Although I do love Korean Fried Chicken, my all time favourite iteration of fried chicken will always be Taiwanese Fried Chicken. Whilst not as popular as KFC, there have been a few openings in Brisbane over the last several years. Most recently, Two Peck opened in Toowong Village. Some people on red note have suggested that it is the best Taiwanese Fried Chicken in town, so we had to go try it out and see for ourselves.
The shopfront was small. There was probably only one or two staff working that evening and a sign was clearly placed asking us to order on the screen rather than at the counter. The menu was definitely small and pretty much every item was fried. Ordering was easy enough though.
Those who read reviews online may note that the complaints largely revolve around how long it takes for the food to be prepared. Indeed I was able to compare three bubble tea shops, order and collect and come back to a further 5 minute wait before our order from Two Peck was ready.
Without designated seating, we took our food to the nearby food court to enjoy our spread. Our dinner comprised of two chicken fillets and three sides to share between the two of us. At $55 for the lot, it was market value when you consider what the competitors are charging but on the other hand it was also a bit steep for a bunch of fried things of not particularly high value.
Starting off with the fried chicken fillet. what sets two peck apart from the other stores is that it gives you the option of chicken breast fillet with bone or chicken thigh fillet without bones. Dr L hates bones in his food so he had the thigh fillet whilst I had the breast fillet. We expected the pieces to be small but they were quite large. We speculated that perhaps they smashed two patties together to form one big fillet, but we weren't sure. The thigh fillet was as you would expect, moist and juicy. The breast fillet was also moist and juicy, much to my delight. The batter was probably corn starch or some other low protein flour that made it similar to a tempura batter. I much prefer the traditional potato start that is used in Sam's Chicken for the balls of puffed goodness on the outside. Either way, this was pretty delicious and had just the right amount of salt and pepper.
Our three sides were a hit and miss though. Starting with what went well, the oyster mushrooms were perfectly fried with the light tempura batter. Crisp and crunchy on the outside with just the right amount of seasoning, taste wise it was faultless. It was however small for the price paid.
On the other hand, the calamari tentacles left a lot to be desired. Even though they were fried, somehow they batter was falling off the tentacles and it came out like a hot mess. I'm really surprised that they thought it was ok to serve them like this. Taste wise it was good enough though but again the portion was small, particularly given we paid almost $10 for this serve.
Final side of the night was tofu. Portions were small but in this case it had next to no batter on it so it wasn't even crisp, but rather had a weird oily coating where it should have been fried. I love tofu so generally I'd eat it no matter what, but this was definitely not up to standard as a fried tofu.
Overall, we had a mixed experience at Two Peck. The chicken was enjoyable enough but not the best in Brisbane. The sides were disappointing except for the mushroom. Although I didn't hate the experience, next time I am definitely going to Sam's Chicken for my fix instead.
Price Range: $20 - $30pp
Taste: 7/10
Value: 6/10
Service: 7/10
Environment: N/A
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