This week I ordered a takeaway via Just Eat from KimJi Korean Restaurant in Preston City Centre.
It’s predominantly an authentic, licensed Korean restaurant tucked down the cobbled Winckley Street, and although I have eaten on the premises before and loved every visit, this was my first time ordering a delivery.
I adore Korean Fried Chicken, abbreviated on KimJi’s menu to KFC, so that was a must. Not to be confused with Kentucky Fried Chicken from the popular chain, which is often crushingly bland and disappointing, with beige floppy skin. (Just to clarify, I’m describing the chicken, not myself, although there may be similarities.)
KimJi was doing a Halloween special of Inferno KFC for £5.59, which I ordered and then panicked about because I was scared it would be too spicy and would ruin my favourite food. However, despite the addition of reaper chillies, I was able to enjoy it. It maintained KFC’s characteristic crispness even under the sweet, sticky glaze, and the heat was about the same as that of a madras curry – but the flavours of fermented chilli paste, Korean chilli flakes, soy, and honey were intense enough to hold their own against it. It was a good sized portion, well-contained in a brown cardboard carton, and the chunks of chicken remained perfectly juicy.
A substantial container full of beef bibimbap for £12.25 was also excellent. A layer of steamed rice was topped with seasoned bean sprouts, shredded carrots, sweetcorn and what I think was thinly julienned courgette but can’t swear to it. They all maintained their crispness well. A fried egg suffered due to being transported in a steamy environment, but the solid yolk and slightly rubbery white was to be expected. It still tasted fine and the texture didn’t take away from the dish significantly. I was worried that the bite-sized pieces of beef might be fatty but they were wonderfully lean, with the gochujang chilli paste providing controlled heat and a mild tang that livened up the vegetables, although I admit that I cheated a little by adding a drizzle of sesame oil and some ground pepper after a few mouthfuls.
A portion of four fried vegetable dumplings for £5.95, which came with a sachet of a soy based sauce, had wilted slightly from the steam. They were decent but didn’t blow me away like the KFC.
A portion of chicken glass noodle soup for £12.35 was my least favourite item, as it seemed quite bland and I wasn’t keen on the consistency. I expected seasoned, tender chicken and lots of crunchy vegetables in a thinner, umami, broth-style soup, but the sauce was thick, there weren’t many vegetables except sweetcorn and a few spinach leaves, and the chicken was quite dry. It wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t anywhere near as good as the rest of my order.
There was also an unexpected addition in the takeaway bag, which caused some confusion. As usual, by the time the food arrived I’d forgotten what I’d ordered, so assumed that the carton containing battered meat in a sticky, dark, spicy sauce was the Inferno KFC. It had been sampled and dished out by the time I realised that there was another box of meat which was more obviously the Korean chicken so, after returning to my order notification, I realised that it must have been mistakenly packed into my bag from someone else’s order.
I called the restaurant unsuccessfully and emailed Just Eat to try to explain what had happened because I was suddenly consumed with accidental theft guilt and didn’t want to have to say goodbye to my children and go on the run if nobody believed me, but after I calmed down a bit I reasoned that the restaurant could hardly collect and redeliver it to its rightful owner once it has potentially had any manky old person’s thumb in it, so I just ate it. I didn’t put my manky old thumb in it, I’m just saying that I could have.
Ooh, what are you, magical bonus mystery meal? Everything I ever wanted, without knowing what that was, as it turns out! Lots of meat in a sticky, savoury, tangy sweet soy sauce, with a few crunchy green peppers adding texture and interest. It was gorgeous!
I went back on KimJi’s menu to try and identify it against the photos but couldn’t find anything that looked similar, and then Google Lens had a tentative punt at it being beef bulgogi, which was on the menu for £12.95. On the menu it was meant to be served with steamed rice, which it was, and lettuce, which it wasn’t, so that could have either been because it wasn’t bulgogi or that it was but the lettuce would have been unpleasant in a steamy takeaway box so they left it out. It didn’t look like the photo on KimJi’s website but that might have been a stock image, so the mystery remains unsolved.
It had all taken a bit of a Cinderella twist, and if I could have taken the empty carton back to the restaurant and demanded to know which meal fit into it without being overcome by accidental theft shame again I would have done, but I couldn’t. It was late, and I was too full of bonus free Cinderella shame food to do anything except lie on the sofa obsessing about how I could meet it again. So, if anyone from KimJi reads this review, please identify the dish for me. Whatever it was, it was absolutely delicious and I want to marry it and live happily ever after.
Almost all of my takeaway from KimJi was excellent, as has been every meal I’ve had when I’ve eaten in, including the dumplings, which are spectacular in the restaurant.
I’ll definitely be ordering from KimJi again, but next time it will be more KFC and, if I find out the identity of the mystery meal, a portion or ten of whatever that is, because this cannot be the end of our relationship. I’m going to go Tom Cruise on that stuff.
Can you identify Karen’s magical mystery meal? Let us know in the comments.
Read more: All of Karen’s reviews
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