BonChon Chicken

BonChon Chicken is growing in the US and offers cooked-to-order fried chicken – made with the highest quality ingredients and hand-brushed, piece-by-piece, with addicting savory, secret sauces. Originally from Korea, there are a few locations in the DMV area.  I recently went to the one in Fairfax for lunch, but another nearby location is in Annandale.

"Bon Chon" is a Korean word meaning "original village." Just as people yearn for their hometown, the team behind BonChon hopes that their customers will seek their amazingly crispy, juicy, and flavorful chicken wherever they are.  We had heard about this trendy phenomenon and had to try it.  We were warmly greeted as we entered, yet were asked if we a reservation.  Odd, since the interior seemed fairly casual and frankly, we were not even sure if there was sit-down dining or if it was order-at-the register.  Luckily we were able to be seated right away without a reservation despite being during the high peak lunch hour (we heard others who arrived after us were told the wait would be over an hour).  Most of the other patrons were Korean or younger groups, as well as many guys picking up orders to-go.

We decided on a small order of the white breast meat in the tamer soy garlic sauce, and a large combination order of wings and drumsticks - half spicy and half in the soy garlic sauce.  We also ordered white rice and kimchi cole slaw as sides.  We were told the breast meat would only take 10 minutes, whereas the wings and drumsticks up to 35 minutes.  We were fine with eating the white meat first, as we ordered a bit extra of the others anticipating having to take most home.

Six pieces of white meat came out on a platter with some pickled white radish known as daikon.  The meat was piping hot, and extra crispy.  The flour crust was nice and crunchy and the soy garlic sauce had a wonderful sweet umami flavor.  The chicken meat itself was a bit thinner than a traditional cutlet, yet still juicy inside.  The kimchi cole slaw was a genius marriage of traditional finely chipped cole slaw with the added spices and garlic flavorings of kimchi. Complimentary, we were given a cabbage salad with Thousand Island dressing, that was an interesting addition to the plate.  Overall, I really enjoyed this chicken.  The flour dredge is much lighter than a breadcrumb or cornmeal crust, and the soy garlic glaze is just phenomenal.

After devouring the whole plate of white meat, the wings and drumsticks finally arrived.  Curious, I had a bite of a spicy drumstick - and boy, did my tongue sizzle! Even Keith found the spicy sauce to have much more kick than expected.  The wings were almost as big as the drumsticks, which was nice.  Again, the meat was juicy and the sauce delicious, without being greasy.  Keith liked getting both the spicy and soy glazes, so that he could switch it up and not get tired of one flavor.  Also, the radish provided a cooling relief when needed.  When craving fried chicken, I highly recommend you check out BonChon - but be prepared to wait awhile unless you make reservations ahead of time.

Total Rating: 3.93
Food: 4.5, Price: 3, Service: 4, Ambience: 3, Accessibility: 3

What I ate:

♥White Breast Meat with Soy Garlic Sauce♥

with white rice and kimchi cole slaw

Plus Keith ate:

Half & Half Wings and Drumsticks

( ♥Half in Soy Garlic Sauce♥ and Half in Spicy Sauce)