Mild vs. medium-spicy dakgangjeong compared at Amsa Station: Gimssi

You know how dakgangjeong (Korean sweet-spicy fried chicken bites) hits you out of nowhere and suddenly you HAVE to have it haha. Especially when you're walking through a market and that smell wafts over... impossible to just walk past.

This time I was at Amsa Market and stopped by Gimssi Chicken, famous as one of the Amsa Market dakgangjeong spots. One of Seoul's top three dakgangjeong places, apparently! No way I was skipping this one.

Location and hours of Amsa Market favorite Gimssi Chicken

• Address: 21 Olympic-ro 98-gil, Gangdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea (1F, Unit 105)
• Hours: Daily 11:00–22:00

Dakgangjeong prices and menu lineup

It's inside Amsa General Market, so it wasn't hard to find while browsing around. The menu had more