Taste Testing Bon Chon’s Tacos, Sandwiches Ahead Of Offshoot Opening

A couple of weeks ago a sign popped up in a window on Nassau Street announcing the forthcoming (and terribly named) Kortako coming soon from the people behind Bon Chon on John St. I’d never eaten any of their non-Korean fried chicken items so headed over with a co-luncher for an investigative look into whether we had any right to be excited about them bringing us a taco and sandwich shop.

This location of Bon Chon (not to be confused with the one on Chambers St. disowned by the parent company, hereby known as “Bon Chicken”) actually has a few sandwich and taco options. It’s unknown which of them will be featured at the new shop, and I think they’ll have to have more than three sandwich options and some tacos to survive. There’s a Korean Philly cheese steak, a Korean chicken sandwich and an angus burger along with soft tacos.

I went with the tacos (3 for $7) and unfortunately they don’t let you mix and match proteins so I got spicy beef with kimchi coleslaw and jalapeno sauce. Other options are chicken, crispy chicken and tofu. Then you have to decide if you want it spicy or not, what toppings and what sauces you want. So many choices! It’s the same deal with the sandwiches as my friend found out while ordering the non-crispy chicken sandwich ($8).

My first bite of taco made me realize I may have gone overboard by saying yes to all of the spicy options. In fact, the girl taking my order had kind of laughed and gave me an “Are you sure, white girl?” look whenever I added something spicy on my taco, and then shook her head when I declined paying for a bottle of water.

This was a really tasty taco despite the fact that it was on a flour tortilla. The beef was flavorful and the jalapeno sauce and kimchi coleslaw added moisture and also made my mouth burn. Three of these should be enough to fill up most people although we got an order of pork potstickers (5 for $4) just in case. These had been deep fried and shellacked with some sort of soy sauce that sealed in all of the porky juices.

The chicken sandwich was a decent size and was ordered with kimchi coleslaw as a topping. Much like the tacos you can choose toppings and sauces, and if you want it fried and spicy or not.

I really liked the tacos although whenever I go to the actual Bon Chon I would still be ordering fried chicken. That being said, I’m always happy when something original opens in the increasingly chain lunch spot-ridden Financial District.

Bon Chon Chicken, 104 John St. (at Cliff), (646) 682-7747

ADVERTISEMENT

1 Comment

  • This is a fun place. it’s always crowded as people swill down $3 beers and $5 mojitos!

    It’s so close.. but I don’t want to drop $20 a day here…(still the wings and legs here are great.)

    I’ll have to try something else next time.

Leave a Reply

You must log in or register to post a comment.