Bonchon

Korean
3586 Dublin Granville Rd
Columbus, OH 43235
(614) 389-4026
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If you want a good sense of how your food offering will play across the US, you bring it to Columbus. Conventional wisdom has it that we’ll tell you what’ll make the cut, and in practice we often do.

And so, I suspect, it goes with Bonchon, a South Korea-based fried chicken franchise that has recently opened it’s first heartland location in the 161/Sawmill area.

Korean fried chicken has received tons of hype on the coasts, and Bonchon’s rendition has garnered no small portion of it – the graphics in the vestibule boast of the publications they have been glowingly reviewed in, including the NY Times and Esquire.

Bonchon’s primary proposition is simple – you can get wings, drumsticks, or chicken strips (the only white meat option), lacquered with either a (not so terribly) spicy (but fairly) sweet sauce, or a more deeply savory soy-garlic sauce. Whichever chicken cut you choose, it’ll go through the vaunted Korean-style double fry process, which creates a skin so crispy that it doesn’t so much crumble upon taking a bite as shatter into shards of crunchy goodness.

Curious though it may sound, it has to be emphasized – this is not just a novelty. Aside from the alluring texture, the double fry technique intensifies the flavor of the skin, almost entirely banishes greasiness, and preserves the moistness of the flesh exceptionally well.

In other words, it’s something truly new in fried chicken, a genre that so often leads with hype, and then follows up with a minutely distinguishable spin on more of the same. Bonchon chicken is very different, and very good. If you enjoy fried chicken, you owe it to yourself to check it out. If you’re on the fence with the sauces, order ‘half & half’ and you’ll get to try some of both. Having done so myself, I’ll be back for the soy-garlic.

Beyond chicken, Bonchon offers a range of Korean and Japanese style apps and main dishes. They could be great, but I suspect I’ll never be able to speak to them from experience – when I’m there, I’m pretty sure I’ll be there for the wings.