After trying jjimdak in Seoul several years ago, I've been on the lookout for a place in Hong Kong that serves this specialty dish and Bongchu comes to my rescue! I first tried this place about a year ago when it first opened, and although it's not as good as eating it in South Korea, it'll do when I have a strong craving for jjimdak.
First of all, what is jjimdak? Jjim means stew and dak means chicken so it's a kind of stewed chicken that comes with a potato glass noodle. The sauce that it's in is slightly sweet, almost like a sweet soy sauce. There are usually veggies in it also. Bongchu's comes with cucumbers, carrots, and onions. You can also choose the spice level you want (1-3 peppers). We tried the two pepper version tonight and it was definitely not as spicy as I imagined it would be. My mouth wasn't even burning. I think the part that could use some improvement is how flavorful the chicken is. It almost feels like the chicken wasn't stewed in the sauce for a long enough time because while the outside of the chicken has flavor, once you bite into it there is none of the flavor from the sauce.
We also had their spicy fried chicken. This was also not as spicy as we thought it would be. The sauce tasted the like red spicy sauce from tteokbokki. The skin of the chicken wasn't soggy but definitely could have been more crunchy and the chicken wasn't as juicy as it could have been. You do get a place glove for your thumb and forefinger so you can eat with your hands. I appreciated that. Also, the fried chicken comes with some fries.
The servers here don't really speak Cantonese so use either Korean or English. Although the menu has all 3 languages on it. The servers are nice and attentive though. During the several times that I've been here, it has never really been crowded (I've been for both lunch and dinner). The spend is around HK$150-$200 (~US$22-27) a head depending on what you get. It is also quite close to the B exit of the Mong Kok MTR station.
Overall, I would recommend this place if you love jjimdak or would really like to try it. Again, it's not as good as it is in Korea but I'll take what I can get. read more