KyoChon Chicken

Isn’t it amazing when the 3 to 3.5-starrer joints knock you out with 5-​star flavors and experiences? That’s what Culver City’s Kyochon used to do for me.
Alas, Unilocalers have reported this location closed as of January this year, which means:
— no more free soy garlic chicken wing samplers to graze on at the mall.
— no more getting an extra wing or two in my KyoChon branded cardboard lunch-​box.
— no more buying a small box and mistakenly getting a giant pack instead. (Big tip given that day!)
— no more KyoChon! At least, not in the Fox HIlls’ Mall food court.
What has replaced KyoChon? Chickenow, a Southern California-​based business, which is good and fine — in fact, I appreciated the one juicy sample chunk on a toothpick I accepted with a sad smile when it was offered to me. But while I munched my Chickenow bite, it occurred to me that it wasn’t fried chicken people didn’t want, it must’ve been KyoChon.
I don’t get it. Well, maybe I do. The line is usually ten to twenty people deep at the bewilderingly popular Panda Express on the opposite end of the food court while KyoChon probably saw more tumbleweeds and freebie grazers in their day than actual customers! KyoChon’s signature double-​fried chicken recipes do take time to make to order, and not everyone has an extra twenty minutes or more to wait, even for some of the best chicken in L.A.
Time is patience and money, so quick-​serve quantity and itemized value dispensed to diners, scoop by scoop, out of warming trays, will always be the winning preference in shopping mall food courts. A random thought, but perhaps if Culver City KyoChon was liquor-​licensed or a stand-​alone, dine-​in space with a liquor license, tasty wings and salsals might make more sense to a broader audience if grown-​up diners on the run could be offered enticing soju, beers, and snacks while their food is being prepared.
In any case, it’s too bad. I really wanted KyoChon to stick around and do well on the Westside. When it first opened, it was an extremely exciting, welcome, and authentic addition to Fox Hills’ food court. Of course we can still enjoy KyoChon in Cerritos (see
…) and K-​town (see Unilocal’s Chris C.‘s review here
…), so I’m over it, but that doesn’t mean this former, convenient location in Culver City won’t still be missed. Should you ever decide to make a comeback in the area, KyoChon, you can count on me to be there!

Soy Garlic wings FTW!
We didn’t know what little bite we wanted while we were holiday shopping, but my friend read a review in LA Weekly, raving about the wings! So, we dove in! Holy moly, these are tasty! 5 – 6 wings are not enough, but for sure next time, we will enjoy more. They are perfectly golden, individually brushed with the soy garlic glaze and piping hot! I didn’t want to wait so long for them to cool down, but it’s worth not burning your mouth over and ruining your entire experience. High Five!

Dear Bön Chon,
While I was in LA, I veered off course to try out Kyochon and I’m sorry that I did. I didn’t know how to write this, but this guilt has been eating me up inside, so I had to let you know now.
Kyochon was nothing compared to your outer spicy and crispy texture & your moist inner meat. Although they were conveniently located inside a mall, I’d much prefer driving to you anyways and yes even in 40 min traffic. Call me crazy but it’s true.
I know better now & I promise that I will not sink my teeth into anything else but you. I will never seek out greener pastures again bc there is none. Not going to lie — you had me at hello. You really did.
Please take me back, maybe?
Regretfully yours,
Mel

I’d been to the one in K-​Town, but was pleased to discover there was a westside location, even though getting to the mall food court is a bit of a pain. Still, the soy garlic wings are amazing (I ate 16 in my first visit), and it’s nice to be able to get some lemonade from Hot Dog on a Stick to wash it down.
The only thing is that they don’t travel too well. I saw a few people taking orders to go, so I tried that, but it just wasn’t the same. Eat there while they’re still hot and crispy.

I had not been to KyoChon for over a year, and either the quality has dropped off precipitously, or my initial assessments were just a newbie’s enthusiasm… in any case, I will not be going back. The taste & texture of the soy wings I ordered was bordering on inedible.
The fact that there was no one in line during an otherwise busy lunchtime crunch should have been the tip off… once again, the Rule of the Lines prevails!

Thank you, Jung S. of KyoChon Chicken, for your comment on my previous review!!!
I did not know that about KyoChon! Thank you for informing me. I’m a big advocate of free range chicken, so I’ve changed the rating of my previous review.
As for this one, you get 5 stars for keeping in contact with your diners!!! :)

I am a big fan of K-​town Kyochon, so when I saw this place at Fox Hills mall, I was super excited. I hate freeway 10 traffic during week days. It can take up to an hour to drive from Westwood, but since they have Kyochon in the west side now, I can just take 405S and get there in 10 minutes or head South of Sepulveda and be there in less than half an hour. Not that bad!
Free range chicken!!!
They didn’t make wings as fresh and hot as the other location in Ktown, but I can pass that since it is in a mall food court after all. Their salsal chicken strips are great too, plus you can choose two different sauces to dip.
Expensive wings though. $ 9.99 for 10 wings, but note that they always give you one or two extras!
Soy garlic!!!
Btw, their spicy sauce is super super super spicy. Be careful. Order a spicy sauce on the side for 25 cents.

