ChiMek

My buddy for his birthday this year wanted a super chill family friendly casual spot, so Korean style chicken and brews fit the bill perfectly. Chimek, although technically on Homestead Rd faces Lawrence Expressway.
On the inside, the space is laid out in a large square with a bar area and large flat screen television against the back wall and several other televisions on the adjoining walls. There are only tables and bar seating. Booths along the walls would be a nice option and would’ve broken up the one large space feel as well. Around 9pm the lights dimmed giving this a more late night hang out spot feel.
We went order crazy and tried pretty much everything on the menu. The standouts for me were the Sweet & Spicy chicken, Garlic chicken, Chinese style chicken, and the Spicy Crispy Fried Chicken. The Kimchi/​tofu/​pork belly dish was quite tasty and pairs well with beer. Speaking of which, pitchers of Craft Beer are reasonably priced at $ 19. Service was on point and my Unilocal check-​in scored us 10% off our total bill as an added bonus. Definitely worth checking out.

It’s been a while and I need to get my KFC crave fixed! My friend and I decided to give ChiMek a try since it’s new and it doesn’t hurt to try a new fried chicken spot, right?
It’s located in the same plaza as Gombei but facing the side of Lawrence Express Way, lots of parking available. Stepping into ChiMek around 5:45pm and still a lot of seatings left. There are TVs around and definitely great for the folks who are into sports.
We got a large flavored friend chicken ($ 19.99) and did half-​and-​half of Soy Garlic and Sweet/​Spicy. I didn’t know we can do half-​and-​half but the server was very nice and told us it might fit our needs better. He was right! We could barely finish the large plate and packed 12 drumstick (altho they are mini) home. On top of that, we also got 2 16 oz beer.
I really love the taste of both Soy Garlic and Sweet/​Spicy fried chicken. Note that even it listed as Sweet/​Spicy, it was not spicy at all and I am a non-​spicy person — so for the Spicy-​land citizens, this won’t satisfy you! I like the diversity of the salad bar, more veggies to choose! The service was amazing and I’d give 5-​star on that! Super friendly and helpful. It’s cheap, with a bunch of seatings, nice vibe. I’d come back and enjoy my Chi-​Mek time with friends next time.
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If I can’t make it to Bön Chon, I’ll most definitely head over to ChiMek!!! My cousins and I had a good bonding experience through Korean Fried Chicken, budae soup, onion rings and a ton of veggies!!!
We ordered the small sweet and spicy wings, small soy garlic wings, military (budae soup), onion rings! There’s also a free AYCE salad bar and free rice that you can help yourself to! I loved the selection that they had and I didn’t try the rice because we had ordered so much food. In the salad bar, they had coleslaw, corn, baby carrots, celery, Kim chi, pickled jalapeño slices, pickled daikon, lettuce and something else that I can’t remember. They also had free popcorn because they had at least 6 flat screen TVs in there!
The drinks are also unlimited! When the food came out, I had never felt so happy. The wings were so crispy and the sauce didn’t make it soggy which was awesome. I wasn’t much of a fan of the budae but it was good!
Luckily my cousins were watching the foot ball game so I was able to get most of the food while they were distracted hehe. I am most definitely coming back here and taking my parents with me!!!

This place is awesome and I don’t even eat chicken in bone. BUT! Here I will.
The chicken here is just everything. It’s perfectly cooked with crispy outside but tender inside. Their soy garlic is one of my favorite flavors and I really like their fried spicy chicken. It’s also open salad bar with some side dishes to try. I especially love their white sauce at the bar. I think it’s a type of yogurt sauce but I forget the exact name. It’s so good paired with the chicken! I also love that there’s popcorn to snack on while you wait for your food. :)
I’ve been here a few times now, but the last time we came the owner was there and he was very attentive to us making sure we liked everything! He gave suggestions on what some of his favorites were and even gave us some fried calamari on the house to try! Really nice gesture of him.
Overall, this is an awesome Korean chicken place. The atmosphere is nice as well and they always have top radio hits playing. Service is great too!

