Cheogajip...Korean fried chicken (and Pizza!) in Niles

Interesting Asian spots continue to sprout up in the strip malls of the Northwest suburbs. Cheogajip is one of only two U.S. outposts of what I am told is a popular Korean fried chicken and pizza chain and has recently opened in Niles at 8273 W. Golf Rd..

Situated along the southern edge of a large shopping mall just East of Milwaukee ave. It's not readily visible from the main street. It's clear that the target audience is Korean from the sign, which aside from "Chicken and Pizza" in English is entirely in Korean characters. No matter, as the grinning ,"thumbs up" giving, aviator helmet wearing cartoon chicken tells all you really need to know. The menu is ( I suppose not surprisingly) limited to chicken and pizza.

Chicken is available as whole birds,wings and popcorn style and is cooked to order, so there's going to be a wait if you haven't called ahead. Cut into myriad pieces Chinese style ( though with the legs and wings are left whole) the breading is light and crispy with a beer batter like texture and a peppery finish.All the chicken is cooked with this batter and then served either plain or coated with your choice of "sweet and mild" or "hot and spicy" sauce.

You can get these sauces on the side by request but by default the pieces will otherwise be dipped / drenched in sauce. Judging from the steady stream of customers (all Korean) who came and went while I waited for my "love letter chicken" (which the menu explains is the American name for Cheogajip), the drenched style seems most popular. I had the sauce on the side on the advice of Geno , one of the owners, who felt the chicken traveled better that way, but this was a minority position.It worked well for me though, as both sauces were tomato based, garlicky,sticky and rather sweet and to my taste a little went a long way.

All orders come with a small dish of seasoned salt and cups of shredded cabbage and pickled radish. No other sides are available. That is, except for the pizza. It seems the whole idea is to have these together, as multiple combinations are featured (kind of like chicken and waffles, Seoul style I guess).

Pizzas come only in one size, about 10 inches across, are cut into eight wedges and are obviously the expression of a concept of "Pizza"very different from what I am used to. Toppings include sweet potato,regular potato, bul gogi and "Royal Potato" which I had (again on Geno's advice). This is evidently a house specialty and features a yeasty (almost Little Ceasers type) crust split into two thin layers with a layer of sweet potato in between, and is topped with sweet peppers, roasted potatoes, bul gogi, pepperoni and "four kinds of cheese". A nice touch is that some extra cheese is sprinkled on the rim giving it a toasted cheese semi-Pequad/Burt like finish. Downright odd to be sure, but I actually liked it quite a bit and found that it went well along side my "love letter" chicken and pickled radish.

The place itself is cheery (in a fast food franchise sort of way), and the mostly bilingual staff friendly and helpful. There are a few tables and a row of mini "tea house" style booths for dining in, tho from what I could tell they did a brisk mostly take out business.

I liked Cheogajip, and while I don't think it's likely to replace Popeye's in my heart of hearts, it's definitely worth checking out.

Now if I could just figure out why there's a drawing of what looks like Tevia and little orpan Annie on every box.

Cheogajip Chicken and Pizza
8273 W. Golf Road
Niles IL 847-583-1582.

Thanks for the recon, kuhdo. I enjoyed Cheogajip the last time I was in Korea, and I'm hoping they haven't strayed from their formula.

How timely. Thanks for the review. I noticed this place the last time I was at the Secretary of State's office in Niles. Today, I have to run some errands up that way and was planning to check it out. I asked a Korean friend about the chain, and she said that Cheogajip Chicken is very sweet, and that she prefers other Korean chains (which closely matches khudo's assessment). Nevertheless, she seemed excited that the place existed. Maybe if it is successful, some other Korean chicken chains might open franchises here.

Kuhdo,

Thanks for the info, I'd heard a little about the new Korean fried chicken place, but was unclear on exact location and type. I thought it might be more on the order of Great Seas.

Enjoy,
Gary

kuhdo wrote:Situated along the southern edge of a large shopping mall just East of Milwaukee ave. It's not readily visible from the main street.

Cheogajip is surprisingly easy to miss, I looked for Himalayan Restaurant a few doors West, which has a large sign.

Cheogajip


As Kuhdo mentions, Cheogajip is cheery in a fast food fashion, though I did not find the staff as welcoming as he and, at least Friday noon, no one in residence was bilingual. I was also surprised there are no lunch/small portion options, with prices starting at $9.99 for popcorn chicken or wings and no sauce fried chicken $13.99. As I wanted to try both sauces I ended up paying $17.55 which includes tax and an $1 per sauce upcharge, very costly for fast food fried chicken lunch.

Cheogajip Chicken Menu (12.7.07)


Lunch was taken al-hoodo, I wanted to take a few pictures and the fellow in Cheogajip was adamant about no pictures.*



The two sauces were sticky and sweet, with one slightly hotter. I differ with Kuhdo in that I think the sauces are kochujang (red bean paste) based, not tomato. Chicken comes with small sweet cubes of daikon, shredded lettuce with bad 1000-island dressing and a dry spice dredge.

