Taste Test: Hotel Sogo Fried Chicken, Is it Any Good?

(SPOT.ph) You may think motels are good for one thing only (a.k.a. cheap accommodation, of course), but some chains do actually have more than one facet. Take Hotel Sogo, for example. It's red and yellow block-like buildings are instantly recognizable wherever they pop up across the Philippines, and with it, billboards proclaiming all sorts of things, from cheap, cheap rates, to the infamous "group study" calls, and even their fried chicken.

It's no secret that motel food can actually be good. And Hotel Sogo does have a pretty extensive menu, offering Japanese-style lunches to Pinoy favorites meant for sharing (with your ka-"group study," we guess). A best-seller and pride of the establishment is their fried chicken. 

Yup, you've probably come across some signage promising that if a Hotel Sogo staff doesn't do their signature bow to greet you, you get a serving of their fried chicken. But what is it about their fried chicken that they've decided to make it the star of the show? We try it out ourselves to see if it really does deserve the clout.

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What does Hotel Sogo Fried Chicken taste like?

How to get Hotel Sogo food

So here's the thing for the crowd that's never set foot in a motel: Hotel Sogo has no dine-in area. That means their food is straight room service (and they do have nice rooms) or you can get it for take-out. They've got no delivery system in place, either.

What we did was walk into the lobby and tell the front desk we wanted to get food to go. The receptionists had menus on hand and deftly took our orders—we just wanted a Half Fried Chicken (P255) and Canton Guisado (P205). They directed us to a lounge area to wait a bit. It was pretty chill waiting in their surprisingly spacious lobby equipped with, yes, frosted glass windows. Within 15 minutes, a staff member approached us to hand over our bag of goodies. The personnel was nice and polite but didn't bow. I wasn't about to throw a hissy fit just to see if their ads are true. And do I really want another fried chicken? Besides, maybe you had to be a checked-in guest to avail of that "no bow, free chicken" promo. 

The takeout food came in an unmarked plastic bag, with the canton in a big styro pack and the chicken simply wrapped in foil. 

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Hotel Sogo Fried Chicken is nothing to write home about

So here's the meat of it. The foil did an excellent job of keeping the chicken hot and crisp, so it was decently warm when we transferred it to a plate. There was no thick breading; just thin and golden chicken skin. There was a hint of spices, too. It was very much the type of fried chicken you'd get in Filipino-Chinese spots. Think classic Savory. 

It's not the biggest chicken out there—but it's not about the size, as they say. The half-chicken gave way to two very decently sized servings, easily split thanks to how well-cooked it was. I didn't even need to slice it with a knife; a bit of pull on the meat and it came apart. The meat looked pretty moist and tender. 

First-bite check: We went straight for the meat of the thigh, of course. It was juicy, as expected, and there was good flavor, too. Nothing explosive but the flavor is certainly on the more Chinese side of things. We're guessing there's five-spice, and maybe peanut oil. The fleshier parts were a little drier. All in all, the chicken was well-seasoned, giving a subtle, friendly flavor. 

Now, for the skin. Seeing as this was not breaded, the skin was more on the paper-crisp side, while the prized fatty areas (hello, isol) were not as plump as we hoped. We did chuck the chicken in the toaster again when we got home, to at least get it hotter and make it even crispier; and those did happen but you can't really get too much crisp out of this type of chicken. What's nice is you get the same subtle flavor even in the skin.

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The Verdict

There's a whole lot of different types of chicken you can get easily. There's Korean style, whole roasts, thickly breaded, boneless, bone-in, all from stalls to convenience stores to fast-food and delivery—but what Hotel Sogo provides is friendly, home-cooked style fried chicken. If you get hit with a craving for this type of chicken, or if it really is your preferred style of cooking, then you can add this motel to your list of go-to spots (for food).

Where it does lose points is accessibility. Considering there's no delivery system in place, we say it'll only make sense to traipse on out to a branch if it's nearby. You can head on over to a Hotel Sogo for the chicken if Max's or Classic Savory is farther away from you or you don't feel like getting it delivered. The P255 for a big serving is pretty hard to beat too. Otherwise, there's no need to go out of your way.

Now, if you're checked in, well that's a different matter. You're already there, so might as well order the chicken. No matter how your stay goes, you'll have no regrets making that choice.