Bonchon

Sadly this place has really fallen off the pedestal I had them on. They raised their prices through the roof, no longer include rice with chicken, no longer offer brown rice, and the smallest strips you can get now is a 10 piece. Whoever made these decisions were either desperate, greedy, or just a big jerk. I will no longer be eating here.

I’ve been a regular at this bonchon for around 3 years. Recently went back and saw there is a new menu. I was excited to see additions like bulgogi and bim bim bap. But that was until I saw the prices… This place was already expensive but now it’s exorbitantly expensive. Wing prices went up (even with a new 30 piece package) and the wings appear smaller and less crunchy. The price of French fries went up, seasoned fries are pushing $ 8. For French fries! You can’t even get free rice with ur chicken anymore… over $ 2 for a bowl of rice?! Highway robbery.
I get the feeling it’s under new management. A new manager came out and asked how our meal was.
This Bonchon used to be four stars but with the smaller wings, less crunch, and increased prices, I have to drop it down to two. I will check out kochix to compare.

Delicious and well-​executed Korean fried chicken and dduk bokki (rice cake in spicy sauce). The jap chae and bibam bop are decent but unremarkable.
I preferred this location when they had their franchise-​specific menu rather than the rigid corporate menu. The franchise-​specific menu had more reasonable serving sizes (for ex, you could order 3 drumsticks, which is more than enough for one person) and better prices than the corporate menu, which requires you to order a minimum of 5 drumsticks. In terms of prices, the japchae and bibam bop were about $ 14 each, but the portions were small. I found that disappointing and felt slightly ripped off.
The Korean fried chicken is still awesome and the service is terrific, but I miss the old menu that was more consumer-​friendly. I hope they consider going back to it. The corporate menu will prevent us from coming back as often we used to.

I can’t believe these reviews. I swear it was horrible, from the service to the seasoning on the chicken and the overcooked fried dumplings to the drinks to the bill!!! These people need to go down south and let some of them sisters cook for them. This was not good. I could have went to Danny’s carry out for better wings.

5 star chicken, 2 star menu.
If you want incredible fried chicken, GO HERE and eat! They recently changed the menu and started charging 2.25 for minuscule sides, like 4 bites of coleslaw small. Not sure what caused this, as a medium order of wings and drumsticks is 24 bucks (includes a HUGE amount of chicken) so you would think free rice wouldn’t be a struggle?
Pork buns are also really good but really expensive at 12 bucks for 3 buns. Anyway, stick to the chicken, get a combo, and get half spicy half soy, and eat it IN the restaurant to get the maximum crispiness.

This chicken is like crack. I start salivating as soon as I think of Bonchon or even so much as drive within a mile radius of the place.
Don’t pay for parking! There are free retail parking spaces (entry between Bonchon and Paisano’s) or across the street behind Astor Mediterranean.
I personally am a fan of the Soy Garlic chicken, but you also can’t go wrong with the Spicy. The Spicy definitely has heat! They offer To Go, but if you really want to get the bang for your buck, do sit down. If you do a To Go order, the pieces are smaller since they have to cram them into the to go boxes. If you do sitdown, the chicken pieces are frighteningly huge — YAAAAS. The chicken is best eaten fresh for maximum crispiness. They’re still delicious as leftovers, but it’s simply not the same when it’s straight out of the kitchen at the restaurant.
The menu is limited since the real star of the show is the chicken. All in all, I’ve never had issue with service and the fact that I never have to worry about parking makes Bonchon win-​win if I have a hankering for addictive Korean fried chicken.

Whenever you have a craving for crispy fried chicken but don’t want the usual, this Korean double-​fried version is for you! The crunch on these wings can’t be beat! They offer two versions; soy garlic and spicy.
SELECTION and PRICE: Not only do they offer chicken wings, but they also offer Bulgogi and pork buns. They’ve recently CHANGED their MENU so the accompanying coleslaw is no longer free! Only the daikon radish is still free. You have to pay $ 2.25 for regular coleslaw and white rice and $ 3.00 for kimchi coleslaw. And a small order of wings is now 10 pieces instead of 8 and costs a couple dollars more.
Despite charging now for their coleslaw, I don’t think that’s going to deter people from ordering it though. Especially if you get the spicy version, the coleslaw helps cool down the heat. The chicken is so amazing, it keeps us coming back (and being within walking distance doesn’t hurt either!).

Came here with a friend a couple weeks for this infamous chicken I’ve heard so much about. I was not disappointed. We ordered combos to include wings, drumsticks and tenders. My friend loves the tenders but I was definitely a huge fan of the drumsticks. Had so much meat on them and cooked perfectly.: although all the chicken had the most amazing crispy sticky skin. We also split between the soy garlic and the spicy. The spicy is definitely and hot and I don’t think I’d want a full order of the hot but like the combo. Also went for the coleslaw slide which was a refreshing accompaniment. The chicken is on the pricer side (think with 2 beers each and additional order fries bill came to $ 75) but so worth it. I’ll definitely be back.

