TL;DR: no AC. Fans only. NYC Bon chon was better. :( So the boy and I were really excited to go eat at Bon Chon since our last experience with it in NYC was uh-maaaazing. Unfortunately this location was a little bit of a let down. We ordered a small order of soy garlic drumsticks (5 pcs). The chicken was ok/juicy, and maybe it was the lack of AC that kind of killed the mood for us? We also ordered the okdal bibimbap. Came out bland and flavorless unless you added a lot of hot sauce. Soooo all in all - OK food, no ACon a wickedly hot day, decent service = 3 stars. read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - 5 drumsticks - soy garlic! - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

See all

KOREAN FRIED CHICKEN = the best fried chicken you can get. Way more crispy, and bursting with much more flavor than you've ever experienced. Between the spicy and the soy garlic I always go with the soy garlic. Besides the fried chicken this place is just mediocre hence only 4 stars. Tip: if you have a group of 12 or so you can get a long booth (they take out the separator between the booths) and you can all sit at the same table. read more

I came here a couple of times and I think it is a better alternative to KFC. I tried their soy garlic wings and spicy wings and I like both of them. The only problem I had was every time I order a small order of wings, I manage to get 3 or 4 drumsticks with my order. And i am not a big fan of drumsticks. I like the banchan that they include because it helps cleanse the palate from eating a bunch of wings. I had their dukkboki and it was not that good. The rice cake was too hard, and the sauce was too thick. They also added a lot of random stuff in there and I was lost by that dish. I would say don't order the dukkboki. I haven't dine in at the restaurant because I only got food to go so I can't comment much about the service. All I can say is they are pretty fast at preparing for togo orders, however they messed up on my sister's order last time. read more

I cant explain it. Bonchon drumsticks (spicy style, of course) are the most amazing thing in the world. I have dreams about them and I'm not even that fat. Within two days of having them, I crave them again. Someone needs to take some to a forensic lab and check for crack or meth. I mean, something cant be THIS good... can it? ...and just to add something meaningful to this update... For the first time, I got takeout from this location. Everything came out perfect and hot. I also got the mandu's this time and maaaaan, they were scrumptious. I cant even fathom how people be eatin' at other establishments in the area?! For me Bonchon is like a magnet, my body wont even go near the doors of those other places... read more

I really thought the chicken was good here. Hell I would take it over Crave down in Chinatown. Soy Garlic and Hot were awesome along with fries. Ordered some cold noodles with this and was super full. Overall service was really nice and quick. Was kind of weird when we asked for a booth seat but was rejected because they were saved for "others" when it was less than a quarter full. Anyways, I would come back if i had the cravings! read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - XL Combo - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

I've been going to Bonchon for quite awhile now. This was my first time checking out Bonchon in the Cambridge area. The restaurant was located inside a building and you have to go down a flight of stairs into the basement to find it. I ordered the half soy garlic and half spicy chicken and the chicken tasted terrible!! The chicken was overly cooked and hard to the point where you could barely eat it. Out of the whole dish, I think only 3 pieces were edible. The look of the chicken was definitely not the same compared to other Bonchon locations and didn't look tasty in the first place. The service was horrible as well. The server didn't come back to check up on our table and to do water refills AND it wasn't even busy either....Overall, do not come to this Bonchon. Check out the other Bonchon locations around Boston instead because I usually always have good things to say everytime I eat at a Bonchon. read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Always a good go-to for Korean-food. Their chicken wings, both the garlic soy and the spicy are my absolute favorites! I always order bibimbap... always something fun about mixing all the ingredients together in a stone bowl. The Kalbi is tender and flavorful. The service at this place is impeccable; at least every time I eat here. They always make it a point to check on you and refill drinks. They are also patient when it comes to explaining other things on the menu. read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - Garlic soy wings, medium order - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

See all

First of all, it's Korean fried chicken. Unless you really mess it up, it's hard to make Korean fried chicken bad. On that note, I like BonChon's chicken, but I don't think it's anything really spectacular / worth the hype. Also, side note: don't get the spicy option unless you really think you can handle it - it's quite spicy... The other dishes/apps are all good and I really like their side dishes that come with the meal (white pickled radish / coleslaw). They're pretty good about refilling those for you as well. This BonChon location is essentially in a basement and it definitely has that basement feel. The cleanliness is a little questionable... almost every time I've gone I've had to shoo away small flies from the food. The service is a little slow and you'll have to wave down your waiter/waitress if you need anything. If you're planning to come to this BonChon, don't drive. Parking is impossible. read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - Spicy wings - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

