date spotrestaurant/food review

Om Chicken (korean fried chicken place review)

So when you tell gmaps to take you to “Ladner” it leads you to a stripmall called Ladner Centre. If you decide to eat there instead of driving somewhere else, you’ll probably be eating at Om.

It’s pretty nice, it’s got a few things going for it.  I have a general gripe though.

Decent ambiance.

Very respectable budget option with the $2 rice.

Nice that there’s draft but I recently had a much bigger draft beer at the same price point in Langley.  I opted for water.

So like, my gf got a full order of the spicy chicken, which was $18, too rich for my blood this day.  Our friend got the spring rolls because they weren’t very hungry, and I got the spicy garlic chicken sando because the price was decent enough for these days at $11 and I was very curious (and garlic-attracted).

Here’s the chickenpics:

And an arty one on manual settings that evokes the atmosphere better:

So like, the brioche bun is exactly what I would choose and so is the salad greens spring mix component.

The chicken has a great fried breading.  I tried a couple bites of my gf’s and it was the same, great skin. In fact her chicken was exactly like mine.  The problem starts here.  Summarized quickly, the kitchen is throwing sweet thai chili sauce on everything.  I wasn’t getting “garlic” from it at all, neither was she.

My gf remarked that my sandy was a steal for $11 anyway but I would consider it a steal for $8, personally.  There’s an AYCE buffet in Langley that’s still doing lunch for $13, for context.

I had inquired about a more expensive all-chicken menu item, a dry garlic rub situation, and was told they didn’t do it anymore.

I think the chef who designed the menu or at least okayed the original slate of offerings put forward by the owners, quit.  And the new chef is “streamlining” based on ability and/or labor-time & cost (ie overhead) so everything is getting this same-same shortcut treatment in the kitchen. Just a hunch.  I dunno its just such a generic sauce entirely indistinguishable from low-end retail offerings.

Anyway I enjoyed this description:

Three seconds, no more, no less.  I like that the mouth will be filled with the taste, no gaps.  I like that it will be unforgettable.  I debate the truth of that statement tho; the handling of the chicken is, in reality, highly forgettable 🤷

My gf really liked the sauce though, by the way.  Every cat their own rat, as they say.

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