I ordered the “Kimchi Hellfire Stew” ($14), plus an egg ($2), and a side of rice ($3). This was basically a kimchi jjigae by another name. Medium firmness tofu with sliced pork belly and a good amount of kimchi. The broth was sweet, sour, and salty. In an individual soondubu sized portion. As a kimchi jjigae it was fine. Have had this in Korean restaurants and have made this at home a few times. I had a couple issues with this dish though:
Why not just call it kimchi jjigae. The spice level of the soup was medium, definitely not worthy of the “hellfire” in the name.
The price. With the usual accoutrements (rice and egg - ok maybe the egg isn’t standard - and without banchan even), this dish was $19. I admit a bit of hypocrisy here as I spent $22 on a bowl of pasta a couple days ago without blinking an eye. Rent is high in the Mission I guess.
Decor was kind of cool, very hipsterish. Murals on the walls, Christmas lights, mirrors, a neon “POW” sign. 90’s hiphop on the speakers.
I popped in on what turned out to be their first night open, ordered the exact same things as you, and had almost the exact same experience. At some point I will probably try the fried chicken, but am wary of getting burned again. Easier to get the very good rotisserie chicken at Alma down the block. Also, I had a strange conversation at the bar with one of their young, off-duty bartenders during which she talked about the place like she was a fanatical employee of a world-changing startup. Oy.
I liked that house soju, though. Ku brand I think. Nice and smooth.
We went a couple of weeks ago. I agree that the kimchi jjigae wasn’t spicy enough, and overpriced. The banchan was really overpriced (as in, not complimentary) and we only liked 3 of the 5 items - the mushrooms were sweet and uninteresting, and the little salted fish were like chewing on wet paper towel.
however, their fried chicken wings are phenomenal. we had the seaweed salt version - super crispy, savory but with a slight sweetness. really addictive, and i’d go back again just for that. in fact, we’re going tonight. we’re going to see if they’ll give us a sampler of the two other kinds of wings we haven’t tried yet - the garlic soy and the sweet and spicy. i’ve seen pics of the sweet and spicy, which look more like the typical wings you find in a korean restaurant. those are not usually my favorite as they’re invariably too sweet for me. also, the goopy sauce may take away from the incredibly crispy crust, but we’ll see.
my BF had the spicy pork bulgogi - dae ji bulgogi. I found it tasty, but not spicy. BF found it lackluster. it’s his favorite dish at KBBQ, though, so he finds anything that is not the “real deal” subpar.
i know it’s not authentic, but it’s not trying to be authentic. i’m looking forward to trying the kimchi nacho cheese dip with pork cracklings, the dumplings, and the dungeness crab noodles.
Well, we tried the two other types of chicken wings tonight - they let you do a combo, even of all three if you want. Favorite is still the OG (seaweed salt), with the next fave being the soy/garlic/ginger. the sweet & spicy were not super sweet, not very spicy, not bad, but nowhere near as good as the originals. we also had the kimchi nacho cheese with pork rinds and fried lotus root. absolute CRACK. some parts of some of the rinds were really tough to chew - like, inedible, but most were ok. still, that’s a fun, mighty satisfying dish.
beef & sausage dumplings were tasty, though i’m not sure where the tofu came in. mung bean pancake with ground beef was just so-so, rather dull. I didn’t get the dungeness crab noodles after all, too much food…
Thanks for the review! I went in again on a weeknight and tried the KFC. I had “Some Chicken” ($19), which was basically half a chicken, fried. I got it with all three sauces - “O.G. Recipe (seaweed salt),” “Sweet & Spicy (gochujang and honey),” and “Garlic/Soy (ginger and roasted garlic).”
Like you I also thought the seaweed salt coating was the best. Nice salty umami flavor. The other two kind of tasted similar - sweet and with a little spice in the gochujang one.
On the whole the KFC I had was OK but had a few issues:
The chicken’s skin could have been crispier. Was not as cracking as some other KFC that I’ve had. More of a problem on the sauced pieces which is to be expected.
The chicken wasn’t hot, more like room temperature - seemed like it had maybe been sitting around for awhile. Could also be why the skin wasn’t very crispy.
It had some pickled radish cubes interspersed which was nice.
They’ve been open about a month so maybe there are some consistency issues. The queso with chicharonnes dish looks good, maybe will give that a try. You are right that they are perhaps not trying to be an “authentic” Korean restaurant, and that is fine (although interestingly in this year-old article the chef does seem to claim authenticity http://blog.eatfeastly.com/2016/12/08/foxsister/). He used to be chef de cuisine at Slanted Door - maybe they are trying a little to be a Slanted Door but with Korean food? Based on my two visits though I haven’t been very impressed with the food regardless of authenticity. They don’t seem to be hurting for business however from what I saw. There aren’t many (any?) other Korean options in the Mission.
Yes! i forgot to mention the radish cubes, thought that was a nice touch. sorry your chicken wasn’t as crispy. We went both times very early, so nothing had time to sit. Definitely the seaweed salt was the best one - i really just want to sit at that counter, eat baskets of those and drink beer.
Any recent updates? I read somewhere that they recently changed the menu around, I think to emphasize noodles.
I wish they had their regular offerings for weekend brunch. instead, all they do is various types of eggs Benedict, which I stay away from like kryptonite.
I had dinner at Foxsister a few weeks ago. They have changed from a Korean menu to more fusion-y menu, with a prominent noodle/rice/rice cake section. The KFC is still on the menu, but you have to order a whole chicken. I had the Sichuan short-rib egg noodles, described as having yu choy, roasted tomato, and bird’s eye chili. The noodles resembled pappardelle and were good - nice texture and chew. The noodles were the best part of the dish. They were in a salty, sweet, and slightly spicy sauce with shredded short rib and tomatoes that kind of had a concentrated sun-dried tomato taste. Didn’t detect any Sichuan peppercorn or ma la flavor really in the sauce. Maybe they call it Sichuan because it’s a little spicy. Sauce was a little on the too sweet side for me. A little expensive for the size at $18 but I guess I can’t complain too much when ~$20 seems to be around the going rate for pasta dishes in many Italian restaurants in SF. I also had the pork and shrimp dumplings which were good but a little expensive at $14 for 5.
I am trying to picture in my head how folks can drink beer and tear apart a whole chicken caveman style at the same time… Wings seem so much easier when it comes to KFC…!
Looking at the menu again I do see chicken wings in the appetizer section, so I was mistaken - you can actually get KFC wings and not have to order the whole chicken.
