bb.q Chicken Irvine(Jamboree) — Restaurant in Irvine

BBQ Chicken is Korean food? What? The name always throws me off. Especially, if you are looking for some Southern Food. This is a different kind of Seoul Food.

I was a bit skeptical at first, because the idea of Olive fried chicken is about as appealing as a Diet Coke. I always cook with Olive oil, but I hate to break it to you (health nuts) but deep frying in Olive Oil is the same as any oil. If you use gallons of oil, there's no health benefit over vegetable or canola. Also, vegetable oil has a high smoking point making it ideal for frying, but Olive oil will taste like burnt candles if heated over a certain temperature. I promise I will not bore you with anymore food science. If you are trying to stay health by eating Olive Oil fried chicken, go somewhere else and peel the skin off or dab your pizza, because this place like a diet soda IS NOT HEALTHIER. Also, be prepared to pay a butt-load for Fried Chicken which is normally a relatively cheap food.

To be honest with you the food at BBQ Chicken real isn't that bad. Every time I go the restaurant is packed and has a decent atmosphere. I never really had much trouble with service. The servers try to be extra friendly, but I have heard complaints about servers that don't give much service to women. That's understandable haha jk. Sometimes women tend to get jealous of other women...

However, for the price and the value. The chicken Meh! A whole chicken cost about 20 dollars roughly after tax for about 8 pieces. It is not finger licking good. I hate to copy another review..but go to KFC instead. Personally, after eating I felt like driving the 15 or 20 miles to go Popeye's instead. $20 probably would get a nice 20 piece bucket of spicy Louisiana style friend chicken.

If money is not an issue and you are looking for Korean food with a twist, give it a try. If you are looking for Fried Chicken, go elsewhere. Sometimes Korean Mixes are good like Amerie, very hot! However, BBQ Chicken is not recommend for hardcore Fried...

Update

Ok, I have had it with this place. I have defended their bad service, but no more. It is so bad that I don't care how good it tastes, its now a bad experience. And I think the chickens are getting smaller. Barely any meat on the birds! No ice in drinks, no service for refills, no more cabbage salad, loud and noisy, dirty, disorganized. I asked for tabasco sauce and they said they are out.

Previous review:

I have a love hate relationship with this place. I love it because the olive oil whole plain chicken is so good. I have tried so many places and this place has the best tasting chicken. The batter is flakey and crispy. Chicken is moist, Its a unique coating on this chicken. I love the free pickles and the free cabbage salad you get as well.

Why they call it BBQ chicken is beyond me. It should be called Fried Chicken?

But the service is so sub par. They always forget to bring out the free radish pickles and cabbage. I always have to ask. Why??!! It's such a simple process. I seriously have had to ask the last 5 times we have eaten here. It's not like it's a complicated menu for the people to learn and remember!

I also hate how they are so stingy on ice in the drinks. Props for giving you huge cups for soft drinks, but always so little ice. And they will refill your drinks without an issue, but more often than not, they wont refill ice unless you ask.

I want to give this place more stars so they stay in business because I love the chicken. All they need to do is provide better customer service. This place changes owners often. They just repainted the inside. I don't know why they keep spending the money on things that don't matter (repainting the decorations on the inside) vs providing better customer service.

Stop having such young kids work the store. Time for some adults to provide customer service!

I hate you BBQ Chicken, I love you BBQ Chicken, I hate...

This bb.q chicken was absolutely terrible. The chicken we got was burnt, extremely tough, and clearly cooked in old oil. The restaurant was completely empty and we waited for nearly 45 minutes. It felt like our food was pre-made and just reheated. We were in the plaza which is why we stopped by here. Don’t even bother.. go to the one down the street. 👎

Customer service: 0/5 In my visit on Oct. 8 around 5pm, I approached the counter, requested my order, and provided the name. The employee, who appeared to be of Asian descent, asked to see the confirmation text and then proceeded to open the link to view the receipt. It's worth noting that the restaurant was not busy at the time. I am curious about how the situation would have been handled if I had simply ordered on my phone and sent my husband to pick it up. Additionally, when I asked for utensils, the employee seemed hesitant. At other establishments, we usually receive a handful of spoons, chopsticks, and napkins.

Food: 0/5 We ordered the Cheesling. If you search for this item online, you can see how it's supposed to look, and that's how our orders appear in other bb.q restaurants. In the picture below, you can see how hard the chicken looks and the oily blotches of what's supposed to...