Bunsik

I’m a sucker for fried chicken.

It is not something that wanes day to day, is dependent on the temperature or the weather.  It is always a deep yearning in my soul.  That is, as long as I haven’t just eaten too much of it.

This is Bunsick, a Korean fried chicken place.  That is a dangerous thing.  For fried chicken lovers like me.  I might get fat(er).

The problem is that during my time in the Far East, it seemed that fried chicken from there, whether it be from the humble KFC, a hole in the wall or an izakaya, just seemed a cut above that from anywhere else.  Perhaps because of the air there, fried chicken was succulent, flavourful, crunchy and bursting with umami. So much so that often my heart would skip a beat when fried chicken was near.  So I approached this meal with great expectations.

Dakgangjeong bap, fried chicken, glass noodles, rather undercooked broccoli and rice.  So when KFC (Korean Fried Chicken) appeared in London, things had to be done.  This is sweet and sesame fried chicken.  The chicken was decent, if a bit too heavy in the batter.  The insides were moist and delicious, the rice and noodles were rice and noodles but the broccoli.  Kind of felt like it had been lightly boiled and then shoved in as a token element of greenery.  So, it was ok if nothing worth coming back for.  Rather heavy and too much filling.

Honey garlic chicken.  With abundant sauce, these could have been great.  Unfortunately, like the chicken that had come before, there was rather too much flour here.  When I bit in, I felt a bit cheated as there wasn’t really that much inside.  On one particular bite, I just bit into flour only.  Seemed that at times there was a lack of substance, in the same way that politicians of our day and age are.

Original corn dog ddukbokki.  Perhaps the best dish of the day, it was battered sausage on top of rice cakes.  The sausage was a sausage, the exterior a crispy shell.  The rice cakes were good though, doused in spicy sauce.  Yet, again it seemed like it had way too much flour, which made this less than pleasant as that is rather tasteless in fried dough form.

In my old age (sometimes accurately otherwise called stupidity), I stuffed my face with food rather too fast.  I then realized that I had eaten so much that walking around was more of an effort than usual.  Things weren’t really working that well as it has been a while since I’ve felt so full.  I forgot my own aptitude for self-harm.  In my younger days I might perhaps have shrugged this off but with age comes difficulties.  So what did I think of Bunsik?  Life is full of surprises, especially for idiots like me.  I guess I will have to roll home then.

A quiet eating 6/10.

Lunch (1.5 courses) was GBP14 excluding drinks and service.

Bunsik

19 Villiers St,
London WC2N 6ND