As most of you know, our family loves to eat out. We love trying out new dishes and new restaurants because we feel that there's just too much good food in the world and so little time to try everything out. It's also "educational" to eat international dishes. It's also a great relief to be able to do this without having to fly across the continent for a taste of their different flavors.
One of the franchises that we've often heard about from friends and read from blogs is the Bon Chon Chicken franchise from Korea. Admittedly, the concept of double-fried crispy chicken was first introduced to us through Chicken Charlie and their chicken was really great! So, when we heard that another double-fried crispy chicken restaurant was opening, and this straight from a Korean franchise, we really wanted to try it out to compare.
The chance came when Patrick had to cover an event, another car show, in Fort Bonifacio. We rarely drop by Makati because of the traffic but we thought since we were in the area, we might as well make the most of it and drop by Bon Chon Chicken at the Ayala Triangle. So we did! A bonus attraction was the Christmas at the Gardens featuring Parol! which the kids loved.
It was nice to be walking around what used to be my place of work now transformed into a luscious garden with a row of restaurants. We reached the Ayala Triangle, parked beside the Heritage Library and walked our way to the row of restaurants. It was around 9pm by the time we were there and the place was jam-packed. You see a lot of people waiting to be seated at the restaurants, a lot more milling around the gardens. We were rather fortunate to have found seats at Bon Chon Chicken after only a short moment of waiting.
The toothpick indicates which group is hot and spicy. But I think if you look closely, the hot and spicy chicken has a general reddish glaze compared to the regular soy garlic sauce. Also, you can go by smell because the chicken smells really spicy. Flavor-wise, it can be very hot if you're only used to mild spicy sauces. Patrick liked it just fine :)
Take note that my frame of reference is Chicken Charlie. In comparing the size of the chicken, Bon Chon's are bigger than Chicken Charlie's and the pricing is indicative of that. However, I find that Chicken Charlie is much tastier (the sauce, I mean). But that may be due to the minimal sauce coating of the chicken skin of Bon Chon's. Or maybe, since Bon Chon's chicken is bigger, the taste of the sauce doesn't penetrate deep enough into the chicken as it should (hmm..)
All in all, the food was okay, but I guess I'm not the type to wait in line too long for food hehehe But since the kids loved it, we may just be going back for more, if we end up in the Makati area. :)