4.5 stars.
I was tired of hearing great things about this place so we finally decided to go try it on a day we were craving some fried chicken!
As Unilocal has duly noted, this place is for the fried chicken and their sauces. Don’t go for anything else. This isn’t a Korean hole in the wall, so don’t expect low prices. It has a fancy shmancy ambience so expect fancy shmancy service and fancy shmancy food.
We went on a Saturday night so there was a short wait. We hung out by the bar and loved how attentive the hostess was as we waited. She served us water but asked us for anything additional to drink.
We got seated rather quickly and were excited to order as we saw delicious food on the tables of our neighbors. We were starved and thought we couldn’t only do the fried chicken so we tried their main dishes first. My fiancé tried the bowl of whatever (the only bowl dish they have) and hated it. He spoke with the manager and switched his plate for what I had. I had the breaded chicken with the spicy mayo and it was irresistible. I wanted more for the amount of the steamed rice they serve it with. It was a mountain of rice, which I ended up taking home because I value rice!
The manager then approached us and told us that he could not let us leave without first trying the chicken, so he gave us two different samples. We drooled and ordered 12 pieces to go. We hated ourselves at first for eating out on a night we weren’t supposed to, but didn’t regret it afterwards because we ate well worth it food!
A must-​go!

My friend loves this place and we were in town. Her new man just came back from several years stationed in Korea so it was a logical choice for us all to have a mea and get to know each other.
Let me say the food was delicious — the spicy was pretty spicy but not too spicy, but a bit of a limited menu. All she wanted to get was wings (period) I convinced her to get some tenders and also for us to try the pork belly puns which I really enjoyed.
I also enjoyed the lychee martini!
I would love to have one of these in SF for a fun Friday night bite out. Service was good, reasonable prices

Five stars for BONCHON! Yasss!
I’d never had Bonchon until DoorDash recommended it as an option for dinner last night. OMG it was delicious! I ordered the large, half soy garlic and half spicy with white rice and cole slaw for our sides and my mouth went to heaven. My fiancé normally avoids fried chicken, but he could not stop raving about the wings! Deliciously crispy and packed with flavor, Bonchon instantly became our favorite wing stop in Arlington.
I was completely blown away by their quick service and delicious wings! I’ll definitely be back again and take some friends when they come to visit.

First impression over the phone while looking for parking wasn’t the most pleasant as I asked if reservations on a Sunday night was necessary. An employee responded that only parties of 10+ are only capable of making reservations. And I continued to ask if it was busy at the moment, and the response 8 received was, «you have to come in to look for yourself.» WHAT the!!! I was not expecting such a fresh answer. Moving on, arrived and there were many tables available.
Food wise: phenomenal! Would come back to dine here! Ddukbokki was bomb dignity! Only if you’re into fire in your mouth! And get the spicy wings! But we requested the spiciest possible! And chef outdid himself!
Overall, it was a great food experience! But wished people were a little more polite and smiled…

Yikes! You know how… when you go to a place frequently, love the food and service, you just come to expect that all the time? Even at a different location, as long as it’s the same «brand?» I am that way. And this was surprisingly not my most favorite BonChon experience. *gasp* I thought every Bonchon experience warrants «favorite» status. Not this one.
Location and place — perfect. Beautiful. It’s 2.7 miles away from Reagan airport, and when I picked my BF up and « Unilocaled» BonChon, you don’t know how excited I was to see that «2.7 miles away» listing! Anyway, we found it easily, it’s a newer area and development (it seems), and we were very pleased with the «4 hour FREE retail parking» garage. In Northern VA, whaaaat? YES! The place itself is very pretty. High ceilings, dark wood, very modern — it’s curved where the ceiling meets the walls. Fancy. Nice bar, good seating, clean & dimly lit bathroom too.
Now the food, normally I RAVE about BonChon. First — their selection for food is tiny compared to others. We were just so surprised at how small the food menu was. I know that these are Franchises and each location is different, but I was really surprised that for this being such a big area, their menu was lacking compared to other locations such as the Richmond one. They had one option for fried rice — «Chicken Fried Rice.» The other ones I’ve been to, offer Beef & Seafood options for fried rice. So there were 3 of us dining, & what we did was ordered our 20 piece wings, soy garlic. Still good, but missing the hard core crunch that we’re used to. We also ordered Bulgogi, which we thought would be a big portion enough to share, but it was definitely for one — small amount of beef, side of rice, and a salad. Good thing we had a lot of other food, so we just each had a few bites of this. Good but not mind blowing. There were also several appetizers that we were looking forward to ordering again– the Salmon Ball & the Bonchon style gyoza. They didn’t have these here.
Service was average — hostess was nice. Our server was ok. Everyone was ok. This whole experience was ok.

I ate here recently and really enjoyed it. My friend and I sat at the bar during lunch on a Saturday. The ambiance is nice and modern. When we arrived, it wasn’t crowded and was a relaxing place for a quick lunch (we were following lunch with pedis next door). The menu is compact, but I went for the small wings and legs and did half with soy garlic and half with spicy. I added white rice and radish. The wings and legs were very fresh and obviously made to order. The spicy was spicy – next time I will likely go for soy garlic only. The most surprising element was the radish – it was a fantastic complement to spice and cut the heaviness of the chicken overall. The chicken itself was very flavorful and juicy.
I think this is a great place to grab a quick bite and will definitely be back!

