Ayam Gepuk Republik 📍Bandar Dato Onn Johor Bahru ☎ +6012 268 9775

Johor Kaki also follow trend 🫢 I've been watching the ayam gepuk craze raged from Yogjakarta, Java in Indonesia, to Kuala Lumpur, Batam, Johor Bahru and finally making inroads into Singapore.

For my first ayam gepuk experience, I crossed the Causeway to Bandar Dato Onn in Johor Bahru.

Many restaurants in JB have jumped on the ayam gepuk bandwagon. More are sprouting up everywhere.

Ayam Gepuk Republik is just steps from Masjid Sultan Iskandar Bandar Dato Onn and Aeon Bandar Dato Onn mall. Can be reached by J11 bus from JB CIQ Sentral bus interchange but it is a long 1 hour plus ride.

Inside, Ayam Gepuk Republik has a modern fast food restaurant layout and feel.

The menu is above the counter. Just say your choice of set, pay up, and you will be given a queue number.

First customer of the day. I still have that zest for life🕺Excited by simple joys. It's a blessing, I think.

My set C order was ready in fast food style efficiency.

Starting from the fried chicken, going clockwise, there's fried cabbage, raw cucumber slices, fried tofu, fried tempeh, cashew nut sauce, and sambal. Plain white rice in the middle.

I was given breast and wing. I didn't specify the part as the menu photo showed only chicken thighs. So, if you prefer thigh remember to inform the staff when ordering.

The chicken wrapped in light batter with spice and aromatics was deep fried till nicely golden brown outside.

Inside, the white meat was tender and slightly moist. Natural chicken flavour was very subtle inside. Slight savoury taste outside.

The sambal was very spicy hot 🥵 🔥

The game changer, the definitive ingredient of ayam gepuk is the cashew nut sauce. The thick, grainy, heavy sauce was very rich, buttery, nutty sweet savoury.

On the menu, Ayam Gepuk Republik offers five levels of spicy heat. Actually, it is the same sambal moderated by different amounts of cashew nut sauce. Hottest (no cashew sauce) to mildest (no sambal, all cashew nut).

Mix the sambal and cashew nut sauce, and eat it with the chicken, it changes everything. The slightly bland chicken came alive with the spicy hot, lemak, nutty, sweet, savoury flavours of the sauces.

The other defining ingredient is kobis goreng or fried cabbage with soy sauce.

The crunchy chewy juicy shredded cabbage was sweet savoury.

Same. The sambal and cashew sauce did wonders to the kobis goreng.

The signboard says free top ups of rice, sambal and cashew nut sauce. I requested for cashew sauce top up and it was gladly, generously obliged.

I can't say where Ayam Gepuk Republik stands in the world of ayam gepuk - there are so many restaurants and this was my first and only.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed what I had at Ayam Gepuk Republik. Everything was on point, the fried chicken, sambal, and the cashew sauce, in particular, was amazing.

Will ayam gepuk be just another social media food fad which we will not see again next year? I think not - I mean I expect that ayam gepuk to join ayam penyet and ayam geprek as another local option for eating fried chicken and will be with us for years to come.

That's great, in my opinion.

Where do you go for ayam gepuk? Please share your favourite ayam gepuk places in the comments 🙏