Coqodaq Is Here to Make Fried Chicken as Fancy as You Want (Or Not)

To understand why Kim would bring his attention to fried chicken in a town already brimming with it, it helps to look at his success with Cote, the Korean-influenced American steakhouse he opened in 2017. At the time, no-frills Korean barbecue was experiencing a glow-up, at restaurants like Gaonnuri and Kristalbelli, which married USDA Prime cuts of beef with penthouse views and tony décor. But those restaurants were still very much part of the Koreatown experience; they catered to people who were already frequenting Korean barbecues.

Cote, on the other hand, took the Korean barbecue out of Koreatown, simultaneously buffing up the experience while appealing to a wider pool of diners. Literally, its address is a full mile south of K-Town. (This may not seem like much, but consider the vibe shift between Herald Square and Madison Square Park). And figuratively, Cote was positioned as a bridge between the bustle of Korean tableside barbecue and the white-tablecloth finery of American steakhouse. It was a fitting concept for Kim who, having moved from Seoul to Long Island when he was 13, embodies a hybrid Korean American identity.

Kim’s brilliance in Cote was to understand how combining the luxury of a steak dinner with the theater of tabletop grilling would resonate with diners. That came together with rare cuts of marbled meat, presented and then grilled in tableside flourishes, plus all the trimmings of an occasion-worthy steakhouse — from the supplemental caviar service to a wine list that goes deep on grower Champagnes and top Burgundies. It was a reinvention of both formats, and it earned Kim and his team a Michelin star, the first for a Korean barbecue restaurant.

And yet, despite Kim’s fine dining inclinations (he has worked for Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Thomas Keller), he still wanted Cote to be accessible to as many people as possible. When the restaurant opened, the Butcher’s Feast prix fixe offered a meat fest priced at a reasonable $45 (it’s now $74). During the pandemic, Kim and his team figured out how to deliver a hot steak dinner and even began shipping meat across the country via Goldbelly. Cote Miami opened in 2021 and Cote Singapore is due any day now. (The company is also working on a separate, unnamed venture at 550 Madison.)

So you might consider Cote a primer for Kim’s decision to launch Coqodaq as his next chapter. “It really has a direct translation; we just happen to be serving fried chicken as opposed to Korean steak,” he says.

And yet, unlike Korean barbecue in 2017, Korean-style fried chicken is already popular well beyond major Koreatowns and fried chicken doesn’t (yet) have that fancy analog to the white-tablecloth steakhouse. So perhaps it’s less about merging the two styles than it is about simply improving the quality of the chicken — the motto “better fried chicken” is emblazoned all over the menu — and adding epic wines and exceptional hospitality. Even so, the name Coqodaq itself is a hybrid; aside from being fun to say, it collides the words “coq,” chicken in French, and “daq,” which means chicken in Korean. (So, chicken-chicken.)

Just one thing: How do you improve an already perfect food? This was the challenge for Seungkyu Kim, known as SK, who was the director of culinary affairs at Gracious Hospitality Management and is now Coqodaq’s executive chef. Before joining Cote in 2019, he spent 10 years at Vongerichten’s Upper West Side flagship restaurant, Jean-Georges.

After months of testing, SK found the perfect air-chilled, free-range chicken for his needs. The birds will be butchered in house into an assortment of parts like boneless nuggets, breast, and thigh pieces or bone-in drumsticks and wings. A 24-hour marinade in a proprietary brine infuses the chicken with flavor, after which the pieces are dunked in a gluten-free batter made from, among other things, rice flour.

The Korean method of frying chicken is distinguished by its light, crisp shell, the result of a double dip in hot oil. At Coqodaq, the exact number is a kitchen secret, but SK assures the chicken is fried “multiple times.” Even the oil was selected for optimal performance — Zero Acre cultured oil made from sugarcane, which has a high smoke point and is stated to have more heart-healthy monounsaturated fats than seed oils.

Finally, there’s the seasoning. The chicken comes in original, soy garlic, or a sweet gochujang glaze. “The goal is love at first bite,” SK notes.

And just as Cote was more than steak, there will be more than just chicken on the menu — with appetizers from the chilled raw bar, fennel and Caesar salads, seasonal vegetable fritto misto and sides like spicy rice cakes (tteokbokki) and mac and cheese with chile oil. Coqodaq’s version of Cote’s Butcher’s Feast prix fixe menu is called the Bucket List. It will consist of a chicken consommé made with red ginseng, two varieties of fried chicken with pickles and condiments galore, a bowl of cold perilla seed noodles, and frozen yogurt for dessert. As of now, the Bucket List is priced at $38.

Also as at Cote, the wine list is going to be a serious investment, managed by executive beverage director Victoria James, with a special focus on Champagne — an iconic pairing with fried chicken that has previously been highlighted at other New York restaurants like Birds & Bubbles. Beverages will also include cocktails, low- and no-ABV drinks, and beer.

Further following the Cote template, a meal at Coqodaq will be defined by a flex on music, lighting, and ambiance. Kim enlisted the vision and aesthetic of the Rockwell Group, a New York-based design firm known for creating dining spaces with modern sophistication and a touch of clubstaurant glam — think Nobu or pretty much any restaurant at Hudson Yards. And the servers will be trained to fine-dining standards — to deftly explain the difference between a chicken wing flat and drum (iykyk) — without coming across as fussy.

After all, Kim knows the best fried chicken is informal. In Korea, it’s very much an everyday snack, especially good with a side of chilled beer, and eaten by hand (Kim encourages this at Coqodaq with a hand-washing basin by the restaurant’s entrance).

And yet, as much as Coqodaq is positioned to be a destination for excellent, affordable fried chicken, Kim also knows that people like to spend money on the experience of dining out. In fact, he’s banking on it. Kim didn’t get to this point — becoming CEO of a multi-million-dollar hospitality group — with good vibes and reasonably priced steak alone. It took a savvy strategy: hawking affordable prix-fixe menus alongside splurge-worthy supplements, a formula he’s hoping will likewise pay off at Coqodaq.“If somebody wants to go for a ride, let’s get a tin of caviar,” he jokes before finishing his thought. “I’m in the business of making people happy. That’s what I want to do.”

Mahira Rivers is a restaurant critic and writer based in New York, and is Resy’s dining columnist. In addition to spending five years as an anonymous inspector for The Michelin Guides, her writing has been published in The New York Times, New York Magazine, Food & Wine, GQ and elsewhere, and recognized by the James Beard Foundation. Follow her on Instagram. Follow Resy, too.