Hoolala Chicken

Been there with my brother in law because one of his friends said it was good… And it was! I’m usually pretty picky when it comes to food but I really liked their fried chicken. The waiter suggested we should only get one plate because it’s gonna be a lot of chicken. We even had left overs. I will go again soon to try other dishes.

Sooo overpriced mannnn… Came here only because it’s the only place that was open until midnight, besides the bars. Service was fine and the food was decent.
The sweet and sour chicken were okay and the soy sauce wings were pretty good. I love crispy wings. $ 20 per plate? Jesus. We ordered 2 plates and a few beers and our total ended up to be $ 105?!? Eh, it was good but not worth the price.

I’ve been hearing about Korean Fried Chicken for some time now and when I realized that my goto Murphy street has a place — well we had to check it out.
The staff — friendly and will explain things
The venue — not a restaurant, not a fast food place — kinda like a diner.
The menu — different — I had no idea what to expect
They have beer and some other adult beverages
They have fried chicken (and other fried things)
The freebie appetizers were different and good
A couple of big screen TVs with sports and I’m assuming Korean music videos
We ordered a plate of fried chicken and a couple of beers.
The chicken came out on a huge place, breaded & fried perfectly with fries on the side. That was enough for three of us.
Ok, so not understanding what a Korean Fried Chicken place is or is supposed to be — basically this is a Chick Filet that serves booze (replace the biscuits with octopus)
Not a knock at all. I would recommend it to anyone that wants to check it out.

I had a really great experience here! I was deciding between Hoolala and Chimek for dinner and decided to come here because they had more «special» food/​drink items.
The waiter first brought us some sides. There was corn, moo (pickled radish), and cole slaw. The corn and radish were my favorite and helped sooth the burning sensation in my mouth.
We ordered the spicy chicken with fries, a screw-​ju, and a fat tire beer. The waiter was very informative about the different options and also added some extra strawberry stuff to the soju to make it taste better. The screw-​ju was great! We took shots and then took a bite out of the soft popsicle to chase. The chicken was also deliciousssss and the seasoning was on point. It was a bit spicy for the bf, but he really enjoyed it as well.
Can’t wait to go back!

Fun atmosphere, okay draft list, and wonderful drinking cuisine! Isn’t that what Korean chicken is all about? Come here for that and you’ll enjoy your time.
Disclaimer… I like spicy food, fried chicken, and beer, so this place was awesome for me.
Cheese bbq: wonderful if you like cheese! Eat it quick while it’s hot! As ppl say… Not available without spice, but it’s mild.
Corn cheese: it was decent but it reminds me of my aunts cream corn she makes for thanksgiving which is good… But this just wasn’t mind blowing to me. I think if the onions were fried and sprinkled on top vs mixed in, it may have been better.
Sweet and sour chicken: decent. Had a little spice but again is mild. Good mix that’s not too sweet.
HOT HOT chicken: good amount of spice. The type of heat that will build up on you. I liked it a lot actually. On my scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the make you cry spice that’s no longer enjoyable and you’re just trying to survive by drinking butt loads of any liquids, I would rate this a 5 with a creep factor to 6.5. Got me sweating slightly but it was enjoyable throughout. Their Cole slaw was awesome BTW.
I wouldn’t say this is a specifically kid-​friendly environment or cuisine, but We had 2 kids and an infant with us. Staff was cool. We enjoyed ourselves.

I’ve noticed this place ever since it opened. Specifically the cheese bbq chicken. It looks amazing from the pictures and videos other people have uploaded. When I finally got to try it, I was quite disappointed. The chicken was really tough and the flavor was kind of bland. The cheese was good but it can’t make up for the chicken, since the chicken is the main ingredient.
For $ 24 it was not worth it.
The corn cheese was pretty good, but nothing special.
We also got the octopus and fried chicken, which was $ 35. The fried chicken was crispy on the outside and soft and juicy on the inside. The octopus was decent. But it is so chewy it takes forever to swallow. The squid might be the better choice. The dish also comes with some sides such as cole slaw, green onion salad, rice balls, and fries. The sides were good. I really liked the rice balls, which were wrapped in seaweed and mixed with some wasabi.
I wouldn’t mind coming here again, but I would not get the cheese bbq chicken again.

