Is Pelicana Ottawa’s best fried chicken?

• Name + address: Pelicana Korean Chicken, 1508 Merivale Rd. (Inside OK Mart)

• Diet: Meat, vegetarian sides

• Prices: $5-$22

• Wheelchair accessibility: Yes

• Website: www.pelicana.ca

Since first shopping at the Korean grocery store OK Mart a year ago, I’d heard rumours that a Korean fried chicken outfit would be opening inside the shop. Eventually, Pelicana arrived.

With locations now in Burnaby, Vancouver, Edmonton and Toronto, I expect Pelicana’s rise to be meteoric. Their fried chicken is just that good and will make you forget KFC and Popeye’s.

You should know that when you place your order, you’ll be told that your food will be ready in 20 minutes. That’s if other orders aren’t backed up and you happen to be first in line. While you wait, you may want to spend time shopping the store's excellent selection of ingredients and packaged foods.

I also need to mention that their website has its peculiarities and doesn’t give you a full menu or prices.

Once home I rushed to open my bag of food. That sweet garlic was wafting about the room, calling me to indulge. 

In addition to chicken, I had ordered sides of tteokbokki (chewy rice cakes in a sweet and spicy gochujang sauce), corn salad and fried dumplings. 

I do like a plate of tteokbokki. With their springy consistency and sweet heat flavour, it makes for fun eating. This was the first time having them with slices of fish cake however, and while fish cake is generally delicious to this palate, these were just a little too fishy. 

While well-made, the dumplings had been deep-fried (a practice that needs to stop) and the pork filling was under-seasoned.  A little bit bland and disappointing.

The corn salad however was another star of the meal. It was very fresh, crunchy and colourful with finely chopped red and green bell peppers, red onion, scallion and a sweet cream curd for lack of a better descriptor. A deliciously cooling way to counter any kind of heat.

Then I bit into my first piece of chicken. The batter had a magnificent crunch despite having been liberally dressed in a sweet garlic glaze. Coarsely chopped garlic littered each piece and I was impressed with the first bites.

This was expertly prepared and I recall thinking that this was the most tender and moist fried chicken I’d had. With each piece I noticed that the meat had been seasoned to the bone and was falling off under wisps of steam.

I'll take it as a given that we all understand that this kind of eating should be had in moderation, but at Pelicana there’s a serious threat of over-indulgence. 

I’m just glad I live a good distance away.