Bonchon San Mateo - San Mateo (CA)

2 /5 Felix & Gene: Ive been going to this chain for over half a decade now and Ive slowly seen them slip away in quality, shrinking portion sizes, and jacking up the prices. I paid 33$ for a 20 piece strips in 2022 and its now 55$. Im not even joking with you that the first time I ordered the strips years ago it was a massive mound of food. Like more than an entire chickens worth of meat. Each strip was like a dinosaur sized slab of meat and fried really well. Then of course they had to reduce the portion sizes which was understandable but still sad. I still liked the flavor and the quality was still decent so I kept coming back. This time i ordered was different. The chicken was pretty poorly fried and tons of uncoated spots on almost every strip. They also stopped using their own branded boxes which were designed to let out extra steam so that if you travel with them at all they dont get a soggy. Now they use the same horrible brown paper boxes that you see at every other place. There was also a horrible black mutation on the inside of one of the strips. Go back to your roots guys, yall are missing the mark. Put some love and care back into this place. I hope you do because I used to be a huge fan.

4 /5 K Chang: The portion of the food was very small. Bibimbap was cold and had very tiny pieces of scrambled eggs. The food wasn’t bad. It’s just disappointingly under expectations.

1 /5 Bill White: This wasnt even close to normal Bon Chon Double fried chicken. We go the chicken strips, it didnt have any breading on it, naked chicken with Korean BBQ sauce, really disappointing. I have been to other Bon Chon and they all double fried thier chicken stripe. They didnt even get our order right. We didnt get our French fries. Terrible representation of Bon Chon. I will never eat at this one ever again.

5 /5 Miss Vonnie’s Class: Earlier this week on Sunday, I was craving some Korean fried Chicken, which I never had before. I did a search on Google and came across Bonchon in San Mateo. The first experience I had, I was not happy with my order because it was not accurate. I ordered an 8 piece, but only received a 4 piece and because it’s through a 3rd party nothing could be done. I decided on Monday I would order this time directly from the restaurant. Everything worked out, and I have to tell you even though my order was not right the first time? This did not take away from the quality of the food. I ordered the drumsticks extra crunch? No sauce, and the first time I ordered with fried rice, both were excellent. The seasoning, it was rich with flavor, and I have absolutely no complaints. The second time on Monday I ordered the same chicken a 4 piece, the corn with the mayonnaise, cheese and red pepper flakes, with a side of steamed rice. Everything was just perfect. I’m not kidding you it’s taking everything in me to control myself from ordering more today, and it’s just Tuesday. It’s just that good! Whoever the chefs are, you can taste the love in their cooking, it’s not just thrown together. There is Love in their food, and know this because my Mom’s food is just the same. Every bite is good. I don’t say these things lightly when it comes to restaurants. There’s not too many that impress me like this. All I can say is keep the love in your food, and don’t change the quality even if you have a million customers, don’t change your food. 5/5 for me, it’s a must try if you love fried chicken or Korean food. I don’t have pictures this time, maybe next time if I can upload I will. The chicken is so crunchy that even when it’s cold it’s still good and crunchy and not soggy. That is when you know food is good, when it gets cold and it’s just as good. Thank you so much for listening.

4 /5 Sisi Chen: Got the half & half. The spicy half was a little too spicy for me. The chicken overall was tasty but some pieces tasted old and stringy. The coating was a bit thick too. It did satisfy my fried chicken craving but it is not even close to the Korean fried chicken I had in Seoul. The people who work there are super friendly though.