Zabu Chicken

Finally decided to give this place a try with my friends as everyone has been saying this place is amazing. I found it disappointing when I finally tried their chicken, butter corn with cheese, kimchi soup… the chicken was dry and nothing special and the corn didn’t look appealing at all. The overall price for the food and drinks were expensive for the amount you actually get. However, it’s a nice hang out spot with friends as they have Korean music playing in the background with tvs all around with nice servers.

Terrible service! it took forever to get a table and the place wasn’t even full. And having to wait an hour for the food to arrive it’s just ridiculous for a place that sells simple fried chicken. We will never come back.

Pretty hard for me to give something one star, but when your food sucks and your staff is racist… well, that pretty much speaks for itself.
It was late at night, my friend and I were very hungry. I’d eaten here before (but only takeout) and had mediocre experiences, but figured this time we’d eat in. That was when the racial discrimination occurred: we were waiting 10 minutes and were next in line for a table when the hostess picked a group that just arrived instead. This despite the fact that making eye contact with the hostess and made it clear that were next in line.
At this point I was ready to leave, however, a guy who was part of another group behind us spoke to me. He told me he saw what happened, wasn’t surprised because it happens all the time here, and that he would make sure that I got seated next. I thanked him and, because we were hungry, we decided to stay.
Sure enough the hostess came and once again tried to ignore me; however, this time the guy behind me yelled at her in Chinese and pretty much forced her to seat us. I wish she hadn’t though, because the food and service sucked.
They took our order quickly, but I waited 20 minutes for water and if I hadn’t stood up I would’ve probably never gotten my bill. It was the first time in more than 10 years where I didn’t leave a tip.

Chicken wings are delicious! The kimchi soup wasn’t very flattering… it’s literally just several pieces of kimchi floating in a pot of red soup… And the service was HORRIBLE!!! 20 minutes after we were seated, we weren’t even given a menu… And it was horrible, horrible service through out the dinner. Plus, it was $ 17 each person before tips and I’m still hungry when I left…

Nice chicken wings. Be ready to wait a long, long time for them. Please improve your service though and train your staff better.

The two stars here is really because their food was really good but man was the service horrible. I don’t like to complain but this is one place I want to let others know not to expect good service at.
I was here one Saturday night with some friends for their chicken. I’ve heard many great things about it. We were seated at the front of the restaurant right where the doorway was. Man, was it cold considering they left the door open for their own convenience of serving customers that were out in the patio. We noticed there was a lamp heater right at the doorway. We asked for it to be turned on and the server said it was broken. Half an hour later, this guy (I think he’s the owner) moved the lamp heater out to the patio and turned it on. Seriously? We then asked for the door to be closed, they said they can’t because they need to serve the customers out in the patio. Um… Ok… We then ask to be moved to another table that was a table away from the front door. They said it was reserved and the customer asked for that specific table. Those customers didn’t even arrive until an hour later which we were close to finishing our night.
When we ordered some alcohol, we were asked for ID but my boy friend recently renewed his license so he didn’t have his picture ID with him. Therefore the server just said he can’t have any and that she will only bring enough cups for the rest of us. We were like seriously…
After ordering our food, we noticed our utensils were dirty. So, we asked to have that exchanged. The servers did it but with some attitude.
When we asked for the bill, the server came back and told us because our bill is over $ 100.00 they tacked on a 10% gratuity. What the heck? That made no sense to me considering we were only a table of 4. First off, with the service we got we didn’t even want to give them the 10% and now it’s tacked on. Ya, we were in no mood to bring it up to the manager or anything and was just forced to pay it. We really just wanted to go home after a long day.
Overall, my experience here was just horrible. But I have to say their food was really good. The price of the food was worth it. Maybe next time I should just do like take out. Keep in mind that their chicken is on the pricier end. Don’t expect to pay the price that you would at Church’s.

