Bon Chon Chicken

Sunnyvale, CA

In the corner of a CVS anchored strip mall in Mountain View is Bon Chon, a popular, trendy, Korean fried chicken chain. Chu Toro and my siblings (BroCo and Envelope) were having a late lunch on a Saturday afternoon and entered to a small, clean, modern designed restaurant with a dozen tables, four flat screens and framed enlarge magazine clippings and quotes from GQ and Esquire praising Bon Chon.  The one page menu offers enough variety Korean fare including burritos, rice bowls and fries but everyone comes here for the fried chicken. We selected a large order, a mix of spicy and non-spicy chicken that comes with four drumsticks, twelve wings and two sides (kimchi coleslaw and biscuits). We also had a side of sweet potato fries and a bulgogi rice bowl. Here's the bad news, it takes a long time to fry the chicken. A long freakin' time. Korean patrons were smarter, they called in their orders first for pick up or dine in, so they waited a lot less. We were first served our fries, which were very good, light and crispy not oily at all, accompanied by a sweet and spicy dipping sauce.

Sweet Potato Fries

Envelope also received her bulgogi bowl which was just beef and rice, and a side salad, which was basic, nothing we couldn't make at home. 

 Bulgogi bowl

After all that was done, we waited and waited and waited. I guess I know next time to call ahead. When the chicken finally arrived, it was piping hot and pretty damn good. It really surprised me because I wasn't expecting much. We had gone to 99 chicken, a less trendy, family run Korean chicken place about a year ago and i was underwhelmed. However, there was something about the crispy, shell like batter around Bon Chon's chicken that made it unique and tasty. BroCo enjoyed it more than anybody nearly  finishing all the non-spicy wings on his own. The kimchi cole slaw was also tasty and different, a nice side dish. The biscuit was small and dry, not great.  But the takeaway was the chicken, which was really good. I'd take this over KFC any day, and next time I know to call in my order first. 

Fried Chicken

November 27, 2010
Rating 7/10