Fried chicken arguments end friendships, so I will let the sources carry this one. The picks below lean on Broadsheet's fried chicken guide and their reporting on the Joy reopening.

Joy Korean Fried Chicken, Enmore

Broadsheet reports that many considered Joy Sydney's best fried chicken, full stop. It returns at 212 Enmore Road this winter, this time licensed. The double-fry crunch is the benchmark the rest of this list gets measured against. Set a reminder.

Hartsyard, Newtown

A fixture of Broadsheet's fried and tested canon. The fried chicken here made Hartsyard's name long before half of Enmore Road smelled like buttermilk.

Hot Star, Haymarket

The Taiwanese giant schnitzel that started a thousand queues on Capitol Square. Bigger than your face and still the best value crunch in the city late at night.

More entries land here as I re-eat the field. The app carries the live leaderboard, ranked by verdicts from people who actually went.