It’s not a secret that I love chicken wings. Wings are easy to eat and they’re delicious.
One of my favorite places to get chicken wings happens to be Kyochon. Kyochon is a Korean franchise that provides excellent chicken wings. What sets Kyochon apart from the other places that serve wings? The wings are double fried then brushed with their signature sauces, allowing the wings to have great texture and consistency while still being full of flavor.
Unfortunately, there’s no Kyochon available locally. There used to be one in the local Korean supermarket, but it closed down when the supermarket closed. Now the closest ones are either in Mid-Wilshire/Koreatown or all the way in Cerritos. I don’t travel to these areas as often as I used to so now the wings are an often craved food destination.
This past Friday I decided to go to Anime Expo at the Los Angeles Convention Center. As my luck would have it, the convention center is pretty close to Koreatown. You know that means? Wings. A couple of friends were craving wings so we went after they handled their obligations at the Exhibit Hall.
I haven’t been to any Kyochon in months and I haven’t been to this particular location in years.
Upon arriving late and dropping my car off with the valet (Yes, a Korean Fried Chicken restaurant has valet parking) I arrived to see a different Kyochon than what I was used to. Before it used to be something akin to a fast food restaurant with bright decor that had a queue to order food at the counter. Now it was a mood lit restaurant with waitstaff, actual glasses and fancy tableware. “That’s different,” I thought to myself.
My friends were already seated and ordered. The waiter brought me a menu and I didn’t really look at it too well; I just picked the order with the most amount of wings: Sampler FOUR.
“Are you sure? Are you going to be eating this alone?” he asked.
“Yeah I’m sure,” I casually dismissed.
“I just ask because it’s a lot of food for just one person,” he tried to advise.
“If I have any extras I’ll take it to go!” I responded confidently.
I didn’t know what types of wings I wanted so I split the 15 wings evenly with 3 of each type of chicken.
I ordered:
- 3 Sal Sal Strips
- 3 Honey Wings
- 3 Hot and Sweet Wings
- 3 Soy Garlic Wings
- 3 Fried Wings
The wings came with pickled radishes and I also had a choice of 2 dipping sauces for the Fried Wings and Honey Wings. I chose the apple dipping sauce and garlic dipping sauce.
THE WINGS WERE AMAZING. But…
What? I love Kyochon so much yet I only ate 5 wings at dinner?
Well, what had happened was…
Sampler FOUR comes with Kyochon’s Grilled Chicken Steak, a bowl of rice and a side of potato wedges (that didn’t come until we were leaving) in addition to the 15 chicken wings that I had ordered earlier… Okay I’m a pretty big guy, but 15 wings and a grilled chicken steak is too much for me. I ate 1 of each type of chicken and tried to finish the chicken steak since the wings would be easy to take home.
The grilled chicken steak reminded me of teriyaki, so for a lack of a better description I’ll call it that: Korean Teriyaki Chicken. The chicken steak came onions, peppers and a pineapple slice. It wasn’t too dry or too moist, it was quite delicious and very good.
With 5 wings eaten and finishing most of a chicken steak it was time to pay the bill and leave. I love Kyochon and it was definitely worth a visit. I’m just sad that there has to be an occasion to visit Kyochon due to the lack of availability in my area. I’ll definitely find an excuse to go to Kyochon again soon, though.
Sal Sal Chicken
Wings!
