Baden Baden: Chickens and Koreans

For TC's birthday last month, we gathered at Baden Baden in K-town for Korean-style chicken and pitchers of beer. It's the kind of place you would never know existed unless you had been expressly told about it. From the street there's no obvious signage, and even when you've arrived to the right building you have to hunt out the entrance, which is an elevator hidden just beyond a small gum-and-cigarette counter that doesn't look like you're supposed to venture past it. Still, once you get in the door, the place opens up into a comfortable bar and restaurant that serves up pretty decent chicken. While this definitely is not BonChon Chicken—the style is completely different—the birds at Baden Baden are crisp-skinned and juicy enough if not super flavorful, and it's served with rich, mellow cloves of creamy fried garlic, sweet and tangy radish pickles, and a scattering of prefab onion rings. The onion rings aren't great, as The Amateur Gourmet points out, but who's not going to still eat them when sloshed on beer and soju?