Ok, I know you must be tired of all these KFC posts, they seem to be coming in hot and heavy right now, this will be the last one for a while…hopefully, though I do have some revisits in the queue. Based on the crazy pre-opening history of this place, you know I just had to visit. For those who don't remember; originally, back in 2021, this was supposed to be JJ's Chicken, then in August of 2022, the "JJ" sign was gone. Then FOYs Patty (in the comments of that post) and Rena (via email, with an attached photo) notified me that the place was going to be Honeyjam Chicken. I drove on over and posted a photo in October of 2022. Finally, in May of this year Eater posted on the Soft Opening of Honeyjam. I had heard about the place selling out of wings and really didn't want to repeat the BHC thing, so I waited. By the time of my visit, the signage now said "Kuljem"! You gotta love it. Which is basically "Honey" (ggul) and "Jem" (잼) means "fun", so I guess it all fits, right? Whew…..
Not wanting to fight crowds and such, I walked in at 1130, opening time on a Tuesday.
A really nice young man greeted me and asked me if I was ordering for here to to go. I told him I'd be dining in and he led me over to a table and pointed out the QR code for the menu.
I placed my order and once he got things set he came over and introduced himself as John and is one of the owners. He also owns Arteazen, the Boba/Tea shop in the plaza. He was a really friendly guy and I guess I must have a rather generic look because he asked me if we'd met before? Seeing an opening, I asked him about first being JJ's and was told that the sign was a mistake because that's the name of their LLC; his business partner's name is Jin, so "J & J" got it? But what about the Honeyjam "thing"? Well, after being open a bit, they found that with the name Honeyjam, folks were expecting SFC ("Southern Fried Chicken") and waffles, that sort of thing, so they went with the Korean name! Got that? Double whew…..
Anyway, I ordered the wings – Original Crispy (6 piece – $12) and some Kimchi Fried Rice ($16). Not cheap, but it looks like about $2 a wing is the going rate these days? I was graciously brought a glass of water and soon enough my wings arrived. Even before the fried rice. John told me that they double fry the Original Crispy.
These were those jumbo sized wings; the batter was really thick and more hard-crunchy than crispy. The seasoning was a good amount of salt and black pepper. The wings were moist, especially the flats, and looked to be of good quality. As whole, just way too much batter for me, but decent wings. It threw the entire proportion off and I really needed that cabbage with dressing and the mul kimchi, which hovered on the sweeter side of things to reset my palate.
What I enjoyed much more than the wings was the Kimchi Fried Rice ($16).
While I do wish they had a Spam option for this, the chicken, which I'm sure they have a lot of was ok. Loved the fried egg with the crisp edges, it was perfect. The rice was wonderfully coated and there was a good amount of crunchy, fermentally sour kimchi in this. This was quite good!
I heard some customers, who came in after me raving about the "Saigon Wings" so I knew I had to make a return visit. I did wait about a month or so, but again returned at the 1130 opening time, this time on a Wednesday. I was greeted once again, this time by John's partner, "Jin", who led me to a table and the ensuing QR code drill. And brought me a glass of H2O.
This time I decided on the Saigon Wings (6 – $12).
The batter for this seemed a bit different; it was thinner, more lacquered, but still on the crunchy end of the spectrum. The menu says "aromatic and slightly spicy", I'd go with barely spicy and teeth rattling sweet and sticky. The wings were, as before moist and tender, but this was too much for me. I ended up needing the cabbage a mul kimchi to recover! Also, I had to request extra napkins, because of that sticky sauce. Perhaps they'll stock some wipes in the future?
Really like the two owners who are very friendly and quite chatty. The wings are good quality, though it's a bit too crunchy for me. Funny thing is; I'll definitely get the kimchi fried rice. Now if they start offering a Spam option, well I'd be there for sure!
Kuljem Chicken & Beer
8895 Towne Centre Dr. Suite 101
San Diego, CA 92122
Current Hours:
Daily 1130am – 2pm, 5pm – 11pm
The wings came with a rather large order of Mul Kimchi, crisp, not overly sweet, a good palate cleanser for fry-o-lated foods.
The batter was somewhat crunchy, but it really got soggy quickly. The seasoning seemed quite mild, but I had a raging thirst after eating 6 of these wings. I took the remaining wings home and even tried to revive in the air fryer, but that didn’t work too well. I’m thinking that if I tried this again it would have to be with some kind of sauce; but based on experience with other KFC chains of this ilk, I’m going to assume it’s going to be too sweet and heck, it already gets soggy-mushy too quickly anyway.
As you can see, the chicken took up only two-thirds of the sandwich surface area, so there were "fowl-less" bites and with all that bread and mayo, it was hard making heads or tails of the flavors. So even though that label said "please enjoy it as soon as served" there was no way I could finish this. I put half in the fridge at work and took it home. During dinner that evening, I brought out the remainder of the sandwich and the Missus and I took out the piece of chicken. Even though the batter had sloughed off, it seemed like the chicken thigh meat was nicely seasoned and fairly tender. 
The wings were on the larger end of the spectrum and were lightly seasoned. The sauce was much too sweet for me. 
And when the gyeran jjim (steamed egg) hit the table, I thought that this would be the interesting test of the service. You see, the Missus enjoys some sesame oil on Her steamed egg. I think it's kind of a Northern Chinese thing. On our 