- Food: 4/5 I don't know if they used the same technique, I feel that chicken here is not good as the one in Allston, but better than Crave in Chinatown. Other dishes taste the same. I love a seafood budak, flavorful but very spicy. A soup tofu and fried rice are also good too. - Atmosphere: this one is little hit bigger than bonchon in Allston, you can go in a big group. - Service: 4/5 depends on the time you go. If they are too busy they may not check in with you frequently and it's understandable. - Price: 4/5 standard compare to other Korean restaurants. Your eyes are always bigger than your stomach so think before you order. You can bring home a left over but it won't taste the same, especially chicken. read more

See all

The korean double fried wings at Bon Chon are so effin delicious. Shit like these wings make diets impossible. One of my favorite parts about Bon Chon is that they were open xmas when my jewey ass rolled into Boston an Christmas night. Beats the hell out of the normal shit Chinese restaurant options that usually exist for xmas. If korean wings and the movie elf doesn't sound like the perfect combo to you, then you have mental issues and should go get checked. Note: Delivery has a $5 charge and a $20 minimum so be prepared to order an assload of wings if you don't feel like leaving the couch. read more

Bonchon has the best chicken wings in Cambridge. I like the spicy flavor and it's very spicy. I also prefer wings over drumsticks. Getting 20 pieces combo is my go to order. :) read more

One of my friends was dead set on going to Bonchon one day, so I was just out and along for the ride. We drove over to Harvard square as the nearest location, and three of us went in while the driver had to find parking. There are a few garages in Harvard square, so be prepared to pay if you plan to drive. The mall was under construction as we entered, so we passed by unfinished sheet rock, and "this way!" arrows as we basically descended into a basement to find this restaurant. The seating area is OK, but it feels like a dungeon or the start of a horror movie after walking through all of that construction. However once we got there we were quickly seated, and set about doing typical restaurant things. We sat in a booth in the center of the room, and the first thing that stood out to me was that it looks like it is fully walled off from the next booth, but it is not. If the next table is empty you might initially think that there is just a mirror on the wall, but nope, you can totally just crawl under your table to bug your neighbors if you were so inclined. In this case it took me a minute to realize that my bag was not resting against a wall, and was instead intruding on my neighbors. The second thing I learned is that this is a Korean restaurant that is all about fried chicken. No, fried chicken is not a traditional Korean food, but apparently Koreans are all about it so now it features heavily in their menus. So is this an Asian food joint or a fried chicken joint? Yes. For whatever reason the menus also had yellow sticky notes inserted to tell me that barbecue options were unavailable, so that ruled out about a quarter of the menu options right there. But lets look at Bonchon for what it does. As a group we ordered bulgogi bimbimpap, which is beef, both hot sauce and soy sauce flavored chicken, and shrimp cakes. As far as fried chicken joints, the food was OK. The crust was crispy and enjoyable, but if a restaurant wants to do fried chicken then they need to be prepared to roll with the fried chicken kings of soul food, or at least a KFC or Popeyes. That is not the case here. The shrimp cake was delicious, and the bimbimpap was pretty cool. I have no point reference for it, so I just enjoyed it for what it was. I had a great time sitting, and eating with my friends, but the food was average, and the dining room was an also ran. I might come back if some one else is similarly motivated to eat Bonchon and only Bonchon, but I will not choose this place on my own. read more

The Brighton location is much better, hands down. I ordered my usual items: chicken fried rice, kimchi fried rice (includes bacon at the Brighton location, but beef at this location) and bulgogi. Portions were smaller and the chicken fried rice was a lot spicier than I'm used. The kimchi fried rice tastes a lot better at the Brighton location and the bulgogi is just as delicious, but it seems to be a smaller portion. In terms of the venue, it's a basement so there's no natural sunlight due to no windows, and it's a small venue. Like I said, I much prefer the Brighton location, which is a little more spacious and a brighter lit venue. Service was good. read more

Stick to take out or delivery because the inside of this place is filthy and beat up to all hell. I've had dinner here before a year or so ago and I don't remember it being this way - clearly lack of caring by the management for maintenance and upkeep. None of the BBQ in the tables are functional. The menus literally fall apart in your hands and have giant pieces of tape and post its over what they no longer have on the menu. If you're only going to focus on fried chicken + some basic Korean dishes then just print a smaller menu! The booth seating is torn on multiple seats and stuffing literally falling out. They had the lights up pretty bright and not dim for whatever reason so you could see all the gross film of dirt on the menus and tables pretty easily - they had the music up way too loud to the point I couldn't even hear the person sitting next to me and had to scream my order. The food we got was ok but definitely not as good as the last time I had it - chicken over cooked, way too much sauce on the japchae. When were done our waiter gave us attitude about not boxing our left overs (logistically we could not do it + the food wasn't worth taking home anyway). This place has seen way better days and it's a shame - you might fair better at the Allston location otherwise just stick to the take out for the chicken or pick another Korean spot in Cambridge to go to. read more

