Season Chargrilled Chicken

Modern Asian$

Duck season? Rabbit season? It deviates from Looney Tunes lore but it looks like chicken season on Sydney Road. Brunswick chicken shop Season has quietly done its thing for two years but now it’s got company. Up in Coburg, Pecky’s food truck has earned devoted Nashville chicken fans over the past year. Then, in late June, NSW import El Jannah opened its 24th Victorian location, about 200 metres from Season in a big, shiny, corner building.

Walk past during the day and you won’t spot Season. It’s the nocturnal sibling of Good Days Hot Bread, which sells banh mi all day, then staff sweep up the crumbs, dim the lights and get the fryers going for a South-East Asian chicken shop.

Nam Nguyen dreamt up this timeshare arrangement – savvy in our economically choppy times. He runs the Good Days mini-empire that includes Hot Bread and the original Good Days, a pho and broken rice shop.

Good Days’ chargrilled chicken has a religious following, so it’s no surprise Season’s chook is a winner.

Smoky, sticky birds are jointed and served with tufts of Vietnamese mint on melamine plates you’d find at any suburban Chinese restaurant across Australia. There’s no rotisserie lazily spinning birds – chicken is grilled to order – but there’s more flavour than your average takeaway chook (which nowadays is rarely cooked over charcoal. But I digress).

Deliciously charred skin – almost like bark in places – comes from the free-range bird’s bath in a mix of fish, soy and oyster sauces. Honey, shallot oil and lemongrass are basted on during cooking. Leg meat? It pulls away from the bone with a mere nudge. Breast? If it’s a little dry in parts, two sauces are at your disposal: one red, one green; these are included with every order of chicken.

Choose the red pill for a razor-sharp palate awakening, a chilli sauce more sour than hot. For a gentler ride, coriander, Thai basil and Vietnamese mint coalesce into a smooth, refreshing whole. Neither is a bad time. (The Season mayo needs to be added on and you pay extra for it.)

Meals start at $20 for a quarter-chicken with salad, sauces and rice, insanely good value for house-made everything and not lifting a finger.

Coleslaw, baked potatoes and garden salad are not part of the equation at Season. But jasmine rice is, cooked with chicken stock and ginger a la Hainanese chicken rice until each grain is fluffy and flavoursome. A not-spicy green papaya salad is tossed with cos lettuce and chopped tomato for an easygoing Aussie-meets-Thai version.

Most chicken shops can guarantee two things: chicken salt chips and aggressive lighting. Season has only one of these, each crunchy chip a doubling-down on the chicken excellence.

Meals start at $20 for a quarter-chicken with salad, sauces and rice, insanely good value for house-made everything and not lifting a finger.

A solo dinner could be worse than Season’s fried chicken “sandwich”: juicy thigh in a craggy batter with cheese and pickled daikon on a squishy potato roll. Add a stein of Orion Draft and call it self-care.

Season has proven so popular it’s gone from trading three nights a week to five since opening in August 2024. A sixth night is planned this year. Not bad for a shop that people walk past thinking it just sells banh mi.

And the lighting? Wall sconces throw an orange glow that matches the retro

stylings. Stay at one of the two blue Laminex communal tables a little longer. Listen to the Cocteau Twins and alt-country playlist. You’re definitely not getting this at the quick-service franchise. But in the golden age of chicken shops, there’s something for everyone.

The low-down

Atmosphere: In-and-out but unhurried

Go-to dishes: Chargrilled chicken meal (from $20); sandwich with spicy chicken ($16); chicken salt chips (from $8)

Drinks: One draught and two bottled beers; mainstream and small-batch soft drinks; house-made fruity nitro tea

Cost: About $40 for two, excluding drinks

This review was originally published in Good Weekend magazine.

Good Food reviews are booked anonymously and paid independently. A restaurant can’t pay for a review or inclusion in the Good Food Guide.

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