Slightly overpriced for what it is.
I was there for a late night bite. It was very packed, so I guess my expectation was a bit higher. However the food seems overpriced for the portion that they serve. Flavour is really good tho. Not good value, wouldn’t really recommend it unless you are in the area and craving some fried chicken!

Chicken wings so good!!! Can’t stop licking my fingers and eve biting into the bone which I usually never do. Tried the tofu soup and ramen too, both tasty as well although the ramen is kinda pricey for just ramen and egg. Tofu soup is really spicy though so take note for non-​spicy eaters.
Can’t say bad things about the service, it’s pretty good I would say or maybe I just got lucky and had a good waiter. He even told me not to order the rice crispy chicken coz it’s not that great compare to the other soy and spicy ones. And I went on a Sat too but early so it wasn’t that packed yet. But the time I finished its full house though.

I don’t understand the 3 star rating of this place, but I’d rather not read the reasons why when it comes to service! Blah blah blah, you come to a resto to eat, and I use Unilocal for the food reviews! Duh!
KOREAN STYLE WINGS. We got the original garlic soy glaze. That’s the reason to come here! There’s no BonChon in the Northwest, let alone Seattle and all our delay on good Korean style wings, so this will suffice for my BonChon craving. It’s that good.
Thank you, Zabu!!!

Ok, let me preface this review by stating my group and I came here twice in a row. So do you think we liked it?! Duh! Those chicken wings, holy hell!!! They are so damn good!!!
If you’re willing to wait for really, really good KFC (Korean Fried Chicken), then this is the place for you! The wait can be upwards of an hour+, but those wings are so worth it! We ordered the zabu soy wings, the zabu hot wings, and also a whole chicken. But really just order the wings, it may be more expensive, but I think they do the wings much better than the whole chicken. The wings are crispy, sweet, salty, savory, and just too tempting to pass up. If you think I’m wrong, then you are not human. So what do they do to their wings? I will paraphrase their website: the chicken is fried 3 times, and hand-​brushed with their special sauce made with soy, garlic and «sun kissed red chili pepper». Now doesn’t that sound mouth-​watering?! And don’t forget to pair your wings with sochu, sake or beer! Or all three! ;)
Here’s a tip for the tourists using American dollars, they will take your cash, but the exchange rate will be 1:1, so use your cc or get your cash changed to Canadian dollars.

My friend brought me here to try their chicken. They have a menu just for chicken: just wings or just drums or a mix, medium or large size, spicy, breaded or soy etc. Price is not cheapest, 20 $ for a medium size (for 1 – 2 ppl) but it is quite tasty. I also tried a hot soup and their side dishes and quality was like the other Korean restaurants. Service was not the greatest; I asked for more side dishes and pointed at the dish and the server only brought me the one i pointed at but clearly the other dishes were empty as well. I’m not sure if they were being cheap or the server had trouble seeing, or did she have bad observation skills? Paid street parking available.

I really enjoyed the chicken here. We ordered the hot chicken wings and drumsticks. When they say hot, they really are hot. None of that want-​to-​be spiciness you sometimes get at other places. I loved the combo of sweet, savoury and spicy in every bite. Not being a huge eater of heat, it was definitely tough, but with a bowl of rice, it was perfect. We also picked up a bibimbap which was decent. Kind of unusual that there is seaweed in it, but otherwise, a pretty normal bowl. For side dishes, you get a plate of cabbage (kind of like coleslaw) and some pickled daikon (which was way too vinegary).
Service was kind of eh though. It was really slow and took forever to flag down someone and when we did, they would tell us that they’d come back only to not come back. This is particularly ridiculous because we were sitting right by the cash register!
Regardless the company was good and we didn’t feel rushed out the door so I didn’t mind the lack of service too much. If I ever have a hankering for spicy Korean fried chicken again, I’ll definitely be back!