The wings are pretty good and the portions are big. Bulogigi came in too much of its juice. I ordered delivery. I would recommend this place for wings read more

I enjoyed the new location. The menu is a little smaller than the Allston location but not an issue since I was primarily there for the soy garlic wings. I was surprised there was no wait when we arrived at 6:30pm on a Friday night. Not sure if this will be the case when the new semester at Harvard begins. They are still working on getting their alcohol license so no alcoholic libations were available yet. Again not an issue since I don't drink. The wings are great as usual. Crispy and delicious. Ordered the ok dol bibimbap with bulgogi and it could have been a little crispier on the bottom of the rice but overall it was good. I could have stirred the whole thing a little sooner than I should have so that may have been the cause. It's nice to have this location since it's a little easier for me to get to off the Red line as opposed to to having to take the Green line to Allston. I will definitely be back. Also host and server were aces. Very friendly and welcoming. read more

See all

Great to have KFC once again after years since my visit to BonChon's Allston location. The chicken here is just as nicely fried, though considerably lighter as the cooks here used a much gentler hand with the soy garlic sauce. Beyond this, the bibimbap was surprisingly tasty and flavorful without needing any gochujang - a most welcome change of pace as the dish is usually unseasoned and bland before the sauce, but I really did wonder where all the flavor was coming from... The restaurant's downstairs on the basement level and spacious all around. Sadly, there were no banchan to be seen and you can only get one refill on the radishes and coleslaw that accompany the KFC. Still, overall a great meal and a welcome addition to Harvard Sq. read more

I have heard great things about the chicken wings at BonChon, but they weren't anything too special to me. You can choose between 2 flavors (soy garlic and hot), wings vs. drumsticks vs. both, and size (S, M, L, XL). The sauces were evenly spread all over the fried chicken and the chicken was still crispy. The chicken was nice and moist. The two flavors were tasty, but the "spicy" wings weren't very spicy in my opinion. Each order of wings comes with a side of radishes and coleslaw that can be refilled per request, which I liked! We also ordered the seafood pancake. It was a big, thick pancake, but the taste was just okay. Definitely, needed to use the soy sauce to go with it. read more

Fried chicken. You can hardly go wrong. BonChon was ok fried chicken, but I had such high expectations I might have set myself up for failure. With two options for sauce (hot or not), I tried both and they were good. The main thing I thought was odd, was that the drumsticks were the size of a rotisserie or grilled chicken drumstick: huge, plump with dark meat. The little wing-ettes (if you will) were tiny and small, making for a weird aesthetic, certainly, but also different tasting experiences. The crispy coating was yummy, but again, in a very odd ratio with the different types of chicken. The other main turnoff was the cleanliness of the place. The bathroom was not clean and the tables were barely wiped off. There are no windows, as it is in a basement, and you can see right into the kitchen (and not by design). Again, I think all the hype killed the place for me. It wasn't bad and it wasn't exceptional. read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - All that's left... - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Beware! The spicy is HOT, like much more intense than I could've imagined. Although I couldn't handle the heat, these have been some of the most phenomenal wings I've had - especially the soy garlic (so dreamy). This place is underground and located in a central plaza in Harvard Square. Sure it's not the most aesthetically pleasing spot, but it is definitely one of the better dining options around - won't stretch out your wallet but doesn't sacrifice flavor, or quality for that matter. read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - Half soy garlic, half spicy - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Horrible experience. The food is disgusting. They don't care about customer service at all. Bad environment. NEVER COME.

