Family-run restaurant, Chicken Union, which specialises in Korean fried chicken is proving a real hit with food-lovers.
The city centre business was recently crowned Scotland’s Best Takeaway at the Just Eat Restaurant Awards thanks to its delicious fried chicken made to a secret family recipe.
Based in Friars Street, Chicken Union is run by Kin-chung Wong (Ken), his wife Wai-fan So (Livia), mother King-fun Ng and daughter Ashley.
The family moved to Scotland from Hong Kong and opened the popular restaurant and takeaway in September 2021.
Ken previously worked as a café manager in Hong Kong where his mother and her family ran a restaurant for more 40 years selling a variety of traditional Hong Kong and Chinese dishes.
The family used their knowledge of the food industry to open Chicken Union and met a Korean chef who wanted to come to Scotland to work for them.
Ken says: “Korean movies and TV shows are very popular across the world these days which means people are keen to know more about Korean and Asian food.
Korean Fried Chicken is the signature dish of Korean food and after carrying out some research and discovering it was still very new in Scotland, we realised there was a gap in the market and it would be great to create a Korean fried chicken business in Stirling.
A friend taught us to cook traditional Korean dishes and some of our food is directly imported from Korea.”
The business flourished and the delicious food from Chicken Union is very popular with students from the University of Stirling.
The family have been welcomed by the local community and their signature dish is so popular that the chicken can often be sold out by 7pm after opening at 5pm!
They were delighted to win the `Best Takeaway’ honour which was voted for by customers and believe much of their success is down to their secret spicy sauce, which was learned from a Korean hotel chef and features more than 10 spices, and the fresh chicken which is purchased daily from a local market.
Ken says: “The award means so much to us and nothing makes us happier than seeing people enjoy the food we make and we were so grateful that our customers took the time to show their support and vote for us!
“The award will encourage us to come up with new ideas and bring more high quality dishes to Stirling and we’d like to say a big thank you to all the Stirling people who voted for us.”
In the future, the family would like to expand and open further Chicken Union restaurants in Edinburgh and Glasgow but are currently focusing on expanding their range of quality Korean and other Asian foods in Stirling.
Chicken Union, based at 15 Friars Street, is open from 5pm to 10pm (or whenever they sell out) from Wednesday to Monday and closed on Tuesdays.
More details about Chicken Union and its menu – which includes noodles, dumplings, Taiwanese and Japanese Bento, Asian-style fruit tea, bubble milk tea and desserts – are available on the website – https://chickenunion.app4food.co.uk/
The restaurant also a Facebook page – www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100071752071311 – and is on Instagram – www.instagram.com/cu_chickenunion/