Actually. I really like this place! My boyfriend and I came during dinner to also catch the Warriors game and were seated right away. We ordered combo #2 which was a small order of either fried or crispy chicken + small order of flavored fried chicken + pitcher craft beer for $ 35.99.
I really liked their chicken! It’s not full sized drumsticks like 99 chicken but still delicious none the less. I also love their complimentary sides of daikon, kimchi, rice, and veggies w/​ranch.
I’d definitely come here again!

ChiMek: Chicken and beer combined in one word in Korean. I ABSOLUTELY loved my experience here and am definitely going to come back!
The restaurant is at the back side of a small plaza with a Korean market (Kyo Po), Starbucks, and some other restaurants. There was plenty of parking and the restaurant is nice and big with a lot of tables for big or small groups. Not only is the restaurant nice, but the customer service here is EXCELLENT. The owner makes sure to give you prime service when you’re here with such a welcoming smile. He gave us several specialty food items on the house to try along with all the other food that we ordered.
We ordered the Korean Fried Chicken, Mussel Soup, Ddukbokki, and their fried squid. A HUGE plus is they have an all you can eat salad bar that pairs extremely well with the finger food here. The portion is excellent and the flavor is on point with all the food items we’ve tried. No one likes soggy fried food and the food here is definitely crispy and everything comes out fresh.
Great food. Excellent customer service. I highly recommend trying ChiMek out!

Food (³⁄₅): We tried the soy garlic fried chicken and crispy fried chicken. Both were okay, though I thought the crispy fried chicken was kind of dry. Once you order you can go get complimentary popcorn, rice, and salad. Salad bar options are really limited though. It’d be great if they could expand it.
Service (⁴⁄₅): Super friendly staff who always made sure we were satisfied and our waters were filled!
Value (⁴⁄₅): The total for four of us was only about $ 25, but we only got two small orders.
Overall I think this is a good place to hang out and watch sports, but I wouldn’t come back just for the food.

The Good:
+ Excellent chicken wings
+ Unlimited salad bar for sides
+ Excellent brews on tap
+ Large venue, great for sharing and large parties
The Not So Good:
— Sauces were a little too sweet
— Wish they had a dry rub variety instead of all being wet style sauce wings
Bottom Line:
Definitely gives the competition a run for the money. Less battery than the competition, and just as juicy. Chimek is a win in my book. Recommend getting at least a small for each person. Hopefully they can begin to add more and more varieties of flavors.

This is now one of my favorite Korean fried chicken joint! I originally wanted to go to 99 Chicken, but I wanted to try a new place & i’m glad ChiMek didn’t disappoint! The place was very clean and spacious with plenty of TV’s. When I came in around 9pm, I was seated right away.
I ordered the sweet & spicy (small), soy garlic (small), spicy crispy fried chicken (small), and onion rings. The small sizes consists of 10 – 12 wings per order. My orders came out very quick, but when I ate it, it wasn’t as hot as it should have been if it were freshly fried. Although the wings weren’t freshly hot as I expected, I still enjoyed my orders! The sweet and spicy was more on the sweet side than on the spicy side, the soy garlic was flavored just right, and the spicy crispy wings were actually spicy and crispy. My favorite was the spicy crispy wings because they were actually spicy and crispy. YUM! The wings could be better in my opinion, if it were freshly made and more on the crispy side. My least favorite were the onion rings, it was too greasy and oily for me. If you’ve gone to 99 Chicken, I must say the wings are not comparable, however, the options and sides here show a variety which is a plus.
Now onto my favorite part!!! THE HELP YOURSELF SALAD BAR! The salad bar consisted of corn, pickled radish, jalapenos, cole slaw, sliced lettuce, kim chi, corn, carrots, celery, rice, AND POPCORN!!! The dressings included honey mustard, thousand island, and ranch. I loved the salad bar so much, I would probably come back just for the salad bar itself.
Overall, this place is great to go to try out and watch games. Good service and decent food! Make sure to check-​in on Unilocal for an extra 10% off!

The homie wanted a chill birthday dinner spot so this came to mind & I suggested it. We love Korean fried chicken so we had to check this place out. We arrived on a Friday night around 7pm and luckily, we were able to snag a table immediately for our party of 9.
Sports bar status. They have lots of flat screens in the restaurant so it’s a good option if you wanna catch a game over wings and beer but don’t wanna deal with the hassle of waiting and stalking a table at BWW.
As for the chicken, everything was pretty decent; good sized wings and different options for sauce. We didn’t order anything else other than wings and beer but they also have a complimentary salad bar and steamed white rice.

