‘More crispy and juicy.’ This new restaurant in Macon serves up Korean-style chicken

A new restaurant that offers Korean-style chicken, hibachi, wings and tenders opened Thursday in Macon.

K-Daak, pronounced K-Doc, is located at 3960 Northside Drive in the former Zaxby’s space.

Daak is the Korean word for chicken, and the “K” in the name is also a nod to the Korean culture that has become mainstream with K-Pop and K-Drama.

Crispy and juicy

Korean chicken is billed to be super crispy, juicy and tender. It’s first marinated, hand battered, fried and then tossed in a signature sauce if desired.

“The way we marinate it and cook it makes it more crispy and juicy,” said David Kim, who developed the K-Daak brand.

The Korean-style chicken is served three ways: original golden fried, “world famous” soy garlic and “secret” sweet and spicy.

The original is not tossed with any sauce. The soy garlic is called world famous because it’s the most popular of about 10 traditional sauces served in Korea and it’s the flavor that made Korean-style chicken popular, said Kim, a native of South Korea.

The soy garlic is not hot, while the sweet and spicy “is kind of hot,” Kim said.

The Korean-style chicken may be purchased whole, half, breast and wings, or thighs and drumsticks and comes with coleslaw or cabbage slaw. Cabbage slaw is cut up dried cabbage with sauce on top, Kim said.

The Telegraph’s videographer tried the original Korean-style chicken with fries, coleslaw and a soft drink. He said the chicken was “hot and fresh with great seasoning and good crunch.” The crinkle-cut fries were hot and had both salt and lemon-pepper seasoning. He also enjoyed the coleslaw that was sweet.

The restaurant also serves up hibachi with its special K-Daak yum yum sauce. Choices include vegetables, chicken, beef or shrimp, or all three proteins.

ATown Wings recipe

Also on the menu are ATown Wings, the same recipe wings from ATown Wings restaurants, a brand that Kim said he also developed that now has 25 stores, including in Albany, Valdosta and Savannah, since the first one opened in Atlanta in 2008.

Like the ATown Wings restaurants, which are each independently owned and operated, the first K-Daak store also is independently owned and operated, said Kim, who set up, opened and will initially run the new restaurant for the owners. He has the brand rights and offers his expertise for those who want to open up a restaurant.

This Macon location is the first K-Daak to open, Kim said.

Kim said he was looking in Georgia for a new location to launch the new brand when the former Zaxby’s store became available. He’s undaunted that there’s a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen right next door.

“It’s different,” Kim said. “People who want the gourmet food come to us. Our motto is serving the customer gourmet food at fast food price.”

Prepared fresh

All meals are freshly cooked to order, which means a wait of five-to-15 minutes with the Korean-style chicken taking longer to cook, Kim said.

The wait time is why the restaurant does not have a drive-thru, Kim said

K-Daak offers dine-in, take-out and online ordering, but does not offer delivery or accept call-in orders, he said.

The ATown Wings are not Korean-style wings but American-style wings, which may be served plain or tossed with a sauce from among nearly 20 choices, Kim said.

The restaurant also serves chicken tenders. Among the side dishes are Mandu, or Korean dumplings, which are like pot stickers, Kim said.

Other sides listed on the menu include french fries, yum yum sauce and K-sauce. Drinks are Pepsi products.

Hours are 11 a.m.-9 p.m. Monday through Saturday. The restaurant is closed on Sunday.