It has been awhile since we have written about Korean Fried Chicken (KFC). Although 99 Chicken is one of our standard places to eat some KFC, there are plenty of other places in the South Bay Area that also serve this specialty. Bon Chon Chicken in Sunnyvale is actually a South-Korean based franchise, so we are lucky to have an authentic outpost here in Silicon Valley. The organic Petaluma chicken is sourced locally which makes a big difference in taste to the final product.
They use the double frying method to make chicken crispy and delicious. Since it can take up to 30 minutes to get an order, they highly recommend getting an appetizer from their menu which is comprised of french or curly fries, potstickers or popcorn shrimp. We chose to share a basket of crispy french fries as we waited for our chicken:
Chicken come by the number of pieces in small, medium and large orders: either 6, 10 or 20 pieces of wings or white meat; or 3, 5 or 10 drumstick pieces. Mixed orders of wings and drumsticks can also be ordered in quantities of 5, 8 or 16 pieces. We decided to share a 16 piece mixed order comprised of 4 drumsticks and 12 wings between 2 of us for lunch. We also decided to get a combination of both sauces which they allow for large orders. It comes with a small bowl of sweet pickled daikon and a choice of 2 side dishes: coleslaw, kimchi coleslaw, rice or biscuit. We opted to get 2 orders of the kimchi coleslaw:
The battered chicken is fried to a crisp before sauce is applied. Surprisingly, the sauce does not take away any of the crunchiness. The soy-garlic sauce was very tasty while the hot-spicy-garlic sauce packed a little bit of heat:
Bon Chon has more than just fried chicken on their menu with items such as Beef Bulgogi (with rice or in wraps), and pork or chicken katsu. A few different salads are also available, but most people who dine here mainly come for one thing: the KFC.
It would be hard to compare Bon Chon Chicken with 99 Chicken, since it really comes down to a matter of preference. We prefer 99 Chicken’s coating and the fact that the chicken can be ordered with the sauce on the side; however, the chicken itself is actually more tasty and juicy at Bon Chon Chicken – perhaps because of the fact that they use organic chicken. 99 Chicken has a simple, but great, salad bar while Bon Chon’s kimchi coleslaw was good but not extraordinary. There’s room for both (and plenty more) KFC places since both are constantly packed with fried chicken lovers. Next time, we’ll come back for dinner and drink some beer in addition to eating some KFC.
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KFC in the South Bay (Jul. 12, 2012)
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