Dak Good
5317 S. Westnedge AvenueI have never had Korean Fried Chicken. It’s something I’ve always wanted to try because who doesn’t love fried chicken? We’ve never had a place in Kalamazoo that I know of. I’m sure if I looked at a couple of the Korean food places there might be someplace with it on the menu but now we have a place that specializes in it.
I was working an overtime shift last week and needed to grab dinner in between my regular shift and when my next assignment began in Battle Creek. I started looking for places in Battle Creek but I really wanted to try that fried chicken place. It was a little out of the way but I had time.
Dak Good is on Westnedge near Andy drive just north of the I-94 interchange. The restaurant takes up the remaining space left by BD’s Mongolian Grill. Firehouse Subs took a small part of the building and left this bigger space open. I noticed the signage go up for Dak Good a month or so ago and they opened up at the end of February. The website shows this location in Portage and a second one in Muskegon that may not be open yet.
I put my order in online but if you’re getting to-go, they actually have a self-serve kiosk right inside the door.
If you prefer the human touch, there is an order counter inside. This is also where you pick up the orders. There were three people ahead of me waiting. When I gave the lady my name, she headed back to the kitchen and came out with all three of them at the same time.
The thing that really surprised me is that if you’re eating in, this is a full service sit down restaurant. There’s a large dining room and servers who will take of you. I just assumed this would be a smaller carry-out focused restaurant but that’s not the case. This is actually a really big space with some really nice furniture.
My order was for ten chicken strips. I didn’t want to do wings because I was eating in the car. I decided to try both flavors and got five of the spicy and five of the garlic soy. I also added on an order of seasoned fries. The total came out to right around $20 before tip with no drink.
I started on the fries first when I got back to my car. The fries have a very heavy salt and herb seasoning on them. The fries themself were frozen battered fries but they were covered in a thick layer of the seasoning. They are pretty salty but I like salty. I ate the whole box, which was much bigger than I expected it to be, and even used the last remaining fries to try to pick up some of that extra seasoning.
I really wanted to try the spicy chicken and I knew it was a gamble eating that before eating the soy garlic. Chances are, I could burn by tongue and not taste anything but it was a chance I took. The chicken strips are wide, flat pieces of chicken covered in thin starch based batter. It’s a lot lighter than the traditional American flour based batter. It has a pretty good crunch to it and the chicken is nice and tender. The spicy is spicy but not setting off the fire alarm in your mouth spicy. It has a really good, really intense peppery kick that really kind of lingers more in the back of your throat than on the tongue and lips. I like spicy things and this had the right amount of spice for me. There was more than enough to give the kick that I want but not enough to ruin the rest of my night.
Once I finished all five of those, I headed to the side of the box with the soy garlic. To be fair, I don’t love the taste of soy sauce. I know some people could drink it by the bottle but that’s not me. I use it pretty sparingly in my own cooking relegating it mostly marinades. This was more about trying something than expecting to love it. I didn’t mind it though. The soy taste was much strong than the garlic. I would have preferred that the opposite way but as it was, not bad. I think people who like soy sauce will really like this flavor. I’ll be sticking to the spicy in the future though.
Dak Good is something really unique to the landscape in Metro Kalamazoo. Yes, there are Korean places in town but this one puts the chicken out front. They have some of the traditional Korean entrees on the menu..bibimbap, buldak, bulogi, etc and they have some fusion dishes like Korean sliders, Korean corn dogs, and Korean tacos. But it’s the chicken that’s going to get me back. The strip form was alright but now I gotta try the wings.
SW Michigan Dining 