Tales of Cookie being Colonel Tan’s big brother threw us off a bit in the beginning, but nonetheless we were focused on our goal of exploring all the top contenders of Melbourne Fried Chicken and Cookie was on the list.

We hit up Cookie right after attending a comedy act at the town hall on a Monday night. Cookie is located on level 2 of Curtain House on Swanston street. We had tried to get a reservation the Saturday before but were too late, Monday was far less busy but still a good crowd for a slow night.

We were handed menus by the very friendly waiter and confusion immediately arose; first the wine list was a tomb that The Chick became immersed in, plus the menus were so big and packed with so many dishes it took a while to find the chicken. Finally we found it under the large dishes section labeled as ‘deep fried five spice chicken with sweet chili sauce’ and offered as either a 1/2 or a whole chicken. The Chick wanted to do the “feed me” option but knew she wasn’t hungry enough to enjoy it. After lots of discussions we finally threw some darts at it and selected: taro dumplings with chili sauce, spicy cashew, tomato, cucumber & coriander salad, the drunken noodles with minced pork & green chilies, and a half serve of the fried chicken. The waiter told us that the half serve comes with 7-9 pieces.

The food arrived all at once, re-enforcing the sense of being overwhelmed by food. The Chick didn’t approve of the dumplings because they were too gooey, so the consistency was off in her mind. Hollywood thought they were good enough to eat two. The cashew salad was crunchy, fresh, spicey and very good. The drunken noodles were a hit, spicy, good texture from the minced pork and good wok fried noodles. Hollywood and the Chick decided that dish was well worth the visit and would be ordered again someday.

Last but not least, the chicken came out in a basket of 8 pieces and seemed similar to Korean style chicken (in terms of breading and the way pieces were cut) but more seasoned. The spices were a good blend and had a distinctive taste of cinnamon. Most of the pieces were hot and steamy. The chicken was good but dipping it in the sweet chili sauce added a bit of a kick to it which was a good bonus.

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The array of dishes provided and the fushion of flavors was an overall good exciting experience. The chicken was good but its not what comes to mind when dreaming of fried chicken because the cinnamon makes us think of a different kind of cookie.

Hollywood Rating: 6/10 Clucks

The Chick Rating: 6.5/10 Clucks – extra half a cluck for her favorite baking spice