Last week, I was hunting around for anything open on a Monday night, so I had to pick a place on that basis for installment 1. But this week, I put all the names into a bowl and drew one. Otherwise, I might have given Mono Mono a bit more time because it opened so recently that it is still in the “soft opening” stage. It has not yet posted regular hours and is still trying to hire staff. It is located where U Turn BBQ used to be at 599 Crossing Drive.
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| I borrowed this photo from the Mono Mono website. |
On Monday, I was poking around the website trying to figure out if they were closed or just not doing online orders, and I couldn’t find any info, so I sent a “Contact Us” message and got an immediate reply. This week (and probably in the coming weeks as well), they are open 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., and they will be closed on Mondays until further notice. We used the online ordering system to order takeout on Tuesday, and our order was ready a few minutes before the estimated 45-minute pickup time. G went to get it, and he said the place was hopping. There has been a fair amount of hype because I’ve seen probably a dozen social media posts, so I’m not surprised that it was busy.
This is the third Mono Mono location after the two that
opened in Denver just last year. It’s owned by restaurateur J. W. Lee, who also
owns (or has owned) several other Denver restaurants. As far as I know, this is
his first foray into Boulder County.
The website says that Korean-style fried chicken is fried in
two stages at a lower temperature to render out the fat from the skin and
transform it into a thin, crackly crust. The menu offers many different styles
of chicken, and we wanted to try several, so we ended up ordering Combo B: half
dry and half sauced, choice of mild or spicy (we picked spicy): 6 pc teriyaki
soy wings (sauced), 2 pc drumsticks (dry, and we actually got three ), 3 pc
tenderloin (dry, and we actually got two), saucy popcorn chicken, seasoned fries,
and coleslaw (we did not get any coleslaw, so I can’t report on it). The menu
says the combo serves two to three, and it was definitely too much chicken for
the two of us, even though G had seconds and maybe thirds! I put a sample of
all four chicken types on my plate, and it was all delicious.
The spicy sauce was a little sweet and quite hot—maybe a bit
too hot for me, as I prefer a medium spicy level. Ultimately, my favorite was the dry fried chicken, especially the drumstick. Nevertheless, I liked it
all! The seasoned fries were a big hit with both of us.
There are quite a few things on the menu I still want to try (kimchi fries, for instance). So we’ll be back! Note that there are some grilled options as well as all the fried choices.
* Lafayette Restaurant Project Redux: visiting all the new
places that have opened since the ending of the previous round of the LRP.
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| Trying to look "less goofy," per G's instructions. |
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| Sauced chicken: wings and popcorn chicken |
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| Dry chicken: drumsticks and tenderloin. It came with 2 pieces of grilled bread that I did not end up eating. |
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| Seasoned fries |
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| A little of everything. We did not get any coleslaw, but we did get 2 carrot sticks and 2 celery sticks, so we could say we had some veggies. |
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