Reviewer: Jason
Total Reviews: 992
Reviewed: 4/17/2007
Rating: 8
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We arrived at 99 Chicken for some Korean style fried chicken. I don't know how I got Terry to visit but he made it. Not quite the experience I had hoped for him as we were off to a rough start. 99 Chicken were short staffed which led to unprepared salad bar, no steam rice, and long wait time to order.
Terry got no love with our waiter either. As I made my order of the combination fried chicken, he skipped right over Terry. We had to flag him back to take Terry's order of spicy tofu dish no pork.
With only 1 guy running the entire restaurant, by the time he served out the drinks and prepped the fryer, 20 minutes had elapsed and another 10-15 minutes for frying time. Help finally arrived and the lady started to stock the salad bar (image 4). There wasn't much rice and it appeared to be from the previous night. She said something I couldn't understand, smiled and left with a styrofoam container. She returned a couple of minutes later and brought back steam rice. I think she bought it at the sushi place next door. She waved me over and I was able to fill my bowl with fresh rice. How cool is that?
For lunch, I shared a 10 piece combination chicken ($15, image 6,7) with Mark. They aren't small wussy pieces either, these are FULL size drumsticks and wings. None of the chicken is under a heat lamp as they are all cooked to order. I watched him take a knife and poke through the chicken, dump them in the bucket of dry batter, into the deep fryer, shakes the basket a couple of times, eyes the color of the batter, and removes. The owner takes special care of the chicken...you are in good hands.
There are 4 flavors in the combination chicken order.
plain batter - my favorite of the 4, batter very crunchy, not too oily on the outside, chicken was juicy and fully cooked. With proper oil temperature, you're basically sealing all the goodness (fat) within the batter casing. They advertise using cottonseed oil which I'm not too familiar with as peanut oil is normally my choice. Seasonings consisted of salt/pepper with a dominant ginger flavoring. I could eat a dozen wings with beer....hmmm. When your done with the bones, throw them in the steel container (image 10) on the table.
sweet chicken - tasted like honey chicken to me. same great batter and crunch but with honey like glaze. Easy repeat order if you like your chicken sweet.
hot spicy chicken - same batter but with a red sweet and spicy glaze, and topped off with garlic?. Spice was relatively hot, about a 7 on the heat scale. Thank god the batter was still crunchy and not soggy.
red glaze chicken or whatever they called it. It was basically the hot spicy red chicken minus the spicy stuff. It was red, kinda sweet, kinda tangy, kinda like sweet and sour? My least favorite of the batch.
The fried chicken passes my test with flying colors. The chicken here is super good and already on the repeat visit list. I want to try the whole chicken as I prefer white meat to dark.
Terry on the other hand had to wait an additional 10 minutes after we got the fried chicken. To make matters worse, they forgot to serve the spicy tofu (image 11) without pork. She apologized and went back to the kitchen, returned with new bowl. I think Terry liked it but was pretty much bummed on the entire lunch.
I loved the plain batter chicken the most followed by the hot spicy chicken. There's good ventilation and you won't smell too bad when you get back to work. 99 Chicken is a true mom and pop business that any jatbar fried chicken lovin' user should visit. They are open from noon until midnight. Cash and credit cards accepted. Service was very slow and even though communication might be difficult, their genuine smile shows they appreciate your business. Who knows, you might even get lucky and land a photo on their wall of fame.
...... almost forgot, he broke out with the james bond wet naps. He took these white pills and soaked them into a saucer dish with water. The pills soak up the water and magic..... image 9
I bought the two piece original chicken and I must say that it was pretty good. It included a drumstick and a wing. I really like the fact that the batter was thin and crisp, unlike other places where the batter is too thick and salty. 8/10
My sister bought the Kimchee jigae (kimchee soup) and that was okay. Not a repeat order for me honestly. It was quite spicy though. 7/10
The salad bar was so so. I actually really liked their wasabi dressing. That was very good. I slathered that stuff over my broccoli and chicken.
The owners were very friendly and I think that's what most important. You can have good food, but friendly service is what would keep me coming back (I'd come back for their chicken too haha) I'd also would like to try out their other dishes. I think they had one dish with bugs in it! I think it was called pupa? That was surprising.
Do you know why it's called "99 Chicken"? In Korean, the number nine can be pronounced as "ku", so really, it's "Kuku Chicken"! ahaha I thought that was cute.
“Has an incredibly sweet tangy flavor at first, but in about 30 seconds, your whole mouth just lights on fire. The regular chicken is the best I've ever had, definitely different than your usual fried chicken joint. I'm definitely coming back.”
8/30/2007 12:29:24 PM
watizit ate...
Combo Chicken
“There really was not much flavor other than hot for the spicy chicken and super sweet for the honey chicken. The salad bar was pretty empty but not re-filled. ”
4/22/2007 9:26:59 AM
wangela ate...
10-pc combo chicken (4 types)
“our favorite was the Original flavor, then the Honey. i didn't partake of the Spicy since i can't handle that, but we we agreed that the Sauce is skippable...it's kind of ketchup-ey.
i like how the chicken was crispy without being greasy/drippy.”
