I give ChoongMan Chicken a solid four out of five stars. This restaurant has great Korean fried chicken; currently some of the best you're going to find in metro Atlanta.
ChoongMan opened in the old JM BBQ space (http://bit.ly/2Q6ufVA) at GW Marketplace, on the end opposite of Sweet Hut, in October 2018. JM Bar remains. This is the first Georgia location for this international Korean fried chicken chain.
ChoongMan is a direct competitor to Thank U Chicken (http://bit.ly/2LRFZgm), also in Duluth, and to a lesser extent, places like Hello Chicken (on Buford Highway; http://bit.ly/2LUnesw) and Bonchon (another chain; http://bit.ly/2QbUCtp), which are located farther away. I've tried them all and it's hard for me to pick a favorite because I think they're all good and for various reasons. To me, ChoongMan is most comparable to Thank U in terms of taste, texture, and even ambiance. If you're a fan of Thank U (and Korean fried chicken in general), ChoongMan is definitely worth checking out.
The dining room is divided into three sections with half-wall partitions. Like Thank U, ChoongMan has TVs playing the latest K-pop music videos. The build-out at Thank U is slightly nicer. ChoongMan's seating consists of tables only. It's great for groups as well as one-on-one dates. The atmosphere is casual. The staff, all-male when we visited, wore the same black ChoongMan-branded T-shirts. The narrow restroom hallway had ingredients, such as ChoongMan's proprietary batter mix, stacked several feet high.
This place is ideal for takeout. There's an order and pick-up counter in the back. Call ahead.
The menu is heavy on fried chicken and sparse on everything else including sides and vegetables. They offer over 15 kinds of chicken including gizzards. Most varieties are available as wings or tenders ($10-13 per order) or whole chickens ($19-23 each). What isn't mentioned on the menu is you can order half chickens too. Half a chicken costs a little over half the price of a whole chicken.
Along with the standard Korean fried chicken options, ChoongMan offers "Snow" and "Tikkudak" varieties. Snow refers to chicken topped and smothered with onions and sauce. Tikkudak refers to chicken that's not only been fried, but also baked afterwards over charcoal (supposedly). The result is crispier, crunchier chicken. Then there are gizzards (two flavors, $10 each), fries and coleslaw ($5 each).
$7.99 lunch specials are available Monday-Friday, 11am-3pm.
They have a limited number of beers on tap, served in mugs ($4-5 each) and pitchers ($15-19 each), and in bottles ($4-5 each). Sapporo is the only Asian beer they serve.
There were four of us and we ordered:
#2. Garlic Soy Chicken (wings, $12) - signature crispy chicken tossed in a soy-garlic glaze
#3. Garlic Spicy Chicken (half chicken, $10.50) - sweet and spicy chicken, tastes different than the Garlic Soy
#7. Hot Snow Onion (half chicken, $12) - chicken topped with sliced onions and smothered in a creamy white sauce
#16. Tikku(dak) Red Hot Pepper Gizzards ($10) - sweet and spicy, fried and charcoal-baked in ChoongMan's gochujang sauce
#18. Curly fries ($5)
This was just the right amount of food for the four of us. We had some leftovers, but not a lot. Ordering one set of wings, tenders, or a half chicken per person is a good idea.
Our favorites were the Garlic Soy Chicken and Hot Snow Onion chicken, but all of the chicken varieties were delicious. One of my friends is a regular and she almost always orders the Garlic Soy Chicken in wings when she comes. Generally, all of the chicken flavors we ordered above came with sweet (to varying degrees), rich, and sticky sauces. Everything arrived to our table relatively quick, despite it being a moderately busy night, and the dishes were piping hot. I couldn't tell a difference between the tikkudak cooking style and the regular cooking style. All of the chicken was delectably crispy and crunchy.
I suggest avoiding tenders to maximize taste and texture. The Garlic Soy had a completely different flavor profile than the Garlic Spicy, so don't be hesitant to order both. The Garlic Spicy has a heat that hits you right away, while the Red Hot Gizzards have a slower, more intense burn. Overall, we found all of the chicken to have an addictive quality to them. The gizzards, sized like popcorn chicken, had a terrific, appetizing, and chewy texture. I recommend them (get the Soy Sauce version if you don't like spicy food).
The Hot Snow Onion chicken comes with two sauces, a white one that they smother on top and a green one that comes on the side. The white one is sweet, creamy, and I believe mayo-based. The green one is spicy, sort of like a peppery salsa. The onions aren't just plain onions, but pickled with a nice, sharp, vinegary taste to them. I like how they're generous with them.
The curly fries were no better than Arby's curly fries. Cubes of daikon radish with ketchup were complimentary.
Our server, Steven, did a wonderful job. read more