After hearing positive feedback from friends regarding this new Korean fried chicken place, I knew I had to bookmark this place to try. I came here on a Saturday night around 6:30pm with friends. I wasn’t sure how busy the place would be so I called ahead of time to make reservations (initially anticipating a party of 12 but half the people couldn’t make it in the end). When we arrived, the restaurant still wasn’t too busy yet so I guess reservations weren’t really necessary for us this time (better safe than sorry, right?).
This would be a great place for sports fans to grab a bite and watch a game since there were so many tv’s inside.
There were many flavor options for fried chicken. The only flavor we wanted that they didn’t have that night was curry. I guess it is not one of their more popular flavors.
For a group of 6, we ordered 2 large plates. You can split your large order into two different flavors which was nice so that we could try the different flavors. We ordered the garlic, soy garlic, Chinese flavor, and sweet and sour. We also ordered a side of onion rings and received fresh fries on the house toward the end of our meal.
If you’re into fried chicken with sauce, this is the place for you. I still prefer the chicken at Bön Chon though. ChiMek has a self serve station with a salad bar and rice. They even have a popcorn machine so you can have something to snack on as you wait for your food. I only wished they offered more sides like the option of getting biscuits like Bön Chon.
Note: Don’t forget to check in on Unilocal to receive a discount on your bill.

First time trying this place tonight and I must say it was perfect. Free salad bar and rice. Complementary popcorn and they also had us try out this new appetizer of theirs for free when we finished our food. This place shits on 99 chicken.
Post a pic of your food on IG and tag them for 10% off.

This place has a great beer selection on draft plus they’re open late. Chicken was good (not amazing or anything special), tasty, and hot. They have an open salad bar and rice. I really like how there are different varieties of flavored wings, but unfortunately you can’t get those sauces on the side (aside from the ones at the salad bar for dipping). Service was quick, friendly, and they honored my Unilocal check-​in. I’d come back!
Get the combo that has the pitcher of beer if you plan on drinking. It’ll save you a few bucks and the headache of deciding how much food to get; leftovers are always nice!

I love fried chicken so much, so when I was invited to go get some I was like… what diet?! :P
But this place is pretty cool, it has a younger vibe in comparison to other Korean style fried chicken joints like Bön Chon & 99 Chicken.
My friends and I ordered the spicy crispy fried chicken, the soy garlic fried chicken and the chinese style fried chicken. The chinese was a little too sweet and sticky for my taste. I really liked the soy garlic flavor and the spicy crispy fried chicken was pretty normal, nothing special. For four people this was filling and super affordable, especially since you get the unlimited salad bar and rice.
The service was better than 99 chicken but I think I like the wings there (& at bon chon) a little more. I would come back here but it wouldn’t be my first choice for korean fried chicken. They do have a lot of drink choices though which is really nice, and they’re open late!
Tip: you can order a L size of fried chicken and split it by two flavors to get more variety for your money.

Came here on a Friday night with my family. No wait, seated quickly. We were given the menus, but no one explained to us how the restaurant works — going up to the counter and placing your order. (first timers)
Loved the complimentary salad bar, wish it looked neater though.
We ordered the soy garlic and spicy fried chicken, both large (party of 6), and French fries and it was more than enough food for us. We had about 15 wings left over! My favorite was the soy garlic, definitely beats Bön Chon and 99 Chicken.
Pros: Food was great, hands down. Complimentary salad bar/​rice,
Cons: Service kinda sucked pretty slow, forgot our soda, didn’t know if we were to wait for someone to take our order, etc.
Even though the service could have been better, the employees took care of us, enough that the food overlooked the service and we didn’t really notice ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Will definitely come back!