Been here multiple times. Yes they have really good chicken. I mean good if you like sweet chicken. But also note if you are going to order, order the whole chicken. It is cheaper that way. As well, order their seafood pancake.
This place can be quite busy but the good thing is that they are open late. Plus they have fruity sake. Pretty interesting. And yes I do like their fruity sake with the only issue is that I can’t really drink.
They are very busy but so please do come early or really late. But again their chicken is not cheap.

KH and KC finally made our trip to Zabu Chicken after months of talking about fried chicken and beer. We headed over on a random weekday after work, and we were surprised that that it had a decent amount of diners. Zabu Chicken offers Korean fried chicken and beer, and most of their diners are Korean. By 7:00 pm, the place shut off their lights and had some night club music going on. Contrary to what many people had said about their poor service, I actually didn’t find it a problem and the service was quite attentive. Food did take quite some time to come out, but since we had our drinks, it wasn’t too much of a problem.
After you place your order, you get some complimentary dishes. They served us Coleslaw as well as some Pickled Radish. At first, we thought the dishes were pretty underwhelming, but once you have some beer and chicken, you will appreciate it. The sourness of the pickled radish will help you cool down from the spicy chicken.
With fried chicken, you have to get some beer. We ended up getting two pitchers of Sapporo for the night. Not the cheapest, but at $ 17, it was a reasonable price to share. I like how they provide you with beer mugs which have been put in the freezer so that your beer is kept cold.
We decided to share a few dishes and started off with the Zabu Hot Combo. You can choose between medium and large size. We went with the medium, and you get a mix of wings and drumsticks. These were delicious! They are spicy, but a tolerable one and great with beer. The batter is so crispy! Something about it just tastes a lot different compared to American fried chicken. The sauce makes the chicken moist, but you still get the crispiness. The meat is also kept moist and tender.
We also got their original Zabu Soy Combo, and we got this in large. These were also very delicious, and it had a nice sweet taste to it. A must order! It’s funny because you can also order a whole chicken… When we asked the server about it, she said they literally chop up the whole chicken and fry it…
Overall, we were extremely satisfied with Zabu Chicken. The fried chicken isn’t the cheapest, but I’ve realized that fried chicken can be quite expensive. I also liked how we were able to sit around and chat and continue drinking our beer and the servers didn’t kick us out. Cool place to chill at night!
Pros:
— Chicken is crispy and moist
— Fun, chill place to drink and hang with friends
Cons:
— Prices aren’t exactly cheap

Zabu was disgusting they served me fried bones!
Mister chef Ted supposedly does not speak English but he can drool on his shirt with no problems
Thank you guys soon much for the bones

Last Saturday my friends and I went to Zabu for chimaek, the Korean fried chicken and beer. Every Friday and Saturday (7pm-​midnight), Zabu offers Jokbal for $ 1 if you order chicken (must be $ 20+) and a beer pitcher. It was a pretty good deal for four of us.
Regular simple side dishes that Korean chicken places offer — pickled radish and cabbage salad with mayo.
Yang Nyum Chicken ($ 21.95) wasn’t too bad. My another Korean friend agreed that the fried chicken in Vancouver can never beat the ones in Korea. But. actually it would be more fair to say I loved Zabu’s chicken since I finished ¾. *If you know any good spot for Korean fried chicken in Vancouver, please let me know!
Jokbal ($ 1) came with some edamame on the side and the portion wasn’t big as we all assumed. Jokbal was a poor quality but edible when we were all drunk. It still deserved $ 1.
We ordered some other dishes later on but by that point I wasn’t sober enough to take pictures…
PROS
+ Open until late
+ Delivery available
+ Friendly service
CONS
— Some items seemed to be overpriced such as japchae and pajeon
RATING
Food 3.0÷5.0
Ambience 2.5÷5.0
Service 3.5÷5.0
Price $$
Zabu Chicken Official Website
Address: 1635 Robson Street, Vancouver
Phone Number: 604−602−0021
Hours of Operation:
Monday to Sunday 3pm-​3am

