Bonchon

The food tasty good. The bad reviews are for the bad service.
I ordered 2 dishes, which turned out to be a combo with lower price just after I paid. After I noticed, the cashier said «it’s just 2 dollars or so». I felt like that I should be the person to say that, but not the cashier… Then when I picked up my food, I found they did not put my drinks in the bag, so I had to go back in the middle of my way to get them.

Today was my first trip to any BonChon location and I was impressed. The restaurant was clean and I was greeted by a friendly smile and hello as I entered. I ordered a water and 5 chicken drum sticks in the non-​stick sauce with a side of coleslaw. The food arrived fairly quickly and tasted fantastic. The server was kind and attentive; refilling my water before I even requested. The meal was very filling and I couldn’t finish all five of my drumsticks. I was satisfied with the quality, price, and service. If you are looking for fried chicken in San Mateo, this is the place to be.

This place sells tasty Korean fried chicken. We love the crispy skin, though I wish they gave out unlimited daikon or cole slaw just like other fried chicken rests in Santa clara. Beware of the hot flavor because its burning hot going in and going out, you know what I mean. There bibimbaps and chapchae are pretty decent too. Service is very attentive.

Oh yeah i love me some fried chicken. Bonchon has the bomb crispy chicken and you know brothas love them some chicken. They are located in downtown san mateo and parking can suck depend on the time of day. i normally come here after the lunch time rush. They close at 2pm daily so if you get in at 1 its perfect no wait. The staff here is amazing they are always asking if you need anything :) my kind of people. The food comes out fast as well hot and crispy. I normally get the half and half combo wings and drums with a side of seasoned fries. i will have to say this is my goto for spicy crispy chicken! check them out when in the area.

This location is just as good as the other two locations (Sunnyvale and San Bruno) that we’ve been to. It’s smaller, though, but the team is friendly and service is fast. The wait is typically long as the other spots.
It looks like they’ve changed their menu; you now only get one side regardless of the size of chicken you order. It’s a shame that prices are starting to edge up. Is it due to costs (which I can understand) or to their popularity (not a good thing to take advantage of people).
In any case, we’ll still be coming here for their soy garlic and spicy chicken wings! Their bibimbap was not very good, though.

We love this place. When it first opened we ate here at least once a week. Now that the hype has died down we still eat here once a month. We love naked wings, no sauce. It’s so crunchy and light and heats up well the next day. For the strips we like half and half because the fiancé likes it hot and I like it mild. We don’t usually order the drumsticks as we aren’t fans only because it seems more dry than the other two but flavor wise it is good.
Also we love love the coleslaw, pickled radish, rice (always perfectly fluffy and soft) and kimchi.
We also love the rice cakes but the fried seaweed thing throws us off. We aren’t fans and we would love more noodles and less fish cakes. Yah we love our carbs.
Order to go, take it to the movies across the street and it’s better than your standard popcorn or eat in the restaurant. There is never a bad way or wrong way to enjoy fried chicken Korean style.

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Has a lot more seating availability that Sunnyvale. It’s not as good as the Sunnyvale one. They have slight variations in the chicken strips or white meat only version. This one makes more thinner strips.
All in all they are good. They used to be worse but I think they tightened up their game. Now I will come all the time.
Negatives are parking but seating availability is really good. And the service is really good they are always nice and give refills often.

Oh boy what is there not to like about this place! We started of with fries and the bulgogi sliders fries were a little bland the the sliders were on point! We wanted to try the pork belly buns but the didn’t have it which was kind of sad. Will try next time though! My friends had the tteokbokki which was amazing reminded me of the one I had on the streets of Korea! I shared a large combo plate with two other friends it came with 15 wings and 8 drumsticks for $ 31.95 we got it in soy garlic. When it came out I was amazed by how big the chickens were! When I took the first bite my reaction was «Ohhhhhh my god it’s delicious!» We also ordered a large strawberry soju and it was the best soju I’ve ever had! Although parking is a pain in the butt I do plan on coming back if im craving KFC