Koreans and fried chicken! What a wonderful combination. Double fried, fried, fried, fried, chicken wings.
It’s super crispy. I love it.
If you are a mooch you can sit and just eat samples till you are full, but it’s hard to resist having a box of the honey glazed wings to yourself.
My mouth is watering just thinking about it.
Maybe Ill try something different next time… wait, let me think about it… maybe not.
Enjoy!

It’s a smart business decision to put a fried chicken place in a mall with a lot of African American customers! Big money!
Chicken wings from KyoChon are pretty pricey. I don’t know why it’s so damn expensive. Also, I have a problem when they give samples. They put one chicken wing into it’s own individual box. Yes it looks good, but damn, that’s a waste of a box.

I loved how friendly the lady working there was. She gave out whole chicken wings to sample and even let my friend and I sample the broccoli salad upon request.
I ordered the Soy Garlic Chicken Wing meal and was glad I was able to substitute the fries with the salad. The chicken wings were so flavorful and delicious.
Good place for a quick, tasty meal or snack.

What makes this location better than the one in Koreatown? It’s closer to my house!!!
Chicken wings are free range and double fried with asian inspired sauce like soy garlic. I can’t resist ordering their 20pc with rice. aw yeah!

After hearing about Korean fried chicken, I thought to myself: hey why not? I love fried chicken. I love Korean food. I’ve tried Japanese fried chicken before and that was pretty tasty. I can’t go wrong!
And then I found out the KyoChon opened up a small shop in the Fox Hill Mall in the food court: heck yea! Let’s go!
We finally spotted the place in the deep corner of the food court. There are so many options. I had quickly skimmed through some of the Unilocal reviews and sorta prepared myself for: A-​OK wings and such. There are quite a few options — perhaps too many. Although as I understand it, there are just two levels/​flavors: very spicy and soy garlic…
I did’t take it too seriously and saw a «sampler» option for roughly $ 15 or so. So we just went w/​that as it required the least amount of thinking and got us a sample of everything.
So we got drumsticks, wings, chicken sticks, etc with various sauces to try out.
They were all pretty decent. I actually did like the wings with the soy garlic ones a lot. But man, the spicy ones were actually very spicy to me. I’m not a complete wuss when it comes to spiciness, but I was gulping down some water and dipping stuff in their ranch sauce when it hit me.
But anyway, our food took forever to come out which was a little annoying. And for a food court, it is a bit pricey. Overall, it was just OK. I’d give it 2.5 stars as I don’t go to malls often… so I’d probably not eat it again.

Got the garlic and the spicy wings and potato wedges. I only ate two of the spicy ones before switching to only garlic… they killed my poor weak tongue :(
Don’t be stupid like me and think beer will make it better! Beer ≠ water…

Located inside the Fox Hills Mall on the dining terrace, this Kyochon is like the other one’s. I ordered 2 large of the wings and one of the salads, came out close to $ 50 and yeah, that’s pretty pricey but I knew that coming in so I was expecting it. Service was friendly and they cooked the chicken wings fresh.
Be prepared to pay $$$ for wings so if you’re not, don’t try it, complain about it and give this place a bad review.
Also, the spicy is SPICY. Not American spicy but for real burn your mouth spicy. I usually eat two of the non-​spicy ones to every spicy wing. And have a lot of rice on hand to handle the heat as well… I’ve found that helps too.

3.5 Stars for KyoChon Chicken! I had a $ 15 Groupon coupon and finally made it here today to try out the much hyped-​about chicken! I have to admit — it was DELICIOUS!
A 20 piece chicken wing box will set you back $ 16.99! But the chicken is super tasty and well made. You can select between the Garlic Soy Sauce and the Korean Spicy chicken wings. They allow you to get a combination of the two! My favorite of the two was the garlic soy sauce ones because they had a sweet soy flavor that complimented the crunchy chicken. The Korean Spicy wings were also good — and I was warned by the server that it was spicy — it was. I think they use a pepper hotter than the japaleno — perhaps a mix of peppers that include the ghost chili or habanero chili? Nonetheless, it surely cleared my sinuses! Good!
I also got an 8 piece of Honey Chicken ($ 8.99) that was out of this world delicious. It was a nicely breaded chicken wing with a honey (?) sauce on the outside. Delish. This was perhaps the best type of chicken among the three types that I got.
There is nothing healthy about this meal — it was deep fried, but well worth the cholesterol and high triglicerides that you’d get when eating this type of food.
I agree with others on this site that the prices are a bit too high for the product. Without another Groupon coupon, I probably wouldn’t be back.
p. s. For you Hawaii people reading this, the chicken tasted like Mochiko Chicken like they make in Hawaii. Full ono!

