Kenny's on Hindley say they not only make Adelaide's best hot chips, but they're healthier than their competitors.

After a detailed and researched description of the CBD’s best hot chips in the year 2020, CityMag naively assumed our work in the fries industry was complete. Kenny’s on Hindley proves that the quest is far from over.

The bright red and yellow signage makes Kenny’s stick out next to the infamous Dog and Duck on Hindley, a location best known as ‘Dogs’ to town rats.

Although Kenny’s has Maccas, KFC and Zambies to compete with, all commanding custody of their Hindley Street corners, it stands tall as a viable fast food option that is cheap and quenches any intense salty craving.

And unlike its Hindley Street competitors, Kenny’s prides itself on the quality and un-bloody-believable taste of its potato concoction, and the fact they’re relatively good for you.

The team has endured a 12-month-long stint of testing, eating and comparing to ensure this.

Big call

Owners and siblings Kristina and Tom Noicos say the key to their perfect hot chip is harder than onlookers may assume but really boils (or fries) down to three necessities.

“You do need to use a fresh potato. If you use a frozen potato out of a bag, you’re just not going to get the product,” Kristina says.

“Then it’s the actual fats that you cook it in, and then it’s the way that you actually cook it,” Tom elaborates.

This results in a thick hot chip with just enough crunch to hear it splatter. The soft and cloud-like insides melt in the mouth in a lip-smacking way.

Oh so delicious

Though Kristina and Tom laugh at the idea of revealing the number of fries it takes to create a Kenny classic, they do reveal that they fry their chips numerous times, having gained inspiration from Belgian friteries.

But it was the siblings’ thirst for a healthy fast-food alternative that inspired the initial concept for Kenny’s on Hindley, which thankfully resulted in a banging hot chip.

“We’re very passionate in the health and nutrition space — we had careers in business which is very very different to what we’d done before,” Tom says.

“Then went ‘You know what, we are super passionate about filling a massive gap in the market which is people eating really good fast food and it being affordable and you feeling good’.

“We ended up reverse engineering: ‘Hey actually, the chips taste better because you don’t cook them in terrible stuff. You actually feel better when you don’t eat gluten and dairy’ and kind of went down that whole path.”

So many options

Kenny’s use an Australian sourced beef tallow oil and fresh potatoes from multiple suppliers in the Adelaide Hills which means the fries have a healthier yet tastier finish.

Toppings can complement the chips, ranging from a Kenny’s-style AB, falafel add-ons, and tiny fried meatballs, all while being gluten and dairy-free.

Kristina and Tom have goals to expand and have made creative choices with this dream in mind.

Kristina says the Showpony team designed the eye-catching look for Kenny’s to relate back to well-known fast food retailers like Macca’s and Hungry Jacks.

“We wanted to be like if… this was a global chain, you would look at Kenny’s and be like ‘Yeah, that’s familiar, we understand it, we’re around it,’” Tom says.

“But still sort of familiar enough that you don’t go in and it’s some sort of weird futuristic [place].”

Kristina and Tom ultimately just want people to make better choices with their food output, and want Kenny’s to be at the forefront of this eventual change.

“Our whole thing was we want to fill that gap in the market… if everyone else came up and repeated and replicated exactly what we did, we don’t care — that’s great for us,” Tom says.

“The monetary outcome to this is great and fantastic but it really is just a by-product of us providing a service or a product that people actually want.

“If McDonalds and stuff switch their cooking oils and switched to gluten-free and dairy-free, that’s a huge win for us.”

“It’s good for everybody,” Kristina says.

Kenny’s is located at 139 Hindley Street and is open from Tuesday to Thursday from 11:30am until 7:30pm, Friday from 11:30am until 8:30pm and Saturday from 11:30am until 9pm.

Connect with the business on Instagram for more.