Chon Dak Chicken

Am I missing something? Both my bff and I agreed this was a very average place. My bff has had Bonchon and I haven't, but even with no point of comparison, I would not say this was good fried chicken.

We ordered baked potstickers and fried chicken with special sauce (aka: sweet and sour sauce). The potstickers were good though they were definitely fried and not baked.

The mound of salad was a nice starter and helped me not feel guilty about digging into a huge plate of sauce covered fried chicken.

It was a really big portion (which made sense now why it was ~$15.99). There were drumettes, wings, breasts, thighs, and other parts we weren't sure of (butt?). The first problem was the amount of sauce. It was about a centimeter of red sauce on each piece. This left each piece overly sweet, no longer crunchy, slippery, and difficult to eat. I got really tired of the flavor 1/4 of the plate through. I had to eat a lot of radishes/salad and order rice to prepare myself for the rest of the plate.

Salty/sweet is my favorite flavor combo, but I think the amount of sauce put me on overload. I don't think I'd ever go there again.

Boo to never having tried Noodle and Dumpling. Hooray for another good Korean Fried Chicken joint. Up till now, 99 chicken was the only decent game in town as chicken focused restaurants go.

The fact that it's hidden behind a Quizno's does it no justice but there is at least a sign outside. When we first tried to get here we missed the driveway, took the next one and found out that the second driveway puts you into a seedy motel (you know the one where the seedy guys go beat up their ho's) with no way back to the restaurant so we ended up driving around the block.

Well this place is roughly a month old, so everything inside looks super new. The waiter greeted us with a very friendly demeanor and we were the only ones in the place at around 1pm. As we looked at the menu, sure enough, it was all things chicken. So we went for:

- Straight up Korean fried chicken
- Fried chicken with green onion
- Fried chicken gizzards with sweet and sour sauce
- Sauteed chicken in spicy sauce with cheese
- Chicken soup with perilla and ginseng

Everything was solid. The fried dishes were crisp, flavorful and not greasy. Really nice texture especially the gizzards. The normal fried chicken had no sauce so it was the most straight forward but they provide a mustard dipping sauce in the beginning with the banchan. The green onion one had a an interesting sweet sauce which neutralized the raw mass of sliced green onions. The spicy chicken cheese dish was on an iron skillet with melted cheese over the top. Finally, the perilla ginsend soup was the most intriguing with literally half a chicken in a sesame based broth which you season to taste.

Definitely coming back to try some more of the goods. Give these guys a try as they are doing some unique Korean dishes you don't find in the vast amount of Korean places in the area.

What's Great:
Fried Chicken w/ soy sauce, is a MUST try.
Dak Ke Jang, broth is tasty.

What's Good:
Green onion Fried Chicken is also good.
Dak Do Ri Tang (Chicken w/ mixed Veggie over stove hotpot).

What's So so:
Ginseng-Perilla Herb Chicken, chicken and stuff are good however broth a bit pasty (result from too much sesame).
Katsu, taste so so and a bit dry.
Fried Chicken w/ special sauce, a bit salty.

This is the alternative to 99 Chicken.

Two years ago, it would have been a distant contender. But this past weekend, I would say it was on par. 99 Chicken's not as good as it used to be. This gives Chon Dak a chance to replace 99 Chicken in my heart. And so far it's a close race.

Chon Dak is much smaller than 99 Chicken. I'd say it's about 1/2 the size. It's not quite as trendy or cool. The inside's spartan at best, and a little grungy at worst. I wouldn't come here with a very large group on a Friday night. Too hard to find seats.

Like 99 Chicken, Chon Dak is family run. When I went I met the owner and I'm assuming his young son. Really good people.

I ordered a full dinner. Half original flavor, half soy. I was expecting the soy flavor to be something similar to Bon Chon's Soy Ginger. Instead, it's just fried chicken cooked with a little bit of soy sauce. It's slightly more flavorful, but not much different from the regular chicken.

The regular chicken was pretty yummy. Not greasy. Flavorful. I'm not sure what oil they used to cook it. The meat tasted like it was at least a few days old, but that's something I'm getting used to. They don't cook it as hot as 99 Chicken does, but then, 99 Chicken doesn't cook it as hot as they used to either. I suspect that instead of frying the chicken from raw to cooked when you order it, they have a batch partially cooked that they refry when you order it. Otherwise there's no way they could cook the chicken in just 10 minutes.

I liked the fact that when I ordered take out, they also included a big bucket of salad for free.

I'm trying to recall if there was a noticeable taste difference between Chon Dak and 99 Chicken. And right now, I'd have to say they're pretty similar.

TLDR - Tastes about the same as 99 Chicken. A couple miles away. Slightly scummier inside. Similar menu. Similar price.

