You might think why am I talking about a franchised chicken chain? But Ogalo Kensington for me is an Ogalo that I cannot taste the same chicken, burger or salad elsewhere with the same name, and thus went back again and again for more.
As an eatery Ogalo Kensington is not flashy. Locates on a corner street opposite to Wynstan on Anzac Parade (and now right adjacent to the Kensington Light Rail stop!), Ogalo Kensington is a blink and you miss place. However, there is something about the way they make their chicken that other Ogalo’s I went to could never replicate.
Oh yes, the chicken. Despite some said a grilled chicken is a grilled chicken, but for me Ogalo Kensington’s grilled chicken is the grilled chicken. The skin is crispy as it should be and the meat underneath is somehow cooked right as it should be. I don’t know whether they have their special spice but as soon as I drove pass and smelled the chicken I would want to park and get something. The interesting part is that despite the grilled chicken is produced en masse on site, they managed to keep the consistency, no matter it is right out of the grill or in the counter under those magical lights that make them look dreamily tasty.
I was first introduced to Ogalo Kensington by a uni friend. I had limited exposure to Portuguese grilled chicken at that point so did not know what to expect. I tried the Hot Ogalo Burger at that time and it completely blew me away. I don’t know whether it is the sauce or the chicken, or the combination of all of it. From the warm bun to the spicy sauce on the chicken that drips and percolates down the layers of fresh vegetables, that Hot Ogalo Burger was like the materialisation of perfection on a Saturday afternoon. Since then there were many many revisits to that joint during and after my uni years in the area.
Apart from the spicy sauce, Ogalo Kensington also has a non-spicy sauce. I had never tried it as I only like my Portuguese chicken spicy, but a friend of mine who could not eat spicy food loves that too. Right after we graduated from the nearby uni, when we were still living around the area, Ogalo Kensington became one of the regular joints for a quick catch up after work or on weekends.
As we frequent there more…well…frequently, I began to try other items on the menu, including their salads, their chicken without the burger, and other kinds of burger. I remember the first time I tried the burger with pineapple in it, I was surprised that it was an actual piece of pineapple and not something that was wind dried or chargrilled. The sweetness of that pineapple actually neutralised a lot of the aggression that some people might find hard to take with chilli. However, for me I eventually fell in love with the Combo Pack – quarter chicken with salad and a drink. Depending on the day, sometimes I like the breast and sometimes I like the leg (for days I was just too lazy to dissect the piece with any effort). While the leg is always great and meaty, it does lack the crunchiness that I love at times from the breast, especially when it comes to the tip of the wings. What amazed me is that I rarely had burnt wing tips at Ogalo Kensington (at least not that I remember) and they were always crunchy like fresh chips, which I love. I also like the seafood salad that they have on the menu. That seafood salad is part of the reason that I went back again and again. First of all, this salad is not on the menu on any other Ogalo that I had visited (especially during the time when the Kensington one was shut down for renovation due to a fire incident). That’s when I realised that this unique item on the menu was extremely important to me. This salad, when mildly mixed with the chilli sauce of the chicken on the plate, was one of the most heavenly tastes a salad can offer. One might find it weird that I would let chilli sauce get on to my salad, but that unintentional mix (come on they come on the same plate in the combo pack) of the two is a call for revisits for me.
Ogalo Kensington might not be the flashiest or the biggest among others, but it is the food that matters. It offers some of the best Portuguese chickens I had tasted to a point that it is one of the nominated nostalgic experiences for some of my friends who visit Australia again after they finished uni and returned overseas.
Sometimes I wish I knew their special recipe, but then it does not matter at all because I can always find an excuse to go back. 😊
