I’ve been wanting to try Hot Star Large Fried Chicken for a while and I’m so glad they finally opened a branch in Shaw Blvd. The first few times I saw the restaurant’s sign, I thought they were closed because the “gate” was down, so I passed it by.
After googling, I found out the the place was actually already open! The closed gate is quite misleading. The entrance is actually inside the mall.
We tried it last weekend. I ordered the Original Large Fried Chicken (no rice) and J ordered the Chicken Popcorn thinking that it would also be a lot of chicken. The Original was actually a large order and very good value for money for only P110 per order! Even I couldn’t finish the entire order and had to ask to brown bag more than half of it. I think two people can easily share one order of the Original.
The chicken is not boneless. Most of it is boneless, but there are parts where it still has some bones, mainly rib bones and chicken breast cartilage. I assume it’s to help hold the chicken together in one piece.
After a few bites, the breading of the Original chicken was starting to become tiresome (nakakaumay). Good thing gravy is available – there’s a gravy dispenser where you can get more gravy, but it’s for dine-in only, unfortunately. Gravy is P15 for a small cup for take-out. But a positive thing about the chicken is that it’s really juicy!
The staff aren’t allowed to chop the chicken, so you’re on your own if you want to share your chicken in bite-sized pieces.
The chicken popcorn was just meh. Pass on it and just try the Large Fried Chicken instead.
I ordered another Large Fried Chicken for take home, and this time I chose the Spicy flavor. Good call. I really like the Spicy one better. It’s much more flavorful. I wish they had other flavors to choose from and not just Original and Spicy. The spicy one is actually just the original chicken that’s been dusted with a spicy powder after frying. And I wish they had some less hot spice mix that can be sprinkled on the original chicken to make the breading more flavorful, like maybe, a 5-spice powder and salt mix?
We also ordered the Almond Milk – at first I thought it was regular almond milk but it turned out to be some kind of slushy. I let it melt a bit before drinking, but it was good and tasted like it was made naturally from almonds (not almond extract), and I think it’s going to be a good drink for summer.
Summary:
The Large Fried Chicken is very good value for money. It’s a good alternative to the other fried chicken chains, and the price is very affordable since 2 people can comfortably share the P110 order because the chicken is so big, just add P35 for rice + drink. Gravy is also refillable so if you’re like me who likes to drown everything in gravy, you’ll be happy when dining in.
I think it’s a good pulutan/ after movie/ midnight snack attack food, unfortunately, they’re only open until 10pm. And I don’t understand why they won’t chop the chicken into bite-sized pieces when asked.
If they only provide a good amount of gravy for take-out, I would totally recommend this to buy when you’re in need of something extra to feed the family for dinner. Order one large chicken, chop it up into 1-inch cubes and it’s an instant extra ulam (remove the parts with bones). Stick the chicken cubes with some of those fancy toothpicks and bam, instant party food for when your kids’ friends come over. Sprinkle additional salt & pepper and 5-spice powder if you want to 
How to make 5-spice powder for sprinkling: Just get maybe a teaspoon of 5-spice powder (also called go hiong or ngo hiong, available at supermarkets in the spice section), mix in some fine kosher salt (maybe 1/4 to half a teaspoon’s worth, or use iodized salt if you can’t find kosher salt) to taste. Note that iodized salt is saltier than kosher salt, so use less. You can also add some finely ground black pepper or chili powder if you want to. Mix well. Sprinkle on hot fried chicken.
Update (April 7, 2015):
I wrote the original post last week. Last night, we ordered a Hot Star Chicken (Original) for take out (pandagdag ulam) from the SM Manila branch and it was so much better than the one I reviewed from the Shaw branch. It had more flavor – more 5-spice powder and salt sprinkled on it vs the one from the Shaw branch. We also ordered the fish fillet. Here they are cut up for an additional side dish to our dinner at home:
