COQODAQ Review

Coqodaq NYC

this restaurant was on my list for MONTHS and it was 15/10 – a million times worth the wait.

I started doing my food research months in advance of our trip (obviously). And COQODAQ came up on blogs, Instagram, food critic sites and TikTok over and over again. After reading about it several times, I was certain we had to try and go here during our trip. You can book a table, but they are released only a couple of weeks in advance and sell out super quick. I set multiple reminders to try and guarantee us a table but with no luck. And honestly, I was actually quite sad about this at the time. Here in the UK I feel like if you don’t have a booking then you’re pretty much guaranteed to not get in. However, there seems to be much more appetite for walk up dining, even for the most in-demand restaurants, in NYC.

So after a day of activities in the area, we decided to arrive and queue for the walk-in tables. We arrived only about 30 minutes before the restaurant opened and to our surprise the queue was only a few people long. I definitely started to get excited at that point because I was pretty certain we were gonna get in. And we did!

The Experience

Firstly I need to say that the staff are incredible here. Everyone was super friendly and they gave us loads of help with the menu. I had obvs already done my research beforehand! So we’d kind of already decided what we wanted, BUT it is super helpful if you aren’t sure what you wanna order. We were also sat at the bar so we ordered some cocktails and got chatting to some of the bartenders.

One of the coolest touches was that you got a tiny cup of chicken consommé as soon as you sit down. This alone is incredible and just makes you more excited for the fried chicken. I’ve remembered that ever since and think its such a fun way to start a meal.

What We Ordered

We opted for The Bucket List. This is two rounds of chicken, one original and then you can pick either soy garlic or gochujang glaze for the second round. This comes with ban chan (pickled seasonal veg and scallion salad – this alone was 4 plates!), cold perilla seed noodles, 4 sauces for drizzling (or drowning) jun verde, honey mustard, pepper parm and gochujang bbq. You also get a little tub of soft serve to finish the meal! This is basically the best and easiest way to try a bit of everything from the menu, so I’d definitely recommend this if you haven’t been before.

They do you have a chilled raw bar if you’re into seafood, and they also have some exciting appetisers and sides if you can fit those in too. Honestly, we were really full after the bucket list, so it’s definitely enough for two people, BUT if you do want to try a few extra bits then go for it! The bucket list costs $38 per person (but I have just checked and it is now $42 per person at the time of writing this, which I would 100% pay). The whole experience is a really great combination of luxurious fun and interactive and it was one of my top three meals in New York.

I do also want to give a shout out to their cocktails. These were also some of the best that we had in New York.. and we had a lot! They also have the biggest champagne list in the city. We got some great recommendations from the bartenders on cool bars to go to after dinner too.

Would go back to Coqodaq in a heartbeat, and definitely recommend to anyone visiting NYC. IMO reasonably priced for the amount of incredible food you get 🐓🍗🫶

Visit the website here.

LCLC x