I hate to break it to you Canberra, but these aren't Australia's best chips

The Wotif Uniquely Aussie Awards celebrate all the great things about travelling around Australia, from the best jaffles you might find to our best National Parks.

The ACT’s nominees in the six awards were Intra Café (Campbell) in the Best Jaffle category, Dobinsons Bakery (Belconnen) for Best Vanilla Slice, The Tradies (Dickson) in the Best Country Pub, Knightsbridge (Kingston) for Best Hotel Pool, Booderee National Park Best National Park and Kingsley’s Chicken for Best Hot Chips.

Kingsley’s Chicken was the one that stood out to me. Since moving to the Canberra region, I’ve been inundated with people telling me everything I need to try.

“You need to go get a kebab from Yarralumla!”

“You need to try Dobinson’s vanilla slice!”

“You need to have a few red cordials on the d-floor of Mooseheads!”

At every turn, these Canberra experiences have left me wanting more, and with it, the Territory feels more and more like the place I can call home.

So, upon hearing about Kingsley’s Chicken making it as a finalist in the ‘Best Hot Chips’ category at the Uniquely Aussie Awards, an opportunity emerged before me: I could go to Kingsley’s and try their famed chips on company time, and then pass it off as a food review.

It was the perfect plan. A way to tick another item off the Canberra bucket list and do a relatively straightforward review on these assumingly flawless chips. There was no way it could go wrong.

That was until I tried the chips …

Now that I’d travelled out to Kingsley’s Chicken at Woden, I couldn’t go back. I was trapped. A bed I made I now have to lie in. It was time to complete the review and it became a decision about whether to lie or desecrate a member of Canberra’s royal family. I’ve never been a great liar, so the truth it is …

Kingsley’s chips, while edible and far from bad, were, um, not great. Saturated with salt and oil (no complaints about that on my end), adjectives that came to mind were soft, dull and soggy. You could put that much salt and oil on just about anything and I’d eat it, but what’s so special about them beyond that?

Again, reiterating that they aren’t bad, they’re just a long way off being the best chips in the country, and I’m bewildered as to how they became a finalist.

I think you could find 100 mum and dad fish and chips shops Australia-wide that could outdo those chips on any given day.

For the first time, Canberra, you’ve disappointed me.

Are Kingley’s really Canberra’s best chips, or is there a more obscure chip maker out there that can truly boast Canberra’s – or maybe Australia’s – best chips?

(For the record, Kingsley’s didn’t win.)

Original Article published by Max O’Driscoll on The RiotACT.