Pros
Melonabar rice cocktail: the best thing I had at Hoolala Chicken was their soju cocktails. I got the melon pop versus the strawberry pop soju for a creamier taste.
Service: All the workers were super friendly. As soon as you walk in and leave, the staff greets you with smiles. Service was attentive and helpful with picking out food and drinks from their large menu. It was also a bonus that they brought out small complimentary sides.
Cons:
Fried Chicken: They definitely need to improve on their chicken since it was more the dry side and their batter could also improve. The skin is crispy but the inside was overcooked. Even their french fries tasted stale. I really enjoyed the service and drinks so hopefully on the next visit the food will be just as good.

Hoolala is a fun addition to downtown Sunnyvale, especially if you love watching KPop videos.
They will serve you anything chicken along with other meat options and what not. The fried chicken is crispy but their fries are not. They have a wide variety of offerings to soothe your fried food cravings.
I also liked their selection of beverages. That along with the streaming KPop videos made me feel like I had taken a little sojourn to Korea. The atmosphere was definitely worth coming to Hoolala for.
The staff also is pretty new and don’t seem so knowledgeable about what ingredients their food contains. Service was good, however, but there may be a wait at peak times.

I enjoyed the spicy sauce fried wings, but the sauce wasn’t spicy at all. The breading was very crispy, and the chicken itself was very juicy. In general, pretty good.
The crispy fried chicken was not my cup of tea though. Instead of wings and drumsticks, the pieces of meat they serve is every other part of the chicken carcass people don’t normally eat. All the fat and bones leftover from the wings, drumsticks, thighs, and breast. It’s like eating mystery meat that has bones all over.
The menu wasn’t very clear or specific. It didn’t tell you how many pieces comes with an order and I also wasn’t aware an order of fried chicken comes with leftover carcass meat.
I prefer Bön Chon, 99 chicken, and Vons over eating leftover pieces of chicken.

One of the better Korean Chicken places in the bay area!
I’ve been here once for lunch and all of my party was pleased with the food. We ordered the spicy chicken with cheese, Fried chicken with fried squid and the Bulgogi lunch plate.
The spicy chicken with cheese was a hit. The chicken is pretty spicy, but if you cover it with the melted, bubbling mozzarella cheese, you have the perfect combination. Some people like to stir the whole thing together at the beginning, because for us, we just kept dipping the chicken in the cheese as we went, but as time goes on, the cheese cools and is harder to eat.
The fried chicken with fried squid was huge, delicious and pricey! Pretty much $ 30 but you get a pretty big platterful. I loveeee how they give the green onion strings, because they match really well when eaten with fried chicken. The fried squid was also sooo yummy, because they put some kind of sweet sauce on it.
The bulgogi plate was my least favorite, but it was still good. They had yummy veggies with it like «sookjoonamul» or sprouts that went well with the bulgogi. The fries that come along with it are whatevers.
If you are in the area, I would definitely recommend that you check this place out, because the vibe is really chill and the food is novel and delicious! I WILL be back!

I noticed this place during its construction while taking my kids to their favorite coffee shop (aka Philz!) in Sunnyvale. After being open for a month, we decided to check them out. It was not crowded last night, most likely at it was pretty late (9pm) for most people’s dinner.
Upon entering, we were greeted warmly. The staff there is very attentive and friendly. The owner (Nate Yee?) came over and struck up a conversation. He was very nice, helpful, and very open about his philosophy regarding his establishment.
They have the most extensive menu among the KFC (aka Korean Fried Chicken) crowd. We wanted to compare them to the other places in the area so we stuck to ordering 2 plates of fried chicken, one original seasoning and the other half garlic/​half spicy seasoning. The first one was ordered with just fries and the other was ordered with their salad and sweet potato fries. Nate was kind enough not to charge us extra for the sweet potato fries which was a nice touch. The plate with original seasoning came out first, followed by the other plate about 5 – 10 minutes later. I would have preferred that they came out at the same time, though.
Portions were very large as we really did not have to order the second plate. No matter as it gave us a chance to try the various seasonings. All three versions tasted very good. The chicken was juicier/​moister than BonChon and Chicken 99, the other players in the local KFC arena. My wife and 14yo daughter preferred the garlic seasoning version over the original seasoning version. The wife said the original version was «missing something» but she couldn’t put her finger on why that was so. I preferred the spicy seasoning version although it was not a spicy as I feared it might be.
Overall it was a good experience. My only gripes/​issues:
1) Each of us received 2 forks which we weren’t sure why. We later requested spoons and knives.
2) The plates can be a bit small; we asked for a separate plate to put the bones on.
3) The small, typically inedible wing tips were left on the chicken wings.
4) Portion size — I like the idea of being able to order smaller portions of the fried chicken like at BonChon. This is especially true if I were to be eating alone!
Welcome to the party Hoolala! We look forward to trying your Cheesy BBQ Chicken entrée!

