Crispy Chicken n' Tomato (La Jolla/UTC)

Back in the comments of my "Rebuilding the Rotation" post FOY "Peter" mentioned that the La Jolla Village Square location of Padadak was being replaced by something called Crispy Chicken n' Tomato. Peter kindly included a link which indicated that the chain was the #1 Korean Fried Chicken Chain in Japan. Is that something to brag about? Hmmm.....sort of like saying Ajisen Ramen is the #1 Ramen Chain in China?

Anyway, a couple of weeks back, not sure on what to grab for lunch I decided to check the place out. I did the Google search and found that all the Padadak locations in San Diego, save the San Marcos location, though some would say that's not really San Diego had been replaced by Crispy Chicken.

The one good thing about this mall is that since the trolley stop was built there always seems to be ample parking. I arrived right at opening and sauntered on in.

The friendly young lady was an absolute joy. I placed my takeout order and was told there would be a 15 minute wait. The young lady mentioned putting in an online order, making sure I knew there wasn't any additional charges.

Of course, I couldn't help but notice the #1 Korean Fried Chicken Chain in Japan sign.

One quick note. Since when is Hiroshima in "China"? Last I heard, Hiroshima was in the Chūgoku region of Japan? Did I miss something in Geography class?

Anyway, I took a short walk and returned to pick up my order.

I had wanted to just see how the wings were without all the various sauces just to get my bearings, so I ordered the 8 piece wings Original ($14.50). A look at the fries had me thinking that they would not hold up well, even on the short trip back to the office, so I got the Onion Rings with Truffle Salt ($7).

    That's what things looked like when I opened up the boxes back at the office. I did a quick taste of the tomato topping which was super bland, you couldn't even really taste tomato. The version of Mul Kimchi provided was weird as it had a real strong anise/clove flavor that wasn't very pleasant.

As for the Onion Rings with Truffle Salt....well, the color was very dark...maybe black truffle salt??? Ahem, no, it was burnt, the breading bitter.

    And not a hint of truffle flavor to be found.

As for the wings; well, they did not hold up real well during the 10 minute trip back to the office. I found the batter to be thicker and the wings were fairly evenly coated... the pieces that weren't overly soggy were more crunchy than crisp, the seasoning also mild, apparently you do need some kind of sauce on this. The wings were on the larger side and were quite moist.

Looking over the website, I noticed that Crispy Chicken had lunch specials where you could order a bowl, yakisoba, bulgogi, or like I did the Chicken Plate, which comes with both the boneless chicken and chickens wings, corn slaw, veggie fried rice, and one of three choices of sauce for $14.50. So, I went with the Soy Honey I ordered online and my lunch was ready when I arrived.

Of course you know what what stated on the takeout box, right?

I gotta say, the price to portion ratio was quite good for these days of inflated prices.

    The wings had held up better this time. I tried the sides first. The corn slaw was terrible, the "dressing" was really watery and this lacked flavor. Very little corn, you might as well just give me raw coleslaw mix.

The fried rice on the other hand was not bad. The rice was nicely coated, decent, simple, straightforward soy sauce flavors. It was my favorite item of the day.

The boneless chicken was served in fairly hefty chunks.

    The batter had peeled away from two of the pieces, which had been turned face down in the box. The sauce was not overly sweet, but I still would have preferred a bit more saltiness, this was much milder than the versions at other places. The chunks of chicken were on the dry and tough side.

    I'm not going to beat a dead horse about that Mul Kimchi. I just don't care for the flavor.

The wings had held up much better this time and definitely did better with a sauce. Though the wings weren't evenly coated really paring down the impact of the already mild soy-honey. Perhaps I should have ordered the "Monster" sauce, after all, from my experience Japanese don't like super spicy food and you know...this is the #1 blah, blah, blah, blah......

In the end, this might be my least favorite of the four KFC chains in San Diego. Though I'm wondering what it would taste like in "Hiroshima, China"?

Crispy Chicken n’ Tomato
8657 Villa La Jolla Dr.
San Diego, CA 92037
Current Hours:
Open Daily 11am - 10pm

Comments

[RedDevil]

I cracked up when I read you couldn’t taste tomato in the tomato topping. I saw this chain on our trip to Japan/Korea but didn’t try it. Guess I won’t rush to try it now either 😂. Thanks for saving us a trip!

[Kirk]

I think it's the weakest of the "KFC" chains in San Diego RD.

[Charles]

What happend to Paddak Chicken chain?

[Kirk]

I don't know Charles. I do know that only the San Marcos location survives. I'll let you know if I find out.

[Peter]

Yikes! Glad you gave this latest KFC place a try, Kirk, but sorry it fared so poorly! Oh well...

[Soo]

I tried their wings and found them ok. I ate them there and the batter was nice and crunchy.

[Junichi]

In Japan the Hiroshima area is called 中国地方(Central Country Area). It's because it was the halfway point between Kyoto (the capital at the time) and Fukuoka (the biggest Western city) in the 800s. Center of country equals 中国 which today also means China. Guess they used Google translate! Too bad the wings were of poor quality.

[Kirk]

I'm hoping they improve Peter. The young lady working was so very nice.

I wasn't very impressed Soo. And yes more crunchy than crisp.

Thank for the info Junichi! Perhaps they should have reviewed that before posting it everywhere? Though I don't think many people notice?

[SD Julie]

What Junichi said. Everything listed under “China” are prefectures in Japan. Hope their chicken is better than their translation. Lol. We have one in Scripps Ranch.

[kat]

even if it’s supposedly the #1 korean chicken chain in japan I’ve never heard of it, gonna look to see if there is something close by

[Kirk]

I know Julie; that was kinda funny! They took over all the Padadak locations except one.

Will be interesting to see if you find one Kat!

[Loren]

OK that spot is clearly cursed with Korean (Japanse/Chinese/ABCDE?) fried chicken and they need alot of sage (or to sacrifice a chicken to Jobu) to get the bad juju out of that location. I mean once Chick fil A goes into that shopping center there's no prayer for this location.

[Kirk]

It seems that there's a KFC curse going on Loren!