've been again and again and verified the delicious goodness of the beef burgers too. In particular I tried the western burger (onion straws: amazing!), and the mushroom burger (I could sooo taste the mushrooms: they were as if I'd made sautéed them myself - the real thing - none of that canned crap I've had one too many times before). So why has it taken me one month to spill the beans on this place? Because just last night I went there again, but this time I had my camera with me!

Texas Burger

Texas Chicken

Chicken Burger

Popcorn Chicken

Twenty wings with Hot Sauce

And where, you say, can I find these babies? Well, if you live in the centre of Athens and are lucky enough to be close by (unfortunately I'm not) you can get them delivered from the Ilissia store (210 7772463), but if you're keen on going there as I did so that you can have everything straight off the grill, here's the map. 

View Chicky's in a larger map

There's also a Pireus store that only does take out and delivery in case you live round there (210 4125119). 

Related Links:

Chicky.gr
Chickys.com.gr
@Facebook
@Oneman
@Foursquare
@Athensmenu.gr
@FoodSpotting

Tweet

Pin It

Bluefield Burger Company: King of Burger Delivery

"Incoming!!!"... That's the sound my mobile phone makes when a message arrives. The message was to the point: "16:00. Bluefield.". The reply had been sent before I had time to think about it: "OK".

Of course, there wasn't anything to think about! There was no way I was going to let my plans to go to the gym get in the way of beer and a burger. And not just any burger at that. As far as I'm concerned, Bluefield Burger is the best burger delivery company in Athens - its just a shame (and bliss at the same time) that there is only one of it. Other companies may be more well know, and may have the means to cover every end and every suburb of Athens, but when it comes to quality, Bluefield is in a league of its own.

In a nutshell, the story goes that a guy went to New York, learnt all about real burgers, decided to return to Greece and set up the best burger delivery company around. Lights, camera, action; he succeeded. I'm not going to write anything more because it has all been written about before. You can read more about the background of Mr. Bluefield Burgers (a.k.a. Aggelos Katopodis) and Bluefield Burger Company on Franchise.gr (yes they have started franchising, so hopefully we'll see more of them soon - and hopefully the quality will remain the same), Athens Voice, Athens News, Athinorama, foodforthought and they have a facebook page!

Obviously, as well as delivery they have a sit-in area (otherwise why would we be going there - doh)! On entering the sit-in dining area, one is welcomed by small cows grazing in green fields of grass. It's really nice that this much attention has been placed on the look and feel of this area of a shop that probably does most of its business delivering its product.

Grazing Cows

The Dining Area

This is about half of the dining area. There are another two tables on the other side. A tiny shop with huge surprises!

We ordered a beer, a Caesar salad, onion rings, Fries with Chilli, Sesame Chicken Wings and Best of the West burgers. 

The salad was different as far as Caesar salads go. Nothing garlicky or anchovy about it. But nothing like the bog standard flat commercial white dressing you get in many average places. There was, however, something in the dressing that I couldn't put my finger on. I hate it when that happens. But it was really nice. Fresh. I was so hungry though, that by the time I thought of taking a photo, it was all gone!

Beer

Served in an icy cold glass. What could be more perfect of a sunny spring day!

Onion Rings

I've tried onion rings with flour, onion rings with bread crumbs and these: onion rings in batter. Can't decide what I like best, but these were damn fine onion rings.

Fries and Chilli

Ultimate comfort food. Absolutely delicious! Here of course, as well as with the burgers, fresh chips would have taken the dish to the next level.

Sesame Chicken Wings

Spectacular by any account: Sticky sweet and savoury exterior. Moist insides, tender, meat falls off the bone. Probably one of their best dishes.

Best of the West Burger

There is no such thing as the perfect burger. In the same way that there is no such thing as the perfect pasta or the perfect pizza. At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal taste. HOWEVER, there are rules of thumb. 

First of all, look at the burger. Rule of thumb: the burger has to look appetising.

If you look closely at the Best of the West burger, you'll notice a thin layer of white sauce between the bottom half of the bun and the patty. Rule of thumb: add a fat based sauce (e.g. mayonnaise based) or other impermeable layer between bread and other ingredients to avoid bread becoming soggy. 

Notice the abundance of iceberg lettuce on top. It may be tasteless, but it gives texture (e.g. crunch) to the burger. Rule of thumb: add texture. 

Now look at the thickness of the patty. A thinner patty has more surface area to brown for more taste, but the difference between "bloody as hell" and "burnt to a crisp", would be a matter of seconds - and even so, to get the benefit of the larger surface area without overcooking the interior you'd need very high heat. A thick patty can be repeatedly cooked to order with satisfactory browning. Rule of thumb: thick patty. 

Next the bread; the moisture of all the ingredients must be enough to counteract the dryness of the bread. Use a dense bread and you're screwed. Rule of thumb: use a light bread or add allot of moisture. 

