Cititour's Review
When you think of Korean food you might envision kimchi and barbecue, not fried chicken and Belgian beer. But that's exactly what you will find at this wonderful spot in K-town... Baden Baden chicken is well seasoned and cooked rotisserie style before being deep fried, which gives it an added crunch while keeping all of the flavors of the rotisserie. It's amazing!
New York Magazine: "Wasting Away in Koreatown. And five other bar crawls you’ve never done."
Answer the question “What is a Korean-German beer bar?” at Baden Baden NY
New York Times: "Korean Fried Chicken With Beer and a Beat"
Peter Meehan dished about Baden Baden in his $20 & Under column and labeled it a "Top Pick":
HEY why you wanna go and do that?” T. I. asks over and over in “Why You Wanna,” one of the many hip-hop hits to guzzle beer by at Restaurant Forte Baden Baden. It echoes a question from a friend when I tried to lure him to this Koreatown restaurant with the promise of deep-fried rotisserie chicken. He couldn’t fathom why they would want to go and do that.
One answer explains why humans deep-fry just about anything: because they can. Another is evident as soon as a platter of the chicken hits the table. The rotisserie keeps the flesh moist (even the cottony breast meat common to all lesser chickens) and the deep-fryer ensures crackling crisp skin. Why other cultures have not picked up on this Korean innovation is a question I can’t answer...
New York Magazine: "Best Fried Chicken"
Baden Baden was hailed a "Critics' Pick" by New York Magazine after winning the honor of "Best Fried Chicken":
If fried chicken is narrowly defined as the American southern classic, cooked lovingly and patiently in a cast-iron pan, then Charles Gabriel, the man behind the supremely delicate and juicy birds served at Charles’ Southern Style Kitchen and Rack & Soul, would win the title of top chicken chef every year (like Wayne Gretzky collecting Hart Trophies in the eighties). Happily, a new genre of chicken has entered the New York lexicon, allowing us to go in a different direction. Korean-style fried chicken is cooked in a rotisserie to an exquisite tenderness, let to cool slightly, and then deep-fried, giving it a perfect combination of yielding moistness and crisp, garlicky exterior. The best in town is Baden Baden, a hard-to-find sports bar on an upper floor of K-Town, where the chicken in served sauceless, in all its stark brilliance. Pay no mind to the French fries, pickled daikon, and whole caramelized garlic cloves, which add little to the main course: The thing to do here is to drink beer and eat chicken, particularly the thighs and wings, which take to the double-cooking like peaches to cream.
Time Out New York: "Critics' Pick"
Folks in the know pack this Koreatown hof (Korean for hoffsbrau or German beer bar) well into the morning to share platters of fried chicken and pitchers of beer. Bold dishes fill the menu: moist tofu with sizzling pork-studded kimchi, tasty cold sea-snail salad and thin slices of pig’s feet. But it’s the Baden Chicken that adorns most tables in this pubby, dim-lit spot. This bird is cooked in the rotisserie, then deep-fried to order, leaving an addictive crispy skin. The generous meal comes with caramelized garlic cloves, pickled daikon radish and fantastically crunchy french fries (choose them over the generic onion rings). Warning: With all the recent love, don’t be surprised if the Baden chicken is sold out.
Serious Eats: "Fried Chicken and Tofu at Forte Baden Baden"
Do you have any idea how many times I wished I could eat a dinner in which i could alternate mouthfuls of fried chicken with bites of spicy, kimchi-laden tofu? More than you can imagine.
So thank god for Forte Baden Baden. While this restaurant in Korea Town is meant to resembles a German beer hall (it takes its name from the German town Baden-Baden), the food is just about all Korean. Either that, or fried. Don't be put off by the dirty hallway and odd smelling stairway that leads to this easy-to-miss second story restaurant. It's a small hurdle to get over in order to reach the feast of chicken within.