Phenomenal Korean Fried Chicken at Pelicana Taipei

June 28, 2019 Taipei Expat

We’ve always maintained that Cheogajip has the best Korean Fried Chicken in Taipei — until a reader recommended Pelicana, a Korean chain with locations around the world. We were dubious at first, since they don’t come very highly rated on Google, but gave it a try on UberEats one night out of curiosity. Boy were we glad we did! Dear reader: thank you ever so much for your recommendation, as you have forever changed our lives. Pelicana has been a massive upgrade from Cheogajip and knowing what we know now, we’d never go back.

Pelicana has one location in Taipei, very close to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall MRT Station (this area is great for food, FYI) on the blue line. They weren’t terribly busy on the Thursday night that we visited, and we were able to get a seat right away. The staff were friendly and helpful, and we immediately clocked two separate tables of Korean diners, which gave us a little more confidence in our choice. K-Pop blasted away on the TV, transporting us right back to nights out in Seoul.

We’re pretty familiar with the Pelicana menu, having ordered it a few times at home on UberEats, so this time we decided on a full order of their marinated fried chicken ($520, or $480 if you choose half and half with original chicken). Their garlic fried chicken is great too. You can choose to have it with or without the bone — normally we prefer boneless, but unfortunately, this was unavailable on the day we visited.

The portion is on the large size, definitely enough to leave two people feeling full. It was served with pickled radish, and we ordered an extra garlic sauce ($40) on the side because we love it, but there’s more than enough sauce on this bad boy to see you through. The marinated chicken is served in a sweet, slightly spicy, garlicky sauce that we love. We’re not sure if the chicken itself is marinated, or if that’s just the name of the sauce, which is thick and delicious. It can be a little much at times, so we recommend trying the half and half the first time around (you can add some sauces on the side and experiment) and eating the pickled radish in between pieces, because it cuts through the grease. This is hands-down our favourite Korean fried chicken in Taipei, being sticky, crispy, and downright delicious. The rice cakes that come with it are also on the crispy side, and very tasty indeed.

We strongly recommend ordering a beer (we went for a bottle of Cass beer, which was $150) as it pairs perfectly with the fried chicken. They have bottled beers and Taiwan beer on tap, as well as some interesting ice cream beer that we haven’t been brave enough to try. They also have bottles of soju and soju cocktails.

To be perfectly honest, we’ve never felt the urge to try anything on Pelicana’s menu other than their fried chicken and beer, and we’re not sure we will unless someone recommends it especially to us. We’re just too in love with their fried chicken to mess around with anything else. It’s not cheap, but we always feel totally satisfied and very full after eating here, and it’s a worthy treat once in a while. We really liked that we saw plenty of Koreans there too, as we felt much more validated in our choice of restaurant. All in all, we highly recommend the chicken at Pelicana if you’re willing to spend a little — and if you’re not, here’s some more budget-friendly options.

You can check out their full menu here, which we pulled from their Facebook page: