Daily Chicken, an offshoot of Daily Beer, opens at Bugis Junction, with fried chicken, S$8 noodles

First, there was Daily Beer; now, the group behind the brand’s presence in Singapore hopes to make Korean fried chicken and street food even more accessible, in the form of its newly created brand Daily Chicken.

Daily Beer at Telok Ayer was the first international outpost of the famous Korean chimaek (a portmanteau of chicken and “maekju”, which is Korean for “beer”) restaurant that has outlets all over Korea.

While the focus at Daily Beer was its many fried chicken varieties and beers on tap, Daily Chicken, located at the bustling Bugis Junction basement, is geared more towards families.

That’s not to say that there won’t be any of its signature beer here — there’s the Singapore-exclusive K-Ginseng lager (S$13), a smooth lager with hints of ginger. 

For its menu, Daily Chicken still has fried chicken, of course. There’s original, red (fried chicken tossed in a spicy sauce), black (with a sweet garlic soy sauce) and crunch (with extra cornflakes and tossed with a garlicky, sweet and spicy seasoning).

While its original outlet had stews and many fried and spicy side dishes, Daily Chicken’s selection comprises “healthier” and more “kid-friendly” alternatives, such as its Daily fried tofu gimbap (S$14) and its Daily noodle bowls, which all go at a very wallet-friendly S$8. 

Daily Chicken’s outlet adopts a chic, retro-diner aesthetic, looking like a cross between an American-style diner and a HK cha chaan teng from the yesteryears. It’s perhaps also a nod to the recent Korean trend of embracing all things “new-tro”, a “new” interpretation of retro trends.

Digging first into its titular Daily chicken — original (from S$18 for half a chicken), we were glad that the chicken tasted exactly like it did at Daily Beer. The lightly marinated chicken had the right amount of crunch and was impeccably juicy and tender.

In fact, we’re usually on Team Sauce, but its original take needed none of that. 

Onto its newer offerings: The Daily fried tofu gimbap was well-seasoned and very much delicious, though we couldn’t help but feel it wasn’t made-to-order, based on its slightly puffed-up appearance. 

All things considered, it’s still a good dish, made even better by its stir-fried kimchi that comes on its side. 

For its noodles, there are four types — onmyeon (chewy noodles in chicken soup), spicy onmyeon, bibimmyeon (noodles in sweet and sour sauce), and cold bibimmyeon (chewy noodles in ice cold soup). 

The noodles are all priced very affordably at S$8, a price I probably haven’t seen in Korean restaurants to date, for a full-fledged main. Granted there’s only half a hard-boiled egg, but it’s generously portioned for its price point and makes for a very satisfying meal, if you love all things noodles.

Notably, Daily Chicken’s menu also came with a number of sweet treats that weren’t at Daily Beer. We tried its crispy pastry honey hotteok (S$14), which came with whipped cream. 

If you’ve had hotteok in Korea, it differs slightly — Daily Chicken’s version is a bit thinner, flakier and crispier, which we think isn’t a bad thing, given the local crowd’s penchant for all things crispy. 

Since the outlet’s newly opened and doesn’t sit very many — its retro-styled booths take up a considerable amount of space — you can also grab its new menu item, the cup ganjeong (S$12) to-go. 

It comes with its chicken ganjeong (crispy sweet fried chicken), with rice cake and your choice of sweet potato, wedges or dumplings, on the top, and a drink underneath. We can already see ourselves grabbing a cup on our next shopping trip to Bugis!

This was a hosted tasting.  

For more Korean options, check out our compilation of our favourite Korean restaurants all over Singapore. 

Daily Chicken is on the GrabFood Delivery Service and offers free delivery (up to S$3 off with GrabUnlimited). 

Do explore the GrabFood Dine Out service for awesome deals. 

You can also book a ride to Daily Chicken at Bugis Junction.