#aucklandeats: Always Keen for Chicken & Beer After Work

CHIMAC | Shop 5/50 High Street, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010

Koreans are rather obsessed with having good food with good alcohol that goes well with it. The classic duos would be pork belly barbeque with Soju, Korean pancakes and Makgulli (Korean Rice Wine), and of course, Fried Chicken and beer. Anyone that is the slightest bit interested in Korea and Korean food, would be familiar with the word “Chi-mek,” short for “Chicken and Mekju (beer).” Korean fried chicken, known for its crispness and juiciness, is a divine dish itself. But when paired with a pint of brain-freezingly cold draught beer, the oiliness goes straight down and you’d be happy to be surrounded by fried chicken all night. Is your mouth watering yet? Cause I know a place you can go to, right now.

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CHIMAC is located on High Street, Auckland CBD, making it easy for those who work or study at the CBD to stop by after a long day. The place is mostly known for their speciality, Rosé Chicken - crispy fried chicken served with creamy rosé sauce 👌 It’s fairly a new restaurant, so not many people are yet aware of this hidden gem. CHIMAC is literally a bit hidden, and it’s easy for you to walk past it if you’re not paying attention.

The Korea Post | CHIMAC

Next to the Habibi Convenience Store on High Street, you’ll come across a glass door that may seem like an entrance to an office building. In fact, this place is filled with small yet decent restaurants (the Japanese Ramen place here, Koiya, is also top-notch). After passing two glass doors, you’ll see CHIMAC’s tables and the counter with a couple of beer taps. 

You might already have your favourite Korean chicken place (since there are so many out there!) and might not be as interested. Here’s why CHIMAC totally deserves a visit. THEY DO TTEOKBOKKI AS WELL. My past K-food articles say a lot about my obsession with Tteokbokki (Korean spicy rice cakes). My only complaint about Auckland restaurants is that they don’t have a good tteokbokki place, which is why I always end up making my own at home. The actual reason I found out about CHIMAC was because of their Rosé Tteokbokki, not their chicken 🤣 

My friend and I ordered a pint of Tiger each, and a Chicken platter (Chicken + Tteokbokki + Chips + Salad) with Boneless Chicken and Rosé Tteokbokki. Yes, even from my photo you can see that I was more excited for the rice cakes than the chicken 🤩 To my surprise, the fried chicken was one of the best Korean chickens I had in a while! Maybe it’s because all the Korean chicken places are experimenting with unique sauces all the time, and I’m more of a basic crispy fried chicken lover. We got plain crispy chicken with some spicy seasoned sauce on the side, and this sauce had that kick that Koreans would be pleased with - if you’re a non-spicy person, maybe pass the sauce. 

But wait, can we take a moment to appreciate CHIMAC’s Rosé Tteokbokki? 👏👏 I’ve told y’all the recipe of Rosé Tteokbokki in TMI Vol. 032 and said that I’ll try it myself too. Well… it didn’t go as easy as expected 🙃 So when a restaurant fixes up the creamy rice cake dish this good? I’m all here for it. I can say for sure that the Rosé Chicken will be finger-lickin' as well - cause when I tried dipping the chicken in the tteokbokki sauce, I promised myself to come back ASAP and get the Rosé version of CHIMAC’s chicken.

Google Reviews 김가영 (Kim Gayoung)

Not only do they do chicken and tteokbokki, but they also offer other “anju” (food to have with alcohol). They’ve got soups and stews like the fishcake soup, and the Spicy Chicken Stew with Rice cake, “Tteok Dori Tang.” All these menus are “anju” perfect dishes, so when you’re roaming through High Street for a good place for chill drinks, you have my recommendation. Next time with their Rosé Chicken, I’ll try their Chicken with Spring Onion, “Pa Dak,” and let you know how that goes 😛 Check out their full menu here & opening hours below!