Choosing to go for a drive into the depths of the woods in Eltham after I was strongly recommended by a former employee of Sammy's Charcoal Chicken to discover the adversity and contingency that the charcoal chicken was going to present to myself.
Sammy's Charcoal Chicken at first glance is a very welcoming and friendly environment, it looks clean and has a great layout with about 3 tables inside and another 3-4 outside. Friendly owner and staff who welcome you with a smile and are pretty helpful with choosing the required and suitable meal for consumption.
Sammy's charcoal chicken seems to put a lot of time and effort into their salads. This is very surprising and refreshing as most charcoal chicken stores do not have adequate salads but at Sammy's they looked appetizing to say the least. They had a huge variety of about 8-10 salads and the salad I ordered was very refreshing, tasty and complimented the chicken & chips which accompanied.
The chicken was tender, succulent and supple. It is said to be Gluten free chicken and free range which the website claims, but the chicken didn't taste a lot different to other non-gluten free stores.
The breast of the chicken was very nice and luscious which is not easy to obtain at any charcoal chicken store. The chicken however is not to be eaten by itself here as it is lacking that final ingredient to perfection and requires at least chips or one of their delicate salads to accompany to fulfil its greatest potential. Another downside was that whilst eating the drumstick part of the chicken I noticed it was not cooked properly and it was red (pictures are on the right side panel), however I believe that hopefully it was just a one-off as the rest of the chicken was cooked to perfection thus didn't look like a consistent occurrence.
The chips were slightly above average and were large and filled with generous amounts of potato. They lacked a little bit of chicken salt however this was masked by the tasty salad which added to the blandness of the absence of the chicken salt in the chips.
Service was pretty fast, eat-in didn't look like much of a priority with I having to eat out of a takeaway container with a wooden fork but sufficed for a half chicken combo. Napkins at the front are given generously with service so no problem there.
Parking is also haste free with ample parking out the front for 30 minutes to 2 hours.
Price was just above average at 13.90 for half chicken, chips and a choice of a salad.
So was it worth the trip to Sammy's charcoal chicken? Yes
It was worth it because the chicken was fair and admirable, chips were above average just needed a little more chicken salt which is easily fixable and the salads were unbelievably good for a charcoal chicken store, they were good enough to be competing against the likes of Sumo Salad! Service was great and staff were friendly. However there a few little adjustments which Sammy's charcoal chicken needs to make before competing with the big guns of the Melbourne charcoal chicken industry.
Sammy's charcoal chicken rating:
8.5/10
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