There’s a new player in Washington’s fried chicken game: Yona Noodle Bar, the new Ballston restaurant from chefs Mike Isabella and Jonah Kim. Starting this week guests can order buckets of Korean-style crispy birds, served with a creative array of accompaniments, from kimchi to pierogies.
This isn’t your average bird. A single serving takes over two days to create, starting with an overnight brine in sake and white soy. Kim taps into his Korean roots to make the poultry extra-crunchy, drying the skin with potato starch, and double-frying the whole chicken to lock in the juices. Guests can order half or whole portions ($28 and $48, respectively), served with spicy chili glaze and buttermilk-dill dipping sauce, plus house-made kimchi and pickled carrots. The unusual suspect: two kinds of pierogies–fermented scallion and classic potato– whipped up by Kim’s sous-chef Sasha Felikson for a riff on the classic fried chicken-and-spuds combo.
Buckets are served for lunch and dinner, while supplies last.
Anna Spiegel covers the dining and drinking scene in her native DC. Prior to joining Washingtonian in 2010, she attended the French Culinary Institute and Columbia University’s MFA program in New York, and held various cooking and writing positions in NYC and in St. John, US Virgin Islands.
