You may have noticed there’s a new Choon Chun Chicken on Kalakaua Avenue. We certainly did!
Fairly eye-catching, isn't it?
Looking for some late night grinds, the Taste Crew decided to give the new Korean eatery a try…
Here’s a shot from outside the restaurant the night we decided to drop in:
Hard to make out the "Choon Chun" part at night...
The new location on Kalakaua Ave. is the second Choon Chun Chicken to open on Oahu (the first, Choon Chun Chicken B-B-Q on King St., is located across from Pae Thai).
In English and Korean, of course!
If you’re on Kalakaua heading towards Waikiki, turn right into the driveway immediately after Fabric Mart; parking’s located behind the restaurant.
Inside, Choon Chun Chicken’s new Kalakaua location sports a bright, clean, modern look:
L-shaped booths near the front of the restaurant.
Unlike the King St. location, the new Choon Chun Chicken has more of a welcoming atmosphere with large windows and a bright, well-lit interior.
Flowers from the restaurant's opening three days before we stopped in.
When we arrived it was almost eleven, and only a handful of the tables were occupied.
(Not unexpectedly, we were the only non-Korean speakers in the place.)
Poetry, in the form of wall decals, adorns the walls here.
We were seated by the host at a table near the entrance, opposite the nifty wall decal above.
Interestingly, the quote (hard to make out due to the glare from the camera) reads:
Heres [sic] an adventure! What awaits
Beyond those closed, mysterious gates?
Whom shall I meet, where shall I go?
and is taken from a longer poem entitled, “Adventure Awaits,” by Abbie Farwell Brown.
More poetry perhaps? Also, lots of interesting shapes...
Larger booths along the windows facing Kalakaua Ave.
Here’s the front cover of the menu:
The menu at Choon Chun Chicken with funny chicken mascot!
There are plenty of selections to choose from, all broken up into the usual categories: chicken, beef, seafood, etc.
There's a daily lunch buffet from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The menu – in Korean, English, and Japanese – had pictures of the dishes running along the top and bottom of the menu’s pages, but it was still hard to figure out which picture went with which dish.
We ended up asking our server for his recommendations.
(The service, like the menu, is in both English and Korean)
Jinro water bottles...
As is traditional, the servers brought out various side dishes, or banchan, including choy sum, bean sprouts, and lettuce topped with Thousand Island dressing (!):
Yes, Thousand Island dressing...
Also, local favorites kim chee and mac salad:
In the background, kim chee and mac salad! And in the foreground, front and center,...
Our first dish, the house specialty Dak Galbi, came out on a sizzling hot platter with a dark colored sauce:
Dak Galbi and assorted banchan...
The full portion can be shared by up to four; we got a half portion instead.
Here’s a closer look:
Closeup on Choon Chun Chicken's Dak Galbi!
Tender morsels of spicy stir-fried chicken with onions, cabbage, carrots, a starchy vegetable we couldn’t quite identify, and garae tteok, those delightfully chewy, tubular rice cakes.
Seafood Scallion Pancake, or haemul pajeon.
Not found in the menu (it was recommended to us by our server), the Seafood Pancake at Choon Chun Chicken came sliced into 9 pieces, topped with squid, shrimp, and scallions.
The edges were slightly crispy while the rest of the pancake was soft and chewy.
Here's a closer look...
And our final dish of the evening:
Half portion, Spicy Fried Chicken (also, missing a few pieces).
The pic above was taken after a couple of pieces of chicken had already made their way from the dish onto our plates.
Since there were only two of us, our server let us order the half portion shown above.
The Spicy Fried Chicken took awhile to arrive (long enough that we began to wonder if the order had been put in), but to be fair, we placed the order after we’d already received the first two dishes.
The chicken, topped with a sprinkling of crushed nuts, was deep-fried until nice and crispy and coated with a red sauce that was sweet and cinnamon-y and not nearly as spicy as we were expecting (the Dak Galbi was spicier than the Spicy Fried Chicken).
And yes, that’s a side of shredded cabbage with Thousand Island Dressing on the plate…
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Our total bill came out to $32 and some change for the three dishes we ordered, not including tip – very reasonable given the amount of food we received. (We ended up taking some of the food home afterwards).
All in all, a good experience. We’ll definitely be back to try a few more of the dishes at a later date…
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For more info, check out our entry for Choon Chun Chicken’s Kalakaua location here.
And for more about the flagship location on King and Birch St., click on the link below:
Tags: Choon Chun Chicken Kalakaua, Choon Chun Chicken Kalakaua Review, Choon Chun Chicken Menu, Choon Chun Chicken Review
