I swear at first glance, I saw kancheong chicken. It means 'restless' chicken in Cantonese.
Click the image to enlarge!
After experiencing the delicious fried chicken of Kyochon, I was quite excited to try more Korean fried chicken places. A bbq chicken deal presented that opportunity, once again, thanks to Groupon.
bbq chicken, originating in Korea in September 1995 also claims to hold the top spot in Korea and the 'BBQ' doesn't stand for Barbeque, it stands for 'Best of the Best Quality'. I admit, that's quite an amusing way to brand yourself. The chicken at bbq chicken is cooked in olive oil to preserve the healthiness in the chicken. Besides that, they're also known for their sous vide chicken which is a slow-poached technique that maintains the moisture of whatever's being cooked.
bbq chicken in Times Square is located on the 3rd floor, facing GSC and the long escalator that goes up 2 floors. It's hard to miss.
A Mocha ice blended for me and a Cappuccino ice blended for my colleague. Because my voucher was expiring (I didn't check until it was the last day yikes!), I dragged my colleague to have lunch with me. He's had bbq chicken lots of times though. The ice blended was no big deal but there was enough coffee to keep me alert after lunch. For such a big glass (it was actually filled to the brim), it's quite worth the money, I guess.
We ordered everything to share and the first to arrive was a Spoon Pizza with sous vide chicken. The description of the pizza tells you to scoop this pizza with a spoon. It was like a deep-dish pizza.
We quickly found out that they used Korean pancake batter as the base topped with strips of sous vide chicken and potato before topping it with cheese. Our brains and taste buds were quite conflicted as the first flavor to hit you is 'sweet'.
Despite being so cheesy, the mozarella used was light, stringy and oddly, not salty. It was a confusing sweet and savory combination. It's slightly better when you eat it with the honey provided but it becomes a sweet, dessert-like dish after. Probably not for the masses.
The sous vide chicken was indeed tender, plump and juicy. The potato strips were actually french fries.
We also ordered a Korean Combo 1 which comprises of 2 pieces of Golden Olive Chicken + 5 pieces of Hot Hot Chicken.
Now, let me warn you. The Hot Hot Chicken is actually very un-Hot chicken. It had a tinge of sweetness and the taste of tomato paste so my expectations of it being 'hot hot' was dampened. Regardless, the chicken was well fried and crispy despite being covered by sauce.
As for the Golden Olive Chicken, I found that the taste of olive oil was hardly obvious. The chicken was nicely fried, not too oily and the meat smooth and tender. The batter is similar to KFC minus the spices but in terms of quality, it beats KFC any time.
Nevertheless, I believe that bbq chicken is far from perfect. There was one piece of chicken that had a spot of blood (yes, blood becomes black when cooked) which was the only minor setback I experienced. Service was prompt (there were only 3 tables at lunch) and the food decent. Also, my colleague recommends the Paris Chicken.
Reveiws can be found at gomakan, buurps.com and nava-k.