A couple of weekends ago, a bunch of friends and I went to the Bronx Zoo — and it was awesome. Turns out that in the winter months, it’s pretty empty! Enough people that they stay open and hopefully turn a profit, but not so many that it’s crowded or hard to navigate to see everything you want to see.
After we’d ogled the animals to our liking, we headed down to midtown to grab beers at Rattle N Hum but some of us (read: me) were hungry and decided (read: me) to grab food at nearby Turntable Chicken Jazz before beers. A few people had recently talked it up to me and I really wanted to try it — Korean fried chicken can be so good!
Since I was so hungry bordering on hangry, I quickly ordered some grilled corn with cheese and cayenne. This was satisfactory but I wouldn’t say good, it just was… cooked corn. Sometimes this dish is amazing (the Mexican version – elote – can be so bomb!!), sometimes it’s just OK. This was a just OK time. 
The chicken was listed as taking 20 minutes, so we were prepared to wait. And wait we did. When it came, half spicy and half soy/garlic, I quickly nommed on the soy/garlic ones. Honestly? While good, I didn’t think they were any better than my standbys (Bonchon because it’s close to home, Kyochon when I’m in the city because I like theirs better along with their side offerings). They were… good, but like, what you’d expect from Korean fried chicken – no better, no worse. Ah well. I’ll go back to Kyochon.
Oh, and at the end, I dared to try a spicy one. Okay, that was FIRE as in IT SET MY WHOLE MOUTH ON FIRE, I was really uncomfortable. The others liked them just fine though, so that worked out.
Our friend also ordered a bulgogi dish for his daughter, which was overly sweet and overcooked. It was fine for a little girl to eat, but nothing I would want to eat again – kinda gross, actually. Stick to the fried chicken here, it seems.
I’m pretty disappointed that a bunch of people whose opinions I trust and respect said this place was a must-visit though. Maybe there’s something in the appeal that I’m missing – Hubba Hubby had a couple of cocktails that he said were not good, and I saw people getting fun beer towers, but… I’m here for the food, and the food wasn’t worth my visit.
Turntable Chicken Jazz
314 5th Avenue
New York, NY 10001
http://www.turntablenyc.com/
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