Location: very hard to find. You have to go around the cvs, enter from the side of the building (through a dozen of stairs) first. Then you would pass a Korean/Japanese restaurant, go down the hallway, and turnaround to see the stairway leads to the restaurant in the basement. Service: great smile, great service. Mul Naengmyeon (buck weed cold noodle) 4/5: good choice in a hot summer. Not greasy at all and come with a very cool broth. Portion is mediocre, but short on protein: only two slices of beef and a half cut boiled egg. Noodle is excellent: slightly chewy but fully cooked. The broth is clean with light sweet and sour taste. Pretty authentic, except for not having apple slices which I had in other places. $14 for the bowl. Chicken Wings 3/5: seems to have only two options. Breading is crispy but has a weird taste. The hot one is good but the soy sauce one tastes just like plain soy sauce. The meat itself does not have any flavor at all, which makes it a little tasteless by the end of the bite. $11 for 10 wings. I'd say I like BWW better. Not planning to go back if I ever visit HU again. read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Will never try you again. The order was over an hour late. Then updated on app to delivered. My instructions were to leave it in the lobby of my building and call me Neither were completed. Your driver is a liar or can't read address's. Now I am having to wait for a credit. I will never try you again. read more

Good, but not spectacular. For those of you who have been to or heard of Kyochon, the chicken options and flavors are quite similar. Either garlic soy or spicy. I do prefer the taste at Kyochon more because the garlic is more pronounced there and the spicy is a pleasant kick to your tastebuds. That's not to say this place is bad, but it's not up to par. We got the medium wing / drumstick combo and an order of naengmyun cold noodles for the two of us and it happily fed us with a few leftover pieces of chicken. I would say this amount would be perfect for three people! Korean chicken is kind of pricey so I feel like it's worth it only if the chicken is amazing. And Bonchon satisfies cravings - but it isn't that amazing. read more

Chicken was a day old. Looks like they kind of refried and sold it. Skin wasn't crispy or flavorful. No sauce and even inside chicken was dry. Such a waste of my money! Experience was very different in Bonchon Allston. Much better. But if you really want better fried chicken it's bb.q over Bonchon any day! read more

I wish, I didn't order the strips & have wings instead because it's not much more spicy taste. I did it to easy cut chicken for my son. The bimbimbop was very good, I craved for it today & so spicy too. The service was OK & nice servers! read more

See all

I have only order food delivery (Uber eats) from this location (twice) and their packing is outstanding! I feel safe with my food when they staple the bag. Only reason I gave it 4 star is because I ordered bimbibap ( meat and veggie over white rice) and they forgot the white rice.. lol.. after waiting 1 hour for my food I didn't want to call and wait another hour. I would order from them again. read more

Looks like they renamed it. Get the BonChon chicken! Nothing else is worth it. I might try again later, but for now just the chicken. Try both spicy and the soy garlic. And if you're afraid of spicy then you might not want to make yourself cry. read more

Not my favorite Bonchon, but probably because it has only recently opened up. A few issues: 1) Went there on a Saturday night and it was crowded! Found some friends there and swapped their seats to avoid waiting half an hour or more in line. 2) Service is pretty slow. Maybe this is because it was so busy that day (I think the entire Korean Association of Harvard was taking up half the room), but it took 20 minutes to get our first order of food. 3) No alcohol.... I'll come back when they get that liquor license! 4) Ventilation issues, the room became extremely smokey with everyone's smokey grilling Otherwise the food was good, on par with Bonchon Allston, though fewer offerings. But really, everyone's just there for the chicken, right? The grill was good too; kalbi for cheap... mnn yum! read more

I am absolutely in love with Bon Chon! I've been to the one in Allston a couple of times and parking is near impossible to find so I decided to try out this one. Parking was fairly easy, thank goodness for parking garages! There are signs everywhere directing you to where Bon Chon is, so it's easy to find. The many times I've been here I have never once had to wait to be seated. The moment I walk in, I'm seated. Can't go wrong with that! I love, love, love Bon Chon chicken! Its korean style chicken so they double fry it into awesome goodness! The soy garlic chicken wings are to die for! We never seem to order enough haha! I've tried the spicy wings before and let me just say, you're mouth will be on fire! It's too spicy for me, so I'll just stick to my soy garlic! They also offer Korean barbecue, which is good too. I usually don't eat much of it cause I'm too busy stuffing my face with the wings, but my sister seems to like it! The service is good too. The staff is nice and friendly and attentive. Overall a great place to be. Absolutely delicious and amazing food! It's a 'must' in my book! read more

Wow! I was blown away by the scallion pancake and our 50/50 wings platter. The wings were definitely the highlight of the experience-- crunchy on the outside with just the right amount of sauce. Huge portions too so be prepared to share and walk our with a food coma. read more

The food was delicious, but a bit overpriced. Since I only went w/ a few friends, obvious enough I thought it was overpriced. I enjoyed the food quite well as I'm a first timer... We waited a LONG time for the food to come, even though there weren't too many people there. Also, the place wasn't too spacious but it doesn't concern me to well. We ordered half & half and it was hilarious! I was eating the sweet and tasty wing and my other friend was eating the spicy wing... I didn't even know that we were eating different flavors so I was pesky when my friend was choking slightly. Great food, but I'll remember to order something more tangy and less spicy maybe Note: Took a few minutes to find out where it was located, even took out my phone to GPS the place read more

