Cheap Eats 2016: Bonchon

Our favorite place to get crispy, Korean-fried chicken is also a great spot for a cocktail (or two!). Photograph by Scott Suchman

About Bon Chon

cuisines
Korean
Location(s)
1015 Half St SE
Washington, DC 20003
211 Shorebird St
Frederick, MD 21701
Good Drinks Good for Groups

Some restaurants are obsessed with playing hip-hop or power pop. At Bonchon, you’ll encounter another kind of soundtrack—a symphony of relentless crunching. That’s how ridiculously crispy the chain’s Korean twice-fried chicken is, even—it defies culinary logic—when doused in sticky-sweet garlic-soy glaze. The famed birds are the number-one reason to visit (or to call for carryout, though waits can stretch to an hour-plus), but some locations such as Arlington, Centreville, and Navy Yard serve well-made cock-tails and a short list of starters, too.

Also good: Steamed pork buns; fried-chicken sliders; spicy glazed chicken; lychee mojito.

See what other restaurants made our 2016 Cheap Eats list. This article appears in our May 2016 issue of Washingtonian.

 


Ann Limpert
Executive Food Editor/Critic

Ann Limpert joined Washingtonian in late 2003. She was previously an editorial assistant at Entertainment Weekly and a cook in New York restaurant kitchens, and she is a graduate of the Institute of Culinary Education. She lives in Petworth.

Food Editor

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.