Bonchon Appetizers — All 10 Starters, Priced & Compared

Bonchon MoPo Corn Dog

The Bonchon MoPo Corn Dog is a Korean-style corn dog with a mozzarella cheese centre in crispy breading, studded with golden potato cubes. You choose between a soy garlic brush or a cinnamon-sugar roll, and it comes with a dipping sauce.

At 290 calories it is the second-lightest item on the appetizer menu, and at $4.99 it is also the cheapest. It carries 390mg of sodium — the lowest of any starter apart from Sotteok Sotteok, and less than a quarter of what Bulgogi Fries contain.

The name is a contraction of its two defining ingredients — mozzarella and potato. Bonchon added it to the US menu in December 2024, following the Korean corn dog trend that spread through American cities over the preceding few years.

What separates a Korean corn dog from an American one is the filling and the coating. There is no sausage here at all — the centre is pure mozzarella, which produces the cheese pull the format is known for. The potato cubes pressed into the batter give it a texture closer to a croquette than a hot dog.

Sweet or savoury? The cinnamon-sugar version is the traditional Korean street preparation and pairs oddly well with the salty cheese. The soy garlic version is the safer choice if you are eating it alongside chicken.

Dipping sauce options include Kewpie mayo, spicy mayo, ranch, cucumber wasabi and bibimbap sauce.

Bonchon Sotteok Sotteok

Bonchon Sotteok Sotteok is a skewer alternating chewy rice cake and sausage, coated in sweet and spicy Yangnyeom sauce. At 219 calories it is the lightest item on the appetizer menu by a wide margin.

The name comes from the Korean words for sausage (soseji) and rice cake (tteok), repeated — a common naming pattern in Korean street food. This is genuine street-cart food, the kind sold from stalls in Korean markets, and it is the most authentically Korean thing on the starter menu.

The texture is the point. Korean rice cakes are dense and chewy in a way that has no Western equivalent, and alternating them with sausage on a skewer gives you soft-then-firm on every bite. If you have never eaten tteok before, this is a gentler introduction than a bowl of tteokbokki.

The Yangnyeom coating is the same sweet-spicy sauce Bonchon uses on its chicken, so it carries mild heat — noticeable but not challenging.

The lightest thing on the menu. At 219 calories and 485mg of sodium, Sotteok Sotteok is the smallest nutritional footprint of any Bonchon starter — a fifth of the calories of Bulgogi Fries and a quarter of the sodium of Korean Tacos.

On the price: $4.09 is the figure seen on delivery listings, which typically run above in-store pricing. Expect it to be at or below that in the restaurant, making it the cheapest or second-cheapest item on the appetizer menu alongside the MoPo Corn Dog.

Bonchon Takoyaki

Bonchon takoyaki is fried octopus dumplings drizzled with Kewpie mayo and katsu sauce, finished with scallions.

Takoyaki is Japanese rather than Korean — a ball-shaped batter dumpling with a piece of octopus in the centre, cooked in a moulded pan. Its presence on a Korean fried chicken menu reflects how much cross-pollination there is in modern Korean casual dining, where Japanese street food is a normal fixture.

The texture surprises people who have not had it. The outside is crisp, the inside stays almost molten — a batter that never fully sets. The octopus is a small piece, chewy against the soft interior.

At 342 calories this is one of the lighter starters, and the portion is genuinely appetizer-sized rather than meal-sized, which is unusual on this menu.

Bonchon Shrimp Shumai

Bonchon shrimp shumai are shrimp dumplings, available steamed or fried, drizzled with spicy mayo and soy garlic sauce.

Steamed or fried? This single choice accounts for the entire 321–470 calorie range — a 149-calorie swing for the same dumplings. Steamed sits at roughly 321; fried reaches 470. If the rest of your order is fried chicken, steamed gives the meal some textural relief — and it is the only steamed option on the appetizer menu apart from bao buns.

Shumai is Chinese in origin, an open-topped dumpling from the dim sum tradition. Bonchon's version is a straightforward shrimp filling; the sauces do most of the flavour work.

Bonchon PotstickersBest sharing value

Bonchon potstickers are eight fried dumplings, pork or vegetable, brushed with your choice of Bonchon signature sauce. The sauce options match the chicken menu: Soy Garlic, Spicy, Yangnyeom or Korean BBQ, all at the same price.

At roughly $1.32 per dumpling, potstickers are the best sharing value on the appetizer menu — about a third the per-piece cost of bao buns or Korean tacos. Eight pieces also divide cleanly between two or four people, which three-piece orders do not.

The calorie range is wide because it covers both fillings and all four sauces — 276 calories at the light end, 744 at the heavy end. Vegetable with a lighter sauce sits near the bottom; pork with a sweet glaze approaches the top.

All four sauces are the same price. Pork and vegetable fillings are also priced identically at most locations.

Pork or vegetable? The vegetable version is a genuine vegetarian option, which is otherwise scarce on this menu. Pork has more depth, but the sauce is doing most of the work either way.

Potstickers also appear inside the Seoul Sampler, which is where many people try them first.