Finally the patty. If its dry, you have to add other ingredients to give moisture otherwise, it will be impossible to swallow. However, if you're going to cover the taste of the meat with a whole load of sauces and other stuff, you might as well use a cardboard patty. There are two ways to achieve moisture. One is to use good quality tender lean cuts of meat and cook it medium-rare to medium. You will loose out in taste but the health benefits are obvious. The other way is to use cuts that require more cooking and have more fat. These must be cooked well to allow the fat to melt. This is your traditional American burger. This is burger that The King of Rock and Roll had for breakfast. It has a smoky taste from the burnt fat, and a well textured interior because of the less tender meat used. However, it is also the type of burger that led the King to an early grave! In today's world, most people will find this type of burger less palatable, but at the end of the day its a matter of taste. Rule of thumb: you have to make a conscious decision about the cut of meat and how much fat will be in the burger.

Bluefield burger uses a mix of sirloin and brisket to achieve a very good balance of juiciness, tenderness and texture without the burger being obviously fatty. You can read all about their choices here.

Cookies. On the House.

Finally the cookies. Oh the cookies. I really wish that I'm not wrong in saying that these are absolutely home made using basically flour, butter, sugar and chocolate chips because they are; the dogs bollocks!

Tweet

Pin It

COLIBRI: Round two

Last time I visited Colibri, it was under the pretence of it having the best burger in Athens. Under that context I was disappointed, but the pizza did impress me.

This time round was different - in a positive way of course (otherwise why write about it?). I had assembled with the guys for a trip to a little Mexican place called Rincon Mexicano which we had discovered from the same source that led us to Colibri: Athens Daily Secret.

To make a long story short, we ordered about half the menu, were still starving by the end of it and didn't really care much about trying either another round of the same or the other half of the menu. I am open to the possibility that we may have been victims of our own expectations, so I urge you to try the place and form your own opinion - it wasn't particularly expensive (unless, I guess, if your intent is to relieve thy hunger).

So as we left, with an empty space where our food should have been, one comment led to another and off we were to Colibri. This time round the only expectations were to eat good and satisfying food. This time round our expectations were surpassed!

I contemplated ordering a pizza for myself since I remembered my last visit, but since everyone else was getting a burger and a pizza to share I decided to follow them. We each got chilli burger and shared a large pizza topped with rocket and parmesan shavings.

The pizza was as amazing as I remembered it! Thin based with a proper crust, not too much cheese, fresh tomato sauce and then mounds of fresh and vibrant rocket topped with wafer thin delicate and fully flavoursome parmesan shaving. Wow did that go down well (and that was after having already eaten at the Mexican place)!

And then, the burger arrived. And like I'm sure I said last time, this isn't your coarse ground, fat and hearty American style burger, but damn it, it sure as well did the job! Sauces dripping everywhere on every bite... so juicy and soft and filling. And to finish it off, a hefty swig of Weiss beer - ecstasy in the making!

So.. DAMN IT... GO HAVE YOURSELF A PIZZA AND A BURGER AT COLIBRI!!

And best of all, the owner(s) of Colibri have opened a second shop in Pagrati - so now there's no excuse!

View Colibri 1 & 2 in a larger map

p.s. a few related links
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ebw_5IqYPw
http://www.dailysecret.com/secrets/to-kalutero-burger/
http://www.zoomout.gr/food/colibri.html
http://www.zoomout.gr/food/colibri_2.html
http://foursquare.com/venue/6999057
http://www.onlinedelivery.gr/ShowFlashBook.aspx?CompanyId=820569#/2

Tweet

Pin It

The best burger in the city?

So, a few weeks ago I'm supposed to meet up with friends for to grab some food and maybe a few drinks. But, me being me, I made up some excuse and went home to make my own dinner and relax after a hard days work.

No sooner than I had finished dinner I get a phone call from one of them claiming that they had discovered - in no other words - the "Best burger in the city" and that I had missed out. Now normally I wouldn't have given this preposterous statement much weight, had it not come from the other burger lover (the first being myself) of my friends. I had to try this burger for myself.

The very next day I was on my way to try this so called champ. Accompanying me were my friend who made the claim and another (who obviously hadn't had enough the day before).

The source of this burger was a small establishment in the Mets area of Athens called COLIBRI:


View Larger Map

On arriving, one notices the compactness of the place. Jam packed in an area no bigger than my bedroom, full of clutter creating an enticing, warm and friendly atmosphere.

We ordered a burger each, a pizza and a salad to share.

Now, while waiting for the food, my friend came clean: his overblown statement was but to spite me for not coming to the previous days gathering (and it only took one beer for him to come clean). However I was still quietly anticipating being surprised. And surprised I was! Not by the burger, but by the pizza which was thin and crispy and fresh and everything that the PizzaHut generation has destroyed. Not quite your Italian stone baked pizza, but as good as you can hope to get from a conventional oven. As a matter of fact everything was very nice. The burger was - well not that fat juicy medium done American style patty I had hoped for, but was juicy and pleasantly different from other alternatives in the city.

I imagined myself living in an apartment round the area and grabbing dinner from this gem at least a couple of times a month on my way back from College. Alas, I was reminiscing my University experience and remembering the local take-outs I had lived by all those years ago. This is the sort of place this was: a bit further out of the city for me to want to have to go out of my way for, but just the sort of place I'd like to have down the street from home.

So, the best burger in the city? Well, not quite: but with the closure of Hells Kitchen the hunt is on!

Tweet

Pin It