My coworker’s friends recommended this place so we came on a Tuesday evening to check it out. There’s very limited parking in front, so I parked in the huge lot in front of Macy’s.
For the four of us, we split 3 dishes:
1. Octopus BBQ ($ 34.99): The octopus was overcooked, hence really tough to chew and swallow. Fries were okay. Although the bbq chicken and seaweed rice were both good, this dish was a bit too pricey for what you get.
2. Cheese BBQ ($ 23.99): Definitely recommend this one! The chicken mixed in with the spicy cheese was absolutely delicious. YUM!
3. Sweet and Sour Chicken ($ 19.99): This dish was good but not amazing.
For drinks, we split 2 of the screwju drinks (screw bar (strawberry) popsicle with soju). They cost $ 8.99 each. They were delicious, but trying it one time was enough for me.
Overall, the food was decent and portions were good, but prices were a bit steep. We each spent $ 27 per person, which is almost the same price as that of an AYCE place. Staff were all kind and attentive, so the place is still worth trying one time!

Meeh, the food is okay but overpriced! Came here for lunch and tried the pork belly lunch plate, its a tad spicy but pretty flavorful. Wish they cut up the pork into smaller pieces so its easier to eat with a fork. Also tried an order of fried chicken soy sauce flavor. I was expecting wings and drums, the waitress didn’t explain the menu at all. Turns out this is a whole chicken chopped into pieces and fried. Way too much bone and not enough meat on this dish, i felt i was eating fried batter. The soy flavor was bland and my chicken flavorless and dry. For $ 20 what a rip off. Fried chicken isn’t super crispy, a tad soft due to the soy sauce flavoring, so i was really unsatisfied with the fried chicken. Chicken was also slightly overcooked and dry. Bön chon does a better job with their korean chicken, it has more flavor and fried crispier.
The menu is really extensive here and hard to choose what to order due to the number of items offered. Stick to the lunch specials if you come, and definitely dont order the fried chicken. If you want korean wings, i would go to Bön Chon.

The best Fried Chicken ever!!!
This is my second visit to Hoolala Chicken!
We ordered fried chicken and fried Squid combo. The chicken were extra crispy and the squid was delicious!
My ultimate favorite dish at this place is the spicy chicken w/​melted cheese!
The staffs are super friendly and nice!
Can’t wait to go back for more fried chicken!!!

This is THE PLACE for Korean-​style seasoned fried chicken (YangNyeom Chicken)!! I’ve been longing for this for the last 15 years of living in the Bay Area and this is the first time I tasted the RIGHT SEASONING.
Please try «Spicy fried Chicken with French Fries — Hot Seasoning» — it’s not that spicy (I’m not good with spicy and BBQ cheese chicken was 10x more spicier to me)
Service was excellent. Food was great. What could we ask for more. Here is the review of the plates we ordered (we went with 6 ppl –lucky we got to try quite a few)
BBQ Cheese chicken — ordered original, but it was still too spicy for me. But I still liked it a lot. Portion was huge, cheese was melt just right.
Signature fried chicken — very juicy and tender! My toddler daughter loved it as well.
Spicy flavored fried chicken (I think on the menu, it says «spicy chicken and French fries») — THIS WaS the BEsT. I liked HOT seasoning– as I mentioned above, I’m not good with spicy but it was okay-​, and the original flavor was good too — which was little more sweeter.
Garlic flavored BBQ chicken was my sister’s favorite. We were nearly full when this got ready, but we still managed to complete this.
I can’t wait to return and try some more dishes. Also, I will have my husband make some to-go’s for spicy flavored fried chicken later tonight.

We were very excited about trying this new chicken place. Ordered spicy Cheese BBQ Chicken for $ 23, thought we could share between 2 people, but definitely not even enough for one person. menu/​photos were very deceiving.
When I asked waiter about it, his respond was it’s because cheese is expensive. Still not convinced.

This is a nice break for fried chicken and perfect for those I gotta have fried chicken days. $ 19 gets you a bunch of broken up pieces of the chicken and it seems to add up to a whole chicken to feed two. They cut the chicken to smaller pieces which I suspect makes it easier to cook. You can order this dish with half seasoned with different batters. This is a Korean restaurant and attracts a young tech crowd.