Currently holds the title of my favourite fried chicken in Vancouver. 5 solid stars for their original soy garlic chicken. But –1 star for their poor customer service. We came to order take-​out and was told it was going to take 30 mins. Ok, no prob — we’ll sit and wait. 30 mins pass and we decide to check on our order… turns out it was sitting on the counter for a while now! By the time we got home, the extra crispy skins were not so crispy anymore.
Btw, if you want delivery Zabu chicken, this site offers it:

Typical Asian business, decent food but lousy service. Not even close to Kyochon quality in NYC though.
I called to get a take out order last weekend, the Korean girl over the phone says 30 min. Ok, I went in 30 min for a quick pickup and notice that instead of a 12pc spicy and 12pc soy flavour, she gave me a 12pc soy and 6pc spicy. I asked to get the larger order and she said,
«Then you will have to wait another 30 min!» ?! what, these are fried all the time, you can’t just throw in 6 wings? No, apparently not, the orders must be processed in order, so I have to wait another 30 min.
I informed her that I have someone sitting in a temporarily parked car outside and asked to speak with the manager, she said none is available?! (for a restaurant this size, having half a dozen servers, there are no older managers than this pimply faced teenage girl?)
I was standing there starring at her, either she gives me the the full order or I am not taking any of this. Finally another guy came over and asked what’s going on, he went to the back and consulted the chef (over tossing in 6 pcs and I am willing to pay for the larger order too!). The lack of authority in these people are hilarious!
She comes back and says fine, but no, she can’t give me the mix (wings and drumsticks) but only wings, precisely not what I asked for. Fine, whatever, just charge me.
Guess what? instead of charging me for 12pc spicy + 12pc soy, she went ahead and charged me for 12 + 6 + 6, which came out a few dollars more expensive, are you kidding me? My patience is really running thin at this point, and finally she acknowledged her errors, and charged me the proper amount.
That’ll be the last time I go into that place for this kind of lack of customer service attitude.

I am an absolute chicken FREAK and love everything to do with it. especially when it’s deep fried but I will admit that I put this place off for a long time before finally caving to try it. The reason why is because of the high prices and how small the amount of food was. After ordering I was actually pleasantly surprised at the portion that we got in the end.
We shared a whole deep fried chicken that was half sweet chili cinnamon and half spicy. Knowing that it was a whole chicken it’s obvious what you’re going to get. A couple of wings, legs, thighs, breasts… so on and it was plenty enough for two people to share even on an empty stomach. This dish also came with a side of pallet cleansing pickled radishes and a small plate of cole slaw for $ 21.95, not a terrible price when spit between a couple people.
The spicy chicken is actually very spicy but not overpowering. It has a delicious kick that made my eyes water a little but made my mouth water even more. The sweet chili cinnamon sauce was absolutely amazing to the both of us. Not spicy at all but tangy and sweet… the cinnamon is a perfect touch as we were both in fried chicken heaven!
I have to say that the service isn’t great. and the place can get crowded with really loud young kids that seem to think it’s okay to clap their hands or snap or wave obnoxiously to flag down a waitress which might have something to do with it. Other than that the place is big and mostly clean but they did still have a few Halloween decorations up haha!
I loved the chicken we tried and in the future it would be possible that we’d take out the same thing as a lot of people seem to do quite frequently. I’m not on the search for other delicious Korean chicken dishes around the city but right now Zabu gets a good grade from me :)

If you think Zabu is the best chicken in town, your are so mistaken.
However, it’s certainly not a bad place.
Good atmosphere, mediocre service, OK chicken, etc.
The chicken is not the best, but Zabu is located downtown which is really convenient. The drinks are SUPER expensive. Like way too overpriced.
Serivce is OK. But since Zabu is always so busy I don’t expect anything amazing.
At Zabu, you pay more for the experience than the food.
The best chicken I’ve had is at BoomBeer in Surrey, but yeah, it’s in Surrey.
I come here pretty often, and I really wish they would lower their prices on drinks.
Other than that, a solid 3 stars.