Refreshingly delicious. Reminds me of some of the recipes my family enjoy back home in Hawaii. Hawaii was the last place that I had an awesome Korean chicken wing dish, and that was home made and not in a restaurant; in fact, I have never had Korean chicken wings in a restaurant.
I was skeptical at first, and was pleasantly surprised – the best kind of food experience! I had the Chicken Wings and legs with both the soy and spicy sauce. Loved it! The spicy was really spicy. I loved it, but it was a lot hotter than expected. Of course, I had to have white rice on the side, because I just have to coming from Hawaii and all, and because rice is a great compliment with anything soy-​based! I also opted to include Kim Chee coleslaw as a side; it was a wonderful compliment to the chicken… I couldn’t feel my mouth for a short bit.
There are other dishes, but you definitely go to this place for the chicken. I forgot to mention that I had Pork Buns as an appetizer, but the chicken was so good, I forgot that I even had an appetizer. BonChon Chicken is definitely on my list of restaurants in the DMV that I will return to often. Highly recommended!

The price-​quality comparison makes this a five star. We decided to drop by this Bonchon location on a weekday night, on our way back from work. We ordered the chicken legs and strips, (half spicy, half garlic). I have to say the chicken was just plain delicious. I would stop by any day to have this again. We also had the appetizer dumplings, which I thought were awesome too. My mai-​tai long drink was tip top.
Yay, it’s a keeper!

It was a little bit of a walk from the nearest metro. If it wasn’t chilly out I wouldn’t have minded at all. Looks like there was plenty of street parking nearby and may have been a parking lot in back if you’re willing to come by car. Our server was very nice and attentive. The portion you get for the price was pretty reasonable too. My boyfriend and I had a hard time finishing a large order and we both can typically eat a lot so kudos for hearty portions. As others have mentioned the kimchee coleslaw and radish sides were refreshing. The two flavor choices of soy garlic and spicy weren’t overwhelming which would be better for indecisive people like me who would always take forever to make a decision if there were too many options.
First couple of wings and drumsticks were tasty but then it sort of got old. Essentially it felt like fancier General Tso’s or orange chicken. You know the sweet and crispy chicken you see at Chinese buffets but with the bone in. Interestingly although some Asians like to hate on buffets it seems like Asian foodies still rave about Bonchon. It was good but I wouldn’t want to eat it too often. Maybe next time instead of just ordering a large portion of chicken it would be a good idea to go with less chicken and sample other things on the menu.

My colleague and I used to go here for lunches last year. We would always have their famous double fried chicken and it was always great. We tried their fries and their onion rings and between the two appetizers the onions rings are great.
It’s nice to know that there is Bonchon close to DC as opposed to the one all the way in Fairfax.

I love Bonchon! I go to the one in Richmond often so I was excited to come to this location. I convinced my party they would love it here.
This location was nicely modern and chic. It wasn’t packed yet so we were seated right away. Once we got seated 10 minutes later the crowds started coming in. I didn’t notice where we got seated but after a few minutes of smelling something gross we noticed that we were seated right by the bathrooms!!! Yuck– Gross– disgusting! Every time the bathroom door open I can see the toilet!!! I was disgusted that I lost my appetite and did not want to eat here anymore! I asked to be moved but it was no seatings available. **Note to the establishment– no tables should be that close to the bathroom!
The food came and I’m trying to be a good sport because after all, I convinced my party to come here. One bite into the wings we were all coughing begging for mercy! These wings were extra hot! Hotter than I’ve ever had it. Our waiter said the spicy wings on the scale of 1 – 10, is an 8 (Korean chili) Yikes! Can you say «Hemorrhoids» we couldn’t finish it.
So, we ate on the other stuff: zucchini fries, that was very good. The kimchi coleslaw was ok.
Note to self– just stick to the Richmond location

So this is what I’ve been missing out on my entire life. I’ve never been before, never even knew it was a thing. WELL it is a thing, a really really good thing. I was just here this past weekend and we were helped by Crystal (so sweet). She was friendly and told us that the seasoned french fries were dangerous and she was right. I don’t think I ever had a better french fry in my entire life and I’ve had some years eating them (fun years).
On to the chicken. now this is not your average chick. Its crispy and impeccably sauced. You can get all wings, strips, drumsticks or wings + legs (I got the wings + legs, small). You choose how you want the chicken sauced (I got soy garlic and my bf got half soy garlic and half spicy). The chicken comes with a side of pickled radish and for my other side I ordered the kimchi coleslaw (yumm). I ordered a lychee drink martini thing and it was delish! Anything lychee — sign me up :)
It’s honestly hard for me to explain the taste of this food because its just so good I can’t come up with the words. This is the greatest Korean chicken, place I’ve ever been to. I will always be in the mood for a trip to Bonchhon and thank goodness its close to home.
The workers wear shirts that say on the back «Are You Addicted Yet?» and yes I am, yes I am and you will be too!