Bonchon Bao Buns

Bonchon bao buns are three steamed buns filled with cucumbers, coleslaw, spicy mayo and katsu sauce, with your choice of pork belly, fried chicken or bulgogi.

Pricing follows the filling. Bonchon's nutrition guide publishes 790 calories, 1,000mg sodium and 12g protein for the pork belly version; the chicken and bulgogi variants are not listed separately.

Steamed bao is the only non-fried format on the appetizer menu, which matters more than it sounds when the rest of the meal is double-fried chicken. The soft bun and the cucumber-coleslaw filling give the order some relief.

Which filling? Pork belly is the traditional choice and the richest. Fried chicken is the most redundant if you are already ordering chicken. Bulgogi is the most distinct — marinated beef against the sweet katsu sauce.

At $3.78 per bun this is not a sharing item for a large table. Three buns split between two people works; between four it does not.

Bonchon Korean Tacos

Bonchon Korean tacos are three soft flour tortillas filled with lettuce, coleslaw, spicy mayo, buttermilk ranch and scallions, with your choice of fried chicken, soy garlic or spicy chicken, or bulgogi.

At 950–960 calories for three, this is the second-heaviest starter on the menu — heavier than a small order of wings (902). Ordered alongside chicken for one person, it is a great deal of food.

The sodium is the real number to watch. The spicy chicken version carries 2,520mg — above the American Heart Association's full daily limit of 2,300mg. Bulgogi is meaningfully lower at 2,020mg.

These work better as a meal than as a starter. Three tacos with protein, slaw and two sauces is a lunch. If you are eating alone and not especially hungry, this is a reasonable order on its own; as a shared appetizer before chicken, it competes rather than complements.

The Korean-Mexican taco is not a Bonchon invention — it emerged from Los Angeles food trucks in the late 2000s and has since become a fixture. Bonchon's version leans American with the buttermilk ranch.

At $3.98 per taco this is the most expensive per-piece starter on the menu.

Bonchon Signature Sesame SaladPrice varies

The Bonchon Signature Sesame Salad combines romaine, stir-fried kimchi, carrots, cabbage, red bell pepper, scallions and mozzarella cheese with a sesame dressing.

The stir-fried kimchi is the detail worth noticing. Cooking kimchi mellows its sharpness and concentrates the flavour, so it behaves less like a pickle and more like a savoury vegetable. Combined with mozzarella, it makes this closer to a warm-cold hybrid than a standard side salad.

This is the only substantial vegetable dish on the appetizer menu, and the only starter that is not fried, steamed or skewered.

The nutrition is published; the price is not. Bonchon's official guide lists the Signature Sesame Salad at 501 calories with 1,571mg of sodium and 7g of protein for a 17oz serving. Adding a protein changes it considerably:

Watch the sodium. Adding soy garlic chicken doubles it to 3,166mg — more than the American Heart Association's entire recommended daily limit of 2,300mg, in one salad. Bulgogi is the better choice at 1,828mg for similar protein.

Bonchon does not publish a national price for this salad, and the recipe was revised recently — older menus listed a separate Sesame Ginger Salad, which still appears on the nutrition guide at 475 calories. Check your local restaurant for current pricing.

Bonchon Bulgogi FriesFan favourite

Bonchon bulgogi fries are seasoned fries topped with beef bulgogi, mozzarella cheese, scallions and a drizzle of spicy mayo. This is Bonchon's most ordered appetizer and the one most people are told to try first.

At 1,003 calories, bulgogi fries carry more calories than a small order of wings (902). That is the single most useful thing to know before ordering. This is not a side dish that arrives first — it is a full plate.

The base is Bonchon's seasoned fries, which sell separately for $7.15. The $6.84 difference buys you the bulgogi, mozzarella, scallions and mayo — a reasonable upgrade if two or more people are eating, and poor value for one.

Bulgogi is thinly sliced beef marinated in soy, sugar, garlic and sesame, then quickly seared. On fries under melted mozzarella it functions much like carne asada fries do in California — the same idea, different marinade.

Bulgogi fries also appear inside the Seoul Sampler, in a smaller portion.

Bonchon's official nutrition guide lists Bulgogi Fries at 1,003 calories for a 16.5oz serving, with 1,719mg sodium and 43g protein. Some location menus round to 1,007.

Bonchon Seoul Sampler

The Bonchon Seoul Sampler is a shared platter containing 2 drumsticks, 4 wings with your choice of signature sauce, Pork Potstickers, Bulgogi Fries, Korean Street Corn and Coleslaw. Bonchon launched it in October 2024 at $33.99 and positions it for two to three people.

It is the only item on the menu designed as a tasting tray — six components, sample portions, one price. For a first visit it removes the main difficulty of ordering at Bonchon, which is that almost everything sounds worth trying.

Calories: The Seoul Sampler does not appear in Bonchon's official nutrition guide, so there is no published figure for the platter as served. Its components at full size — six pieces of chicken, potstickers, bulgogi fries, street corn and coleslaw — would total well past 2,500 calories, but the sampler's portions are smaller than the standalone versions. Treat that number as a ceiling, not an estimate.

What you choose: one signature sauce for the chicken and one dipping sauce. The potstickers come with the pork filling.