There are not many Asian fast food chains around Los Angeles, let alone one that is positioned against such well known brands such as Kentucky Fried Chicken! I first ran across this chain in a small strip mall in the Yes! plaza in Hacienda Heights where it was sandwiched in between a couple local family owned joints.
I was struck by the western feel they had in their design, menu, and staff, thinking that this must be a big chain back in Korea that was breaking into the LA market. I think they have been around in Korea since 1991, and not sure when they actually came into the US, but it is clear they have a global mindset in their expansion.
At first sighting, my curiosity was peaked enough to give it a go and I was happy to find that the chicken wings tasted fantastic! They have this crispy, outer coating that probably comes from rice instead of flour, and the spicy wings had a bigger kick to them than I ever found in the «spicy» offerings at KFC or Popeye’s.
As a relatively new chain in LA, I think they still have some growing pains to get through, some of which were highlighted by the other Unilocalers such as running out of stock at inconvenient times, menus with a learning curve, or perhaps occasional inconsistency in product taste, but personally I have never experienced any of these issues.
I can’t speak to whether they are healthier than other fast food chicken places, and I agree with people that the prices are higher then what you can get elsewhere. HOWEVER! The spicy wings and legs are really amazing and I highly recommend giving them a try sometime!
This brand is going to continue to grow, and I expect they will get a lot of their initial kinks worked out. It is great to see a new brand from Asia enter the fast food market in the US and spice things up a bit. If a Kyochon is sitting next to a KFC or Popeye’s, my money will be walking over to Kyochon at least 70% of the time. (Sorry, but Popeye’s red beans and rice will always be part of my life!)
TIP: They offer free delivery at this location with in two miles. Further if it is a big order, just ask!

I found this place because of Groupon! :)
$ 15 for $ 30 @ Kyochon Chicken!
This place is located at the Westfield Culver City Mall in their Food Court. All the way at the very end.
I ordered the #14 Sampler to go. It came with 3 pcs EACH of their Signature Wings, Drumsticks, Grilled Wings, Honey Wings, and Sal Sal Chicken Strips. That’s 15 pcs of various chicken.
I split this meal with two other people. Out of the five types of chicken they offered, my favorite would be the Honey Wings. The rest were just average to me.
The grilled wings were dry like the sahara.
The drumsticks were average. Most of the chicken was a little salty. The dip they gave was alright. I didn’t like it so I didn’t eat it.
Sal Sal Chicken strips felt funny in my mouth, probably because of the polka dotted things that were all around it. But, it was fun to eat! I’d pick the Sal Sal Chicken Strips as my second favorite piece.

2.5 stars! I feel misled! This is where you can’t rely on Unilocal ratings. Try the wings for yourself!
I don’t know what they put in the chicken, but my gosh is it delicious. It’s as addictive as snowboarding on fresh powder, peanut butter and jelly sandwich without the crust or ice cold lemonade on a 105 degree, humid day.
I’ve have yet to try anything else at Kyochan except the wings and I’m not going to stray. I have to agree with some of the people here, the wings are super expensive. About 16 bucks for 20 pieces, so it’s hard to justify the price you spend and you can be easily disappointed when you’re expecting diamonds to be lodge in the wings.
But if you can put the price aside, it’s a new world.
Here’s a fact. Groupon sold 5000 Kyochan coupons in a few hours, burning out the coupon, leaving many many people disappointed. This definitely says something about their chicken. Check out the page below.
Don’t just eat to live, live to eat!
Cheers!

$ 19.72 for 10 Chicken Wings/​Sticks is way too expensive unless it is some pretty freaking awesome chicken. Unfortunately, Kyochon Chicken isn’t awesome. It really isn’t even great; … just small dry chicken pieces slathered with strong sauces. My friends have raved about Kyochon for years and set the expectations high, so, I was dismayed with the final results.
We got a six-​piece order of Sticks (short for mini-​drumsticks) and split it with half Garlic Soy Sauce and half Hot Sweet Sauce. The spicier and tastier of the two was the Hot Sweet Sauce. The Garlic Soy flavor was reminiscent of other Asian hot wings and a safe standard. We also got a 4-​piece order of the Honey Wings. These were juicer than the sticks and and combined with the honey sauce this was my favorite chicken.
Apparently, they make the wings/​sticks after ordering them which makes them «fresher», however, it also meant a 15 – 20 minute wait at the food court. The customer behind me was extremely impatient and unhappy cause it was so slow. I wasn’t in a rush, but it sure was a boring 20 minutes waiting on the food…
Mall Food Court Food is always overpriced versus the quality, but Kyochon has taken it to a new level. With small portions and mediocre flavor, it’s hard to imagine me choosing Kyochon on my next visit to Fox Hills.

The chicken is excellent but overpriced. The bim bim bop rice ball is overpriced and tastes just like rice — not worth the money.