Yay for more Korean fried chicken places in the area! I looooove fried chicken. We came here for a birthday dinner with my family, and it was pretty good.
We ordered a chicken and soju combo, and fried calamari. They have a salad bar with rice, and kim chi, and they gave us sweet potato fries too. For 6 people, we got about 4 small plates of chicken and the calamari. It was more than enough food. The wings are a little bit smaller than other places in the area, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. I didn’t mind it at all. We ordered spicy crispy, regular crispy, soy garlic, and sweet spicy. My favorite was the soy garlic, which was surprising spicier than the spicy one? The waitress forgot about one of our orders (she didn’t write our order down…), but when we let her know the order didn’t take too long to come out. I’m not sure if they purposely brought out one plate of chicken at a time, but I wish we could get them all out at the same time so we’re not stuck eating one flavor until the next one comes out.
I would probably come back here and give them another shot. Service could improve a little bit, but I understand they are still a new restaurant. We also heard they had a special house sauce that was really good, but when we asked for it the waitress said she never heard of it. If they do have a special house sauce, I hope we get to try it next time.

Not bad for a kfc place. This one unlike 99 chicken us more suited for the younger crowed by the music and décor. Wings were flavorful, but not super amazing. A small order is about 10 – 12 pcs and they’re tiny compared to 99 chicken’s pieces. Nbd though. We hot sweet spicy and soy garlic which was recommended by our waiter. 99 CHICKEN is more of ahjjushi drinking together late night and young people eating late kind of place that’s not dive bar style like chimek. I prefer 99 chicken over chimek.
–food: sweet spicy tasted like they used sambal and the soy garlic was pretty good. One of them was topped with crushed peanuts so please beware!
Salad bar: pickled jalapeños, corn, baby carrots, sliced romaine lettuce, pink pickled Daikon cubes. The Daikon were sweet… didn’t like it. There was NO mac salad or coleslaw…
–service: 2^nd or 3^rd group to arrive so service was good until a few more rolled in. Miscommunication with waiter over fries so we never got them until we were about to leave. Ordered the fries and waiter oked it then The waiter somehow didn’t know about the fries… while we were eating, he said the kitchen was busy since they just opened, but we ordered before they got busy… still waiting and no fries. Somehow the waiter didn’t know about our fries…
We asked for sweet potato fries, but got regular fries instead. –1 star! Wth happened?! –1 for the salad bar different from what I’ve seen.

Came here on a Friday night with a party of four. The wait was not too bad — about 30 minutes or so for around 8pm. Sat down, ordered our food. We got a combo #2 which came with a choice of either crispy or fried chicken (spicy or regular) and a flavored chicken and a choice of beer. We got the crispy spicy chicken and the Chinese flavored wings, in addition with the soy garlic wings, and stella beer.
Waited a while for our food to arrive. In the meantime, they offer a free salad bar that consisted of macaroni salad, kimchi, radish, rice, corn, salad, and other toppings and sauces.
Out of all the wings, my favorite was the Chinese flavored wings because it was nice and crispy and flavorful. The soy garlic was good too although ours came out not so hot so it was not as good. It was barely luke warm. As for the crispy spicy chicken — it was too spicy for me, but it was nice and crispy. It was too spicy that the next few bites for me were unflavorful since i could not taste anything. A bit pricey but not bad for the flavoring.
A small portion comes with 10 – 12 small wings! Not a

I hate to say it, but I’ve been spoiled by Café Soho in Philadelphia. I haven’t been able to find anything similar or up to par in the bay area. Trust me, I’ve tried them all. So when I read that a new place came to the bay area and dominated all the other chicken places, I was extremely happy.
We had the combo: spicy chicken + garlic soy + Soju for $ 28.99 great prices considering you get complimentary fries and salad bar. The chickens didn’t amaze me. It was spicy nor crispy. The skins were too thick so it was absorbing the batter. Didn’t tasted like double fried. Secondly, the garlic soy was another version of their chicken tossed in the garlic soy sauce. It had more flavor but soggy, not crispy.
The owner (s) of ChiMek should go to Philly and see if they can duplicate Café Soho. I’ll be a loyal customer if they can do!
Great prices, but overall lack luster in taste.

Nah I still prefer 99 chicken.
Got the sweet/​spicy (S) $ 11.99 and soy garlic (S) $ 11.99 and soy garlic is better but not amazing.
The chicken is wings and smaller than 99 chicken. The salad bar is just OK, coleslaw was drenched in dressings, I liked the pink radish tho.
The place is really loud, just imagine going to a sports bar, like Smoke Eaters.