The chicken itself was really quite tasty, crisp, juicy, somewhat neutral in the spice department, but, as Kuhdo said, most take the chicken drenched in sauce, which does not appeal to me in the least.

Cheojajip Fried Chicken



My wife and I had the leftover chicken as part of a Tea Dinner,** it held up quite well, and I would go back if in the area, if for nothing else to try a chicken pizza combo, but would not recommend Cheojajip for solo diners.

kuhdo wrote:Now if I could just figure out why there's a drawing of what looks like Tevia and little orpan Annie on every box.

Don, thanks again for posting on Cheogajip, it prompted me to go sooner rather than later.

Enjoy,
Gary

*As I ordered I held up my camera and pantomimed taking pictures, it was quite clear from his response, even though it was in Korean, he preferred I not take pictures in the restaurant
**Tea Dinner is what we call a little of this, and a little of that in any and all combinations.

Nice posts Kuhdo & GWiv; I've been waiting for this place to open - I take a peek everytime I dine at Himalayan.

As an interesting aside, the Pizza Hut (as expected) did not fare well at Super H-Mart and closed, however I think a branch of Korean fried chicken is opening there in it's place - perhaps the same as above. I'm sure they'll do a lot better.

Gary may be correct about the sauces being based on red bean paste. I might have been influenced by the cartoon tomatoes fatured prominently on the box, but now realize this may have been intended as a reference to the pizza.

By the way, Gabe (my 15 y/o) now declares himsef addicted to love letter chicken with the hot and spicy sauce and keeps asking me to bring him another batch.

So...what is the deal with Tevia and Annie?

kuhdo wrote:
So...what is the deal with Tevia and Annie?

That's not Tevye because there's no one on the roof in the background and that's not a Chagall.

But I'll be damned if that isn't Annie. I don't think, however, she'd still be smiling if she knew her likeness was on a Korean restaurant box and Sandy was nowhere to be found!

My thought was redheaded and bearded white Folks+ "American" fried chicken and pizza" = comida autentico!

Tried the Chogajip this weekend with Mellonhubby...

We walked in to the restaurant at approx 7pm on Friday evening. The two teen-aged boys behind the counter were relatively clueless but nice and cheerful. English skills weren't totally lacking but not great either...between their broken English and my bad "Konglish" we managed to get our questions answered.

We ordered the Fried Chicken/Potato Pizza combo and sat down in a booth.

"Slaw" (cabbage and a slightly weird spicy-mayo sauce with corn...) and pickled korean radish were interesting. Not great, but not totally offensive.

The chicken came out and it was nice and crispy, and not too greasy. I was impressed with the jucyness but I didn't think it was particularly flavorful (maybe a little bland even) - however, I am aware that the chicken is designed to be smothered in sauce, so this was kind of expected.

We waited for a really long time when one of the young dudes behind the counter came out to tell us the Pizza was taking longer than normal. After an additional wait of around a half hour, I went to the counter to inquire about the Pizza - and then was told that the pizza oven didn't work and they couldn't make our pizza. Not a biggie, but like I said - the guys were a little clueless.

The chicken wasn't good enough to make it a regular stop (unlike my bi-monthly trip to Pollo Campero), but maybe a destination in the future...I really want to try the chicken with the sauce - perhaps next time I'm out that way.

I too went here last friday and have a similar report. I had a whole chicken with hot sauce- the server, in broken english warned me it was spicy- and it was. However, the chicken was just covered with the sauce which I found way too gloppy. I would like to go back to try it with the sauce on the side, but as a few posters have mentioned, that may be too bland.

I love the KFC in NYC where it is very crispy and more "glazed" then swimming in sauce. I am looking forward to trying hourglass bar one of these weeks.

Chogajip is different and I enjoyed it- but the frequency of returns will be determined when I have a chance to check out sauce on the side. It is also not the cheapest- fwiw.

All the best,

Chico

I stopped in today before a grocery run at Assi and Arax (Assi had everything I needed but full-fat yoghurt, and Arax was a quick stop), and I'm not thrilled.

They have a $5.99 lunch special of chicken, wings or popcorn chicken, with "salad" and a drink. I asked for the popcorn chicken with the hot sauce, and they said that would be a $1.00 upcharge. I grumbled a bit but paid the toll. They recommended the sauce on the side, not sure if I would be able to tolerate it.

The popcorn chicken reminded me a bit much too strongly of the old-school McNuggets. Partly the dark meat flavor, but the batter had the same seasonings. The crispness of it far surpassed anything the clown could dish out.

The sauce was delicious: very spicy and garlicky, sort of a thick pasty cross between sriracha and bulgogi marinade -- more caramel, sesame and ginger flavors than you'd get in sriracha.

The salad is shredded cabbage and corn with thousand island dressing. Not my favorite, but it does temper the fire of the sauce well.

Perhaps the fried chicken or the wings would remind me less of McNuggets -- worth another try.