A new Korean joint hit the main strip of Murphy street. It’s large and spacious, a bar and corridor like dining hallway. Got the fried chicken and squid combo. Man it’s huge. It could feed 2 hungry or 3 regular folks. Needless to say i had leftovers. It comes with a few sides, seaweed rice, cabbage and scallions. Fry is good and well seasoned. Definitely need to come back with other folks to try more of the other fare

Opening day was yesterday 8÷24÷2015. This restaurant is next to Chef Yu in Historic downtown Sunnyvale in Murphy Station. It’s a popular chain in South Korea and this is their 1^st location in the US. There’s VERY limited street parking in front, but there’s a public lot right behind the restaurant. Lots of tables (no outdoor seating), good for groups. 3 TVs, one blaring Korean music extremely loud where I could barely hear the waitress tell us what wasn’t available on opening day. No cocktails available yet (they put a blank paper over that section), only a few beers. They were open till midnight on their opening day but they do not have set hours yet. They said they are going to adjust based on how busy they are, so call ahead to make sure they’re open!
Our Order:
Ninkasi: ($ 7) IPA. Total Domination. 16oz
Spicy Chicken and Fries: $ 19.99
Squid Fried Chicken: $ 28.99
The complimentary banchans included Cabbage Slaw, Pickled Radish, and Corn Slaw.
WARNING: Orders are large!
BF ordered the Spicy Chicken and Fries, but the waitress asked what sauce he wanted. We were both confused about that question. We had a feeling that she ordered the wrong dish. What came out looked like the Hot Fried Chicken and Salad. The dish came out with a salad and the receipt read Hot Fried Chicken. Oh wellz. There were at least 20pcs (pieces are larger than Bonchon) and the sauce started out sweet but ended very spicy. BF really enjoyed the sauce. The chicken was very moist inside.
I ordered the Squid Fried Chicken and it easily could feed 2 (possibly 3) people. I put my fork on the plate so you can see the size comparison
. It came with a few slightly sweet rice cakes, some fries, and seaweed rice. The boneless fried chicken were very crispy and tender. Not a lot of flavor though so I wish there was some kind of dipping sauce to go with it (or more seasoning in the batter). I just asked for ketchup so I could eat it with the fries as well. Same applied to the squid. Next time I may try the BBQ version since the dish was so much fried stuff for me alone.
Service was attentive and very helpful. We were checked on several times and asked how we liked the food. Everyone who left after they were done eating were bid adieu as well.
BF wants to come back as they didn’t have the sweet & sour sauce. I want to go back for the gizzards (my BF doesn’t eat it tho so gotta go back with friends who do). Definitely suggest going with a group to try more things since the dishes are so large.
Credit Cards accepted

tl;dr:
Cheese BBQ chicken + regular hot = ⁹⁄₁₀
Fried chicken + garlic sauce = ¹⁰⁄₁₀
Fried chicken + original = ⁶⁄₁₀
Picked radish = ¹⁰⁄₁₀
Cole slaw = ⁷⁄₁₀
Corn side = ⁹⁄₁₀
Service = ¹⁰⁄₁₀
Drinks = ¹⁰⁄₁₀
Warning: Some of their dishes (like corn cheese, sausage BBQ, etc.) are not yet available as of 8÷24÷15. There’s still a lot of good ones though :)
Hoolala is a chain franchise from S. Korea and the Sunnyvale branch will be its first U.S. export. On its first grand opening day (8÷24÷15) my friends and I visited on a what’s supposed to be a busy hour. Since they’re not too well known at the moment the restaurant wasn’t too busy.
Fried chicken (
)
— This is boned, not boneless.
— They offer half/​half for sauces!
— If you’re ordering the original sauce, you might want to ask for some sauce on the side to dip it in.
— Garlic sauce was to die for. I’m coming back for this.
— They use various parts of the chicken other than your traditional breast/​thighs/​drumsticks/​wings. (I think I had shoulder, lower leg, neck, etc.)
Cheese BBQ Chicken (
)
— Regular hot was pretty spicy. Imagine getting an extra spicy flavored tofu soup anywhere. it was about as spicy as that level. The cheese is great with it!
— There’s rice cakes and tiny jalapeño pieces in here.
— They use chicken breast for this dish, so it’s much drier than the fried chicken. Still delicious though.
— The cheese was probably a perfect amount, but I wanted more.
Gotta enjoy this place before it gets super popular soon :)