MELBOURNE | When you’ve been tweaking your home-made fried chicken sandwich recipe for so long that it’s reached the stage where you think it’s better than (or at least as good as) the best that’s on offer anywhere else in Melbourne, what do you do? In the case of civil engineer, Adriel Reddy, you start running pop-ups across Melbourne in your spare time.
Adriel launched ChickyBoi in October 2024, and momentum steadily built as more and more Melburnians tried his fried chicken sandwiches at places like Palomino Bar, Pizza Elettrica, and Welcome To Brunswick. At the start of this year, the space in the bottle shop side of Near & Far, last home to yakitori pop-up Matsuyama (which now has a permanent location in Prahran Market), became available. Adriel jumped at the opportunity to give ChickyBoi a semi-permanent home, and made the decision to quit his day job, and dedicate himself to ChickyBoi full-time.
The menu consists of two chicken sandwiches. The ‘ChickyBoi OG’ features seasoned fried chicken, dill ranch, dill pickles, and iceberg lettuce, inside a soft Martin’s potato roll. The second option, ‘SpicyBoi’, fills a Martin’s potato roll with Nashville spicy oil-dipped fried chicken, dill ranch sauce, bread and butter pickles, and iceberg lettuce. Occasionally, you’ll find a third, rotating special on the menu. When I visited it was a banh mi-inspired chicken sandwich, ‘Lunarboi’. A few weeks prior, there was a Chick-fil-A-inspired honey mustard mayo creation.
The chicken is, of course, the superstar of each sandwich. Hand-breaded, double-dredged, and rested chicken thigh, resulting in an ultra-crispy coating and juicy meat. Combined with well-balance flavours and textures, you’ve got chicken sandwiches that are deserving of their reputation.
Adriel mentioned to me that he doesn’t just want to sell some of the best fried chicken sandwiches in Melbourne, but the best, period. He’s constantly tweaking his recipe, for example experimenting with different resting times and temperatures to achieve a stronger adherence between the coating and the chicken. There’s no chips on the menu yet. Adriel says he’s got them to the level of ‘really good’, but won’t put them on the menu until they’re ‘the best’.
Combine this kaizen-like philosophy with a product that’s already excellent, and it’s easy to see why ChickyBoi, whilst already great, is likely going to get better. I look forward to eating through the evolution.
ChickyBoi
375 Brunswick Street
Fitzroy
Victoria 3065
Australia
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Website
Open
Mon – Sun: 7:30am to 11:30pm