Kaiyuan Fragrant Chicken Steak is a chain fried food restaurant that I have never tried before. This time I decided to try their fried squid, shiitake mushrooms and bean buns to see if they were any different from the fried food elsewhere.

🦑 Fried calamari – $55
The highlight of this fried squid is its special sauce, which is brushed on after frying to enhance the overall taste. The squid itself is chewy and juicy, similar to the common recipe in Taiwanese salty crispy chicken restaurants, but the sweet and salty sauce paired with the aroma of fried food is as good as the traditional salt-and-pepper recipe.

🍄 Shiitake Mushrooms – $35
Shiitake mushrooms are fried in rice flour and then cut into strips, which is also a common method for Taiwanese fried food. However, the sauce slightly overshadowed the flavor of the mushrooms, which was a pity. Even so, the plump and juicy mushrooms paired with the sauce are still quite delicious.

🍢 Bean bag - $15
The performance of the bean buns was unexpectedly good. They were fried to a crispy texture. Even after being brushed with sauce and taken home on a bike for 15 minutes, they still did not become soft and maintained their crispness and flavor. This is highly recommended.

📝 Overall review
Overall, Kaiyuan Fragrant Chicken Steak's fried food is of good quality, especially their sauce which adds a layer of flavor to the fried food, although it may cover the natural taste of the ingredients to some extent. Perhaps options with a more distinct taste, such as king oyster mushrooms, would be more suitable for this approach.