Review: Yoshinoya - Tokyo Fried Chicken

Yoshinoya's Tokyo Fried Chicken is basically the chain's take on karaage, which is a type of Japanese fried chicken. It features boneless chicken thigh pieces marinated in sweet soy sauce and a special spice blend for several days. The chicken is then hand-breaded and deep-fried.

A four-piece snack order is normally $5.00 but there's a current promotion where you can get it for $3 with the purchase of any bowl, so I went with that.

It comes with either Hanabi Mayo or Sweet & Spicy Sauce. I tried both sauces and each was just slightly spicy. It was mostly just a tangy mayo and a sweet soy sauce with a bit of a funk to it.

The chicken pieces were quite sizeable and meaty. I could have probably stuffed them in my mouth but they made for two or three good, substantial bites.

The breading was light but covered the pieces completely with a bloom-type structure. It was quite oily in a way that suggested that they could have been drained better. Still, the breading was satisfyingly crunchy.

The chicken itself was juicy, which is not surprising as chicken thigh is hard to overcook. It had a slightly sweet soy flavor to it that was enjoyable and went well with the chicken. The flavor was powerful enough that it was fine to eat just plain or with just a touch of dipping sauce.

I also got it as part of XL Bowl to see how much you of it you get in their largest bowl size:

Basically, I got six pieces versus four in the snack order. The XL Bowl cost $11.09. The leftover chicken heated up really well the next day in the air fryer. It turned out crunchy and still juicy.

At the end of the day, Yoshinoya's Tokyo Fried Chicken was great in my book. While it was overly greasy, even for fried chicken, it was crunchy, meaty, and full of flavor.