Come for the chicken, it is worth it. If you are craving other Korean foods, go somewhere else. The chicken is super crispy and perfectly spiced. We ordered both the soy and the spicy, and although I am a spicy girl, I liked the soy better. The panjeon was starchy and had little in the way of seafood. The tofu soup (soondubu) had the wrong kind of tofu and the broth was watery. read more

See all

Compared to the location in NYC and Maryland, seems like this one has the most extensive menu! There's numerous options for appetizers and meal meals! Service is friendly too, which is always a plus! Had their lychee soju and it was pretty tasty, and they give you a lot in easy pour bottle. Chicken is perfectly fried and remains crispy throughout the night and morning (packed some and they were still crispy)! Definitely recommend for some late night chi mc (chicken and beer) cravings! read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

I love Bonchon, but I don't love this Bonchon. At the end of the day, the chicken is still really good, as is the other food we ordered, but everything else about the experience was very subpar. -We sat at a table with a grill, but they weren't letting anyone use the grill. It was also just kind of dirty looking, which was pretty unappealing since we were about to eat. -The whole dining experience wasn't great. Service wasn't amazing, it didn't have a great atmosphere, and the restaurant looked quite tired all around (see above comment about grill). -No liquor license. Boooooo. Allston Bonchon fixes all the above problems. The Cambridge one is a good option for takeout, but if you wanna have a good dining experience with your friends over some delicious chicken, go for Allston. read more

I've been to another Bonchon at another location, and I remember the food to be a solid 3.5/5 and service to be fine. However, at this one in Harvard Square, when I went with a group, I and another friend never received our orders, asking the wait staff three times for our food and being promised after every time that it was coming soon. After over an hour since initially ordering, when the waitress brought out the check since everyone else had long finished eating, they finally realized that our food wasn't made and sent in an order to the kitchen to go. Definitely don't come here if you're in a time pinch. read more

Bonchon is known for their Korean fried chicken, and I was quite excited to try it for the first time. This location was definitely hard to find; we had to go up some stairs, through some unassuming doors, go down to the basement, and finally arrived at Bonchon. The lunch special is a good deal price-wise, and that's what we each got (8 wings and 2 sides). +WINGS: The soy garlic is good, but a little on the salty side. The hot sauce was way too spicy for me, and it wasn't the yang nyeom chicken flavor I was hoping for. +RADISH: They're bigger than some of the places I've been to but still pickle-y goodness! Though it's a little weird to be me that it counts as a side instead of just being included with the chicken in most establishments I've been to. +HAMUL PAJEON: This is thicker than I'm used to but really crispy. It's a big portion which was nice! The sauce was also not the same sauce I'm used to; it reminded me of a fish sauce. -FRIES: Nothing too special. I actually might skip out on this next time. But good if you can't think of something else to get. -COLESLAW: I found this to be too wet without a strong coleslaw flavor. All in all, the food was okay. It was disappointing after being excited though. I was definitely expecting some delicious Korean fried chicken, and Bonchon didn't quite deliver for me. Here's hoping other locations are better though! read more

I love this chain, but not crazy about this particular location. The service wasn't great as the server took a while in between coming to check up on us. I will say the food did come out pretty quickly after we got to place our order. Was disappointed to find this Bonchon doesn't serve liquor and unfortunately I felt like the quality of the food here wasn't as good as their Allston location; the rice was overcooked and loaded with spices that left my mouth on fire :/ But the soy garlic chicken was fantastic! read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Probably the best wing I've had, and I consider myself a pretty big wing aficionado. Get yourself an XL and just start knocking them back. Soy garlic is money. You can't go wrong with it. The wing is crispy, juicy, perfectly cooked and not drenched in sauce like you would expect from Buffalo Wild Wings or some chain. It's slightly sweet but not overpowering. You can really appreciate each subtle nuance from the crispiness of the wing to the intricacy of the salty/sweet sauce. Come here. Trust me. read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - 40 of the best wings ever. - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

Chicken is amazing, crispy with just the right amount of sauce! My boyfriend never had Bonchon before so I took him here a few days ago and he loves it! It's really good so if you never had it you should definitely try this place out! The service is great too, always refilling my water before I can even finish drinking it all! :) read more

Bonchon Cambridge - John F Kennedy St - Korean Near Me - Cambridge, Massachusetts

See all