Chi Mac - Seattle — Restaurant in Seattle

I was really disappointed by ChiMac. While the fried chicken itself was on point, the sauces, service, cleanliness and decor ranged from bad to terrible. ChiMac gets two stars for the chicken itself, and loses a bunch for unsafe food handling and other problems.

Let's start with the service. There was none. The guy manning the counter/tables was outside for the first half hour we were in the restaurant. We had to hunt him down to place our orders.

Cleanliness was terrible and someone should have called the health department. There was raw frozen chicken defrosting in the back hallway near the kitchen for over an hour. A couple people spotted it in their way to the bathroom, and noted it was still there an hour later when we went to leave. Gross.

The decor leaves a lot to be desired, but it's the U-District and a simple fried chicken place. I wasn't expecting the Ritz.

Finally, the chicken... Well, the base fried chicken is pretty good. Quality meat, breaded and fried well. That's the upside. The downside is the sauces. The consensus was all the sauces came from cans/bottles with maybe the exception of the dry Szechuan and parmesan garlic rubs. Could be those were premade powders, too. But the sriracha mayo, sweet chili, and others were all straight off a supermarket shelf.

The real disappointment in the sauces comes if you order a combo that includes more than one sauce. Instead of tossing and cooking the wings with the sauce, they give you a tiny dipping cup. Everyone at the table agreed that the pre-sauced and cooked wings were far superior to the plain wings dipped in the same sauces at the table.

The sides were a downer, too. The cheese corn is canned sweet corn with cheese on top. The fries were frozen Oreida (or similar) with the expected mealy-solid texture of formerly frozen fries.

Just...everything served here comes from a bag, a bottle, or a can. Even sodas were canned. I was so disappointed all around. There's no real reason to brave U-District parking...

My favorite wings on the ave. Probably top two within Seattle and top three in Washington. No more alcohol due to some incident two years ago, but they're working on getting their license back. Staff here is often lively, friendly, and chatty. Much of the time they're students as well so it's interactive.

Dropping this rating a bit because there is inconsistency in the wing sizes. I'm spoiled when I get the large wings and drumsticks that look like a chicken was on steroids. Sometimes I get disappointed when I get flats that are so small all the meat is eaten in one bite.

Also, my most recent visit I had something in my corn cheese (shown). Couldn't quite tell if it was a bone or what but it was hard and yellow. Kind of suspicious but I'll let it slide.

The corn cheese here is one of my favorites around town. I haven't found one that impresses me as much but I'm still trying. I order a corn cheese everytime I visit and it's perfect, cheesey goodness. They butter it perfectly and the ratio is the best across the state.

House fried rice is pretty standard as much as fried rice goes, but I have some friends who love it so we order it often. It's nice to pair with the chicken, but definitely not necessary as the chicken itself is just fantastic.

Snow Wings are addicting. The garlic parmesan is a must have and simply delicious with or without the chicken. I'll even get some of the little sprinkles or crumbs to eat. I'm a big fan of dry rubs though so that's part of it. Soy Garlic Wings are a great choice for more wet wings. They're a bit sweet and also fairly addicting. Those two are my favorite wings for dry and wet respectively.

I don't care too much for the spicy but they now have Korean Hot Sauce available at tables. It's the same sauce they use in their Korean Wings so you can just add it to whatever wings you get and get a...

I have to say I went in with super high expectations. I’ve seen so many YouTube videos lately raving about Chi Mac. I would have loved to have the option of a sampler platter with two of each, to see what I like. There were two of us, and we bought the small Soy ginger, Thai jam, and Korean chicken with a side of cheese corn. The cheese corn was good, but definitely over priced. I would say, cut the portion into a quarter size and charge a quarter of the price. Maybe there might be more takers. It was served too large to be a side. Also, though it wasn’t busy, there was only one person taking orders, serving, and running the cash register. We waited over 20 min for our meal, so I can’t imagine how much worse it would be if the place were full (like when school starts up in the fall). The sauces were somewhat disappointing… the soy ginger was too salty, the Korean one was too heavy on the red pepper paste, and the Thai jam just tasted like it was covered in Thai chili sauce. The K-BBQ restaurant Lynnwood in the HMart plaza food court had Kalbi flavored wings that were outstanding, but their prices are even higher, and the min order amount without sides is 10 pieces. If you go with a friend, it’s not so bad. Overall, I think this restaurant is harming the Chi Mac reputation. If you are making Korean fried chicken, please do it to the Korean standards. It is ridiculous to think that students would pay such high prices for such mediocre food, so unless the food quality goes up, business will...