Bonchon Chicken brings spicy Korean wings to Lee’s Summit

If only all franchise operations were as good as Bonchon Chicken. South Korea’s popular international restaurant chain (it operates in Singapore and Dubai, for example, as well as on both U.S. coasts) this month opened its first local outpost, in Lee’s Summit (at 1740 Northwest Chipman Road), and the food lives up to its reputation.

And by food, I mean the star of the Bonchon show: twice-fried chicken wings, slathered in either spicy chili sauce or a more mellow soy-garlic flavor. The wings are served, thankfully, with a generous bowl of pickled daikon radish cubes, which help extinguish the addictive fire.

Oh, and there are some peculiar-sounding — but delicious — sliders. 

Yes, you can also try more traditional Korean dishes at Bonchon. The dinner menu includes, for instance, the rice dish bibimbap — offered here with a choice of bulgogi beef, spicy chicken, tofu or seafood. Also: bull dak, bulgogi, fried rice, japchae, and chicken katsu. But I’m more likely to order the sliders again, which come three to a plate and center on tender slices of marinated, sauteed bulgogi rib-eye. The meat comes in miniature burger buns, with a thick slice of fresh cucumber, sliced red onions and slaw. A side of bracing kimchi works well here, but you can have fries if you’d rather. 

The father-and-son team behind the Midwest’s first Bonchon, Thomas Hughes Sr. and Thomas Hughes Jr., say their taste for Korean cuisine dates back to the elder Hughes’ having been stationed in South Korea as a U.S. Air Force pilot in the 1980s. “When my son was looking for restaurant franchise opportunities,” the senior Hughes says, “this one really excited us, particularly when we found out there’s nothing like it served in the Midwest.

“In the Midwest,” he adds, “customers want value, and they want meaty.” And in Lee’s Summit, the value- and meat-minded customers include families and young professionals, busy people who could use more options in their suburb. Bonchon, with its moderately priced entrees, full bar and children’s menu (“We’re the first Bonchon in the entire chain to have a children’s menu,” Hughes Sr. says), seems built for local success. (If, like me, you’re not a Lee’s Summiter, the place might elude you at first; you must maneuver through the labyrinth of the Summit Woods Shopping Center to find it.) It’s a cool, comfortable room with the usual collection of TV screens and attentive, cheery servers. 

And that tasty chicken.

Wings, drummies and strips can be ordered in various combinations, but neither sauce — the kick-ass spicy version and the very garlicky soy — is for the fainthearted (or for most children, probably). Both are excellent, and Hughes Sr., who identifies as a perfectionist, says he buys bigger and meatier chicken pieces than the standard Bonchon suggestions (value, meaty, etc.).

The Hugheses are already scouting locations for their next Bonchon restaurant. “We’d like to open four or five more in the metro,” Hughes Sr. says. “Definitely Overland Park. Maybe Olathe.”