PS - their sign out front for when they're open/closed is confusing.

the best (and only) way to taste a true korean fried chicken (KFC) is to order a plain simple fried chicken without any soy or sweet/spicy sauce. chondak surely passed my taste test and won my tastebuds. i would rank this joint #1 KFC in town.

closed during lunch (bummer).
open late until 1.

I might be a little bit biased now since i JUST came back from Korea, sampling 2 restaurants with KFC there, but I wasn't overtly impressed with Chon Dak Chicken.

As the other reviews have said, the Soy Chicken is probably the best. I was steered away from the Green Onion since I hear it wasn't anything too special and opted for the "Spicy" flavor. Now, after being fanatical with my first KFC experience in New York at one of the many Bonchons, that's always been my standard, until I went to a Kyochon in Seoul (Rodeo St. area) that impressed me equally. 99 Chicken to me has always been a little bit more saucy, rather than a glaze, which I prefer. In the end, though 99 Chicken's chicken has always pleased me and the sauce is very delicious.

Now that I've prefaced my preference, the spicy flavor @ Chon Dak has more of a ketchup taste where it's barely even spicy. The Soy had that familiar glazed feel and taste to it, but unfortunately, it was unevenly sauced. As far as the quality of the actual chicken goes, I may be too much of a city boy, but I like my chicken pieces with substantial, easily identifyable meat (leg, thigh breast, wing). For some reason, some of the chicken here had little splotchy sections of meat that sometimes looked more like tumors on the bone rather than chicken that you and I see at Safeway.

All this is not to say that I didn't enjoy it and won't give it another try. However, my advice is to stay with the soy chicken and avoid the spicy.

It's more like a 3.5 star... but giving it 4 for now. Like my fellow yelpers, I'm glad to see that another fried chicken restaurant made it up here. They've been all over LA for years now, we were a bit overdue. Compared to 99 Chicken, I prefer this place. The chicken is a bit closer to the ones I've had in Korea and LA. Compared to Kyochon Chicken, it still comes short. The fried chicken with soy sauce is apparently their most popular dish, and it left me wishing there was more sauce but it was good overall. I preferred the special sauce chicken here. Didn't get to try the other ones, so I'll probably go back someday, especially for the green onion fried chicken and the dakdoritang. The owner seems like a very friendly and accommodating guy. Overall, good experience here.

Update 4/2010: Went back for a craving for fried chicken one Sunday to find an abandonment sign on the door. Oddly, they are the second owners that abandon this same location (Dumplings & Noodles, previously here did the same).

We loved the green onion chicken the most. The special sauce was more like sweet and sour and the soy sauce tasted like teriyaki sauce. You can order 1/2 and 1/2 and get a taste of more flavors. Each order is about $14 to 15 dollars a little bit more expensive than 99 chicken.

We didn't get the side dishes?? only the cabbage salad.... :(

Ironically, I heard about this place from the guy at the Quiznos next door. I used to be a HUGE fan of Noodle & Dumpling (place that used to occupy this space), but then it starting going downhill and disappeared one day. I still go to Quiznos for my sandwich fix, and the other day, I asked the Korean American guy who worked there whether the new Korean joint next door was any good. He said, "It is just like 99 Chicken, only better!"

I really like 99 Chicken, so I was curious. So after church today, we stopped by with 10 of our friends and our crew of kids. And we ran into another couple of friends when we arrived and pretty much took up half the restaurant. The owner was very helpful and friendly, and he went out of his way to make us feel welcome.

We ordered #1 though #4. And they were all quite good. You would think that fried chicken is fried chicken, but no so. #1 is Green Onion Chicken, which is more like chicken tenders under a huge bunch of green onions. Yum! Then there was Soy Sauce Chicken, Fried Chicken, and Fried Chicken with Sauce. I would say that the Soy Sauce and Fried Chicken with Sauce was a bit better than the Fried Chicken (plain), but they were all worth trying. It comes with a cabbage salad that was quite popular with our crew and some panchan (kimchi, fish cake, seaweed, beansprouts).

Not the cheapest place in town, but not bad either. I think this place is different from 99 Chicken, and I will probably go to both places from now on. I asked the owner how business was. He said it was okay, but not great. Opening a new joint in a recession is tough, especially one that is hard to find from the street. So I want to do my bit to keep this place open and write this review. I will definitely be back.

I love all sorts of chicken food and occasionally go to the 99 chicken. I was actually did take-out from this place so might not be the same as eating in. We ordered three different kinds:

1. Original fried - was so so. nothing special
2. Soy Sauced - was my favorite. loved it.
3. Green Onion - supposed to be people's favorite but because i did takeout, i don't think i got the 100% experience. will try again later when i get a chance to eat in.

The service was great, the guy(who seems to be the owner) seemed very nice. They gave us a lot of salad for free, which is also free if you eat in. Would try again, eating in and update this review.