Red Star
176 Smith St., New York (Brooklyn)
6/10/16
Korean Fried Chicken (Twice-Fried Chicken, Gochujang Sauce, Pickled Daikon and Dill, Lettuce, Mayo)
~Sides: Mac & Cheese w/Chinese Sausage, Pork Dumplings
The wrapped sandwich with dumpling and mac sides (depicted left), the original full sandwich (middle), and my manually cut sandwich (right).
This was a marked improvement over last week's sandwich. It was also surprising to see that no one went for the alternative tofu option. The Google forms pie chart tells the whole story:
Anyway, on to the actual sandwich. I (Grace) was particularly excited about this one, being Korean myself. The sauce was yummy, with many saying it had the perfect amount of spice. The chicken was tender, the bread was soft, and the chicken-to-bread ratio was great as well. The sides were also raved about by all, particularly the mac & cheese with Chinese sausage. Yehuda commented that the chicken was still warm, so he gave me a 5 as the deliverer--yay!
But for all of the sandwich's good points, it was still lacking in a few ways. It was a 30-minute journey to get back, so some mentioned that the fried chicken could have been crispier (but they did not let that detract from their scores). One big issue was the sheer length of it and the fact that it was not cut in half for ease of access. This point was met with much opposition, particularly by Woody, as he said in the midst of the heated discussion, "It didn't require any [additional] effort; I just picked it up and ate it!" Many also lamented the uneven distribution of the sandwich, especially with some parts of the chicken being drier than others.
Overall, the flavors were good (although not 100% authentic... Marlowe actually put into words what I knew my taste buds were missing: it lacked that signature Korean sourness, and needed more spice to off-set how incredibly sweet the sauce was). Everyone loved the sides, and the whole experience was just a relief after last week's disappointment.
And the price? Amazing. $8 for a good-sized, filling sandwich. #Value
FINAL SCORE:
4.2/5.0