Wingstop, make your wings like this! I probably got a lot of haters for just that opening statement, but hey, I stand by my word.
Walking in, it’s apparent that this is a hangout place. That’s the first thing to note. There isn’t anything fancy about this place. That’s not a negative, but it’s something to note. Depending on who is here it can get pretty loud. When I came in here there was a softball team (I think) and they were pretty loud.
Anyways, service was pretty good, not too much to comment on it. They were consistent, always came to check up on us.
The place is advertised as a Korean place, then a wings place. In my opinion, this is a wing place first and then a Korean place. The wings here are awesome… I’m not completely sure on how they make these wings, I think they bread it and fry it, but the skin on these wings are amazing. The amazing crunch with the wonderful sauce on the wings is just fantastic.
We got the half garlic wings and half spicy wings. I think they are a good combo, they need to be eaten together. The garlic wings are flavorful, but they do feel like they need a kick, where the spicy chicken comes in. Eaten together they compliment each other and I would advise people to get both.
As for the other stuff, I had ordered a bibimbap. Overall it was average. Nothing stood out from the bibimbap. Honestly it was just good to eat the spicy chicken with some rice. That’s what it was best for.
Bottom line: Chicken, chicken, chicken! The wings here are great! I don’t think I’ve had better wings. I think the best way to eat them might be to take them to go and go home to eat them with some rice or something to cut the heat.

I was really debating between a 3 or 4 star for this place.
The feel of this place is not really a soju bar but more of an American Korean fusion restaurant. Service was great, waitress came over asking if everything was doing well, refilled our water, gave us extra napkins. Came at 6:30PM on a Saturday night and wasn’t packed at all.
The main thing on their menu are the wings, this is like a better version of a Korean KFC. Wings were pretty darn good. Great flavor for their garlic sauce, however hot wings were HOT and basically just tasted hot without much flavor. Also, some of the drumsticks were really big which kind of took away from the flavoring. Would like to have smaller drumsticks in the long run.
They also offer other things like bibimbap, japchae, tteokbokkee.
We ordered the tteokbokkee which had a good size portion with rice cakes, noodles, and fish cakes.
My ears were burning and nose was running within 2 minutes of eating. It was great.
Great place to go before or after a movie across the street. Not many other good Korean restaurants or Asian fried chicken places around which means this would be my go to restaurant if I wanted some late night Korean fried chicken. But I hope they use smaller drumsticks in the future.

I had to give this place a try after a bunch of my friends were raving about it from the other locations.
I started off thinking the prices for the food was pretty expensive. The pot stickers looked tiny and were almost $ 9. We wanted to try some of the main entrees but didn’t think it would be worth it, so we ended up getting 10 piece wing (half garlic soy and half spicy). The wings came out pretty tiny compared to some of the drumsticks other tables ordered… I also only asked for wings but our order came with three drumsticks. You get to choose one side with your wings (coleslaw, pickled daikon, or rice).
Flavor wise I thought the chicken was alright. It definitely wasn’t to die for and you definitely need the side as the flavor gets a bit repetitive. The spicy tasted like the soy garlic but just spicier. I was actually surprised to find out that there were only two types of flavors to choose from.
We were lucky enough to not have to wait when we came in here but when we were leaving the line was almost out the door. FYI, the restaurant is a bit small and they do not have many big tables for larger parties so you might have to wait. There is also bar seating with TVs. The customer service was very good though, they kept asking us if we wanted more water, if we wanted to order anything else, or needed anything.

Bön Chon is delicious!
A friend and I have been craving chicken & beer since our night classes ended, and so we came here on a Sunday evening with around 6pm. This place used to be a boba shop before but clearly did not make its place in San Mateo’s downtown. Bonchon will be here for a long time, and Gangnam Chicken around the block can’t even compare. Though I haven’t tried Gangnam Chicken, I haven’t exactly heard raving reviews about the place either. Service was really nice and attentive. The servers would come over enough to refill our waters, and ask us about the food. Service was quick, and they have plenty of TV monitors to entertain you with a sports game. I wished this place opened until late at night so then I could just pop on over here after watching a movie across the street.
I ordered 10 wings ($ 12, half spicy/​half soy garlic), and shared a pitcher of Lagunitas IPA ($ 15 a pitcher serving a little over 4 cups).
The half soy garlic wings tasted great. Sweet and crisp. There is nothing to complain about, except I couldn’t really taste much garlic. The spicy wings were a bit too spicy for me, so I definitely needed those refills on water. I’m not the kind of person to take spicy foods too well so be mindful in choosing this sauce. Apparently you could adjust the spiciness level, but we weren’t informed of that, unfortunately for me. The beer tasted really good as well.
TIP: If you’re going to get the same sauce as at least one other person, and you don’t care for a personal individual side (pickled radish, coleslaw, or rice), order a bigger set to save a few dollars.
If you’re looking for a good snack, stop by here!

