Somac

I have always believed that Korean Fried Chicken was the real KFC and not Kentucky Fried Chicken.

As soon as I walked into the small and empty restaurant, the aroma of soy sauce and meat slapped me across the face. SOMAC, a Korean restaurant that is cut off from the main area by an unfinished road, has always been around but I’ve never had the motivation to eat there, always sticking with the large brands like Bon-Chon to fill my craving for Korean fried chicken.

Upon entering I was filled with pessimism and overwhelmed by the fact that this restaurant has never come up in conversations about the best Korean places to eat in town. Nevertheless, I prepared for the worst and hoped for the best.

Hope won this round.

Taking my first steps in, I notice that the place is quite empty. The simplistic interior of dark wooden flooring and black and red walls didn’t make it too visually appealing. But the fives TVs above the bar airing college football sure was. However, it seemed apparent that not many people came to this restaurant too often.

Within seconds, a man in his late-40s pokes his head around the corner and puts a smile on his face. He immediately greets us and leads us to the closest booth, handing us our menus in the process. Instead of acting like a machine, this man treated us as if we were friends and did so to every customer. The guy was genuinely happy to work there.

Whenever any of us needed water, plates, or utensils, the staff would always come to us with a smile. In fact, when the food was taking longer than expected they offered us an additional entree on the house for the inconvenience.

I thought to myself, “If the service is this good, how will the food be ?” And turned out that it was far better than I expected. The first dish we had was called tteokbokki, rice cakes that were stir-fried and sometimes also included fish cakes, which this particular dish did include. The rice cakes had a chewy consistency and immediately reminded me of pasta. We also were given a bowl of kimchi, which apparently is a staple at the dinner table for Koreans. Kimchi is a traditional side dish that is made up of salted and fermented vegetables and a variety of seasonings. This restaurant had chosen cucumbers as their chosen vegetable for their kimchi.

The intimidating look of the cucumbers that were heavily coated in chili flakes and spicy sauce proved to be ironic as the food was more tangy than spicy.

Soon after, the chicken fried rice arrived. Before I tasted the fried rice, I expected a spicier Thai styled fried rice, but instead, it was more on the sweet side. The rice was cooked perfectly, consisting of both a medium to firm chewy and sticky texture. The egg and vegetables were cooked in a flawless way as well; however, the chicken lacked taste. It was mostly seasoned with nothing but salt and pepper, an addition of spices could have improved the taste, but the vegetables and rice made up for it.

Now for the star of the show: the chicken wings. By the time we finished the fried rice, the wings were served in a bowl that was on top of a newspaper. Half of the wings were soy-garlic and the other half, spicy. As I bit into the soy garlic wings, my ears perked up and my eyes turned wide. The beautiful crunch that came with every bite, made this experience ten times better. The wings left a sweet and tangy aftertaste in my mouth that I’ve never tasted before. At most places, wings were either sweet, tangy or spicy separately, the flavors never really mixing with each other on one wing. As for the spicy wings, I immediately thought of Hot Cheetos; the spice doesn’t hit you until you’re a couple of pieces in. It had a great kick to it and had me asking our waiter for more water and wiping the sweat off my forehead. The soy garlic wings were the clear winner here. I was able to actually enjoy the distinct taste and flavors that the soy garlic wings had, instead of the spicy wings, which didn’t provide much of a flavor spectrum and just went straight to burning my tongue a bit.

Although this restaurant has great food to offer, it will never receive the same love and interest as chain restaurants such as Bon-Chon. The food at SOMAC has proven to be much more flavorful and the service there is on par with that of Chick-fil-A, things Bon-Chon lacks. Bon-Chon’s food may be good but it isn’t great: lightly seasoned and drowned in sauce, the meals they prepare seem to ruin chicken for me, plus the service is full of high school students who just want some extra cash. The general public will always serve as patriots to those big names but as more people come to try smaller more independent restaurants like SOMAC, they could finally achieve the love they deserve.

SOMAC

24640 Southpoint Dr

#130, Chantilly, VA, 20152