No wait on a Saturday for lunch.
Three of us shared a wings and drumsticks combo (15 pieces) for about $ 20. We had the mixed soy garlic and spicy flavors. The drumsticks were huge, and the wings were very tender. The crispy coating was done perfectly and came out hot. The soy garlic is a kind of salty and sweet, like soy sauce and honey. The spicy is pretty spicy but not unbearable. I don’t know if I could eat these continuously though. The pickled radish side (or you can choose rice or cole slaw) was the perfect complement to the wings
We also got the salmon avocado ball as an appetizer ($ 10). This was pretty heavy when paired with the wings. It’s a ball of avocado, cucumber, and imitation crab tossed in a mayo dressing and topped with a small piece of cooked salmon. Probably would skip this next time and just stick with the chicken.

This place is fantastic for late night snacklature.
Came here with friends and we ordered up a bunch along with their pitcher of beer (which actually only fills up four pints sadly) — got the japanese noodles, octopus balls, bulgogi, fried chicken and the potstickers.
Everything was doggone good. May be the beer talking but it was all delicious and made truly to order so it’s fresh.
The octopus balls were very hot but has great flavor and definitely had octopus inside–
Japanese noodles were hot and deliciously flavored, hard to describe but highly recommend it. Albeit it’s a very small portion.
Bulgogi rice plate was tasty and well seasoned with a plate of rice. Meat was well marinated.
Potstickers were done properly and there’s that crunch on the bottom– seasoned so well you don’t need to use soy sauce.
Very nice server as well and quick service that was prompt and great. Will be coming back!

Easily made it to one of my favorite Korean restaurant! I came in one night at 8:30PM (30 minutes before they closed) & they were still really nice about it. They didn’t rush us to order & eat. Everyone provided excellent customer service throughout our time there!
I ordered:
–10 soy garlic wings
–1 order of takoyaki
If you can’t take spicy I suggest you stay away from the spicy! The spicy wings are no joke. That’s why I ordered the soy garlic wings instead! This is the best soy garlic wings I’ve ever tasted. They’re pretty sweet so I like to eat it with rice to balance out the flavor. All the wings comes with either a side of rice, pickled radish, or coleslaw.
This was my first time trying takoyaki & it was really good! It’s fries octopus with a mayo sauce on top. Sounds weird at first but definitely worth a try!
Parking is pretty hard to find since its in the middle of downtown but there’s a free parking garage a block away.

I LOVE BON CHON. I always go to Sunnyvale location since it’s the only one in the South Bay. The location of this one is in busy downtown San Mateo, where parking is almost hard to find unless you park at the parking structures. I like this one because the interior of it is modern and has cool writings on the walls. Did I mention they have more items on their menu versus the one in Sunnyvale? Amazeballs.
A group of friends and I came here for a friend’s farewell dinner. It was 7 of us and the lady who took our orders was super kind enough to split the bill for us in 4 ways! We were super grateful since most restaurants don’t often do that.
My boyfriend and I ordered the large combo with half and half flavors and the salmon avocado ball! Oh man, that salmon avocado ball is soOoOOo freakin’ bomb. I’m gonna order 2 next time because it just reminds me a huge California Roll with spicy mayo all around. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! As for the chicken wings, most of the wings we got were small and then we got 3 big pieces of drumsticks. The flavor is always awesome, but I wish the pieces were bigger.
Our server was very patient with us since it was a big group of us. She was kind enough to take our picture in the restaurant. :) I’ll definitely be back since the customer service was perfect. Plus, I can already hear that salmon avocado ball calling my name!

So I was super excited when I found out that there was a Bonchon location en route between work (Palo Alto) and home (San Francisco), so I would no longer have to drive a half hour in the wrong direction (Sunnyvale) to get my fix.
But interestingly… this was a REALLY different place than the Sunnyvale location. The menu was way more extensive, lots of non-​fried-​chicken options that I didn’t see at the original. Had the kimchee which was WAY better than the kimchee coleslaw in Sunnyvale. But the chicken… it just wasn’t… right. From the first bite, all 20+ times I’ve been to the Sunnyvale location, it was mouth wateringly good. And this night, I was starving so expected it just to be heavenly. But it wasn’t. It just wasn’t great.
My completely made-​up theory is that they have more different things going on with their fryers here, altering the oil and changing the chemistry. I don’t know. Something. It’s not quite right. And sadly, it’s not nearly as delicious.
I guess Sunnyvale, with it’s longer lines and more limited menu, will be retaining me as a regular customer afterall.

My friend, who has been to the Sunnyvale location, recommended this chain to my boyfriend and me. So we met up one weekend to check out this location, which, to my friend’s utter delight, was situated right next to 2 boba shops in downtown San Mateo. There was no wait at all and we were greeted and quickly seated by friendly staff.
We ordered a plate of chicken wings & drumsticks with the soy garlic sauce (my friend said the spicy sauce is not even spicy at all), a salad, and a bibimbap to share. The fried chicken was delicious — just lightly crispy with just enough sauce. I appreciated that the skin didn’t all come off when I took bite after bite in the chicken, and there wasn’t so much sauce that the chicken became soggy. The salad and bibimbap were decent. They were a bit pricey for the quality, especially considering that this place isn’t really a tofu house or anything. I just ordered them because I wanted some veggies (yeah, I’m that kind of person), but next time, I probably will just get the salad.

This place has been on the list for a while since we moved to San Mateo. I was told that it is better than Gagnam Chicken which is nearby and I love Korean fried chicken so I was excited to try this place.
I think my standards are high because the wing places I’m always comparing any place new I try are San Tung and two places in Chicago that make excellent chicken: Crisp and Great Seas.
We ordered a small size of wings and drums… half spicy and half of the soy non-​spicy sauce. I would say that the chicken is decent but not anything to go out of the way for. The flavor of the crust is pretty good but there’s that extra juicy/​flavor factor missing that really excellent korean fried chicken always has.
We also tried the dukbokki, which comes with fish cake, glass noodles, and mozzarella cheese on top. Like the chicken, the dukbokki was ok, but not excellent. I would say I could probably make better dukbokki at home off of Maangchi’s recipe. However, if you have a craving for Korean fried chicken, and you’re in the San Mateo area, this is a decent choice.

Everyone’s been raving about Bonchon! Thanks to my friend for inviting me to try this place. I finally know what the hype is all about — scrumptious fried chicken with spiciness that packs a punch! At times my palate was on fire… the spicy sauce definitely creeps up on you.
Being in the soft opening stage, this location is superb when it comes to their entire menu from chicken to main dishes, friendly customer service, spacious atmosphere surrounded by TV’s, great lighting, spotless, and warm greeting the moment you walk in. The saying goes «practice makes perfect», and these hardworking folks have definitely perfected it — flawless! The owner Karen is extremely pleasant, and her hands-​on approach will make the business thrive.
We ordered the combo chicken with half & half, and honestly, I wanted to try everything. My friend advised I come hungry, and I sure did. The gyozas were delicious, especially the spicy ones — hiya! The Bulgogi came out steaming hot, and it was cooked/​marinated to perfection. I am still thinking about it… drool.
Did you know they use Mary’s free-​range organic chicken, and that’s why their poultry doesn’t look like they’re on steroids unlike many fast food chains. Plus, they use NO batter, how does one do that? I love their appealing food and quantity, satisfies any appetite. They serve beer, house wines, non-​alcoholic beverages, and Soju. It was lively for a Wednesday evening, nice way to finish off hump day catching up with a friend over tasty chicken, and the aroma of downtown San Mateo is contagious. I see why she didn’t want to meetup on a weekend, this place would be super packed. Great location with all the foot traffic.
I will be in this area next week to celebrate a friend’s book launch, and I may have to stop by. I can’t wait to return with the family and have them try succulent fried chicken. I foresee a possible UYE here. Great job Bonchon of San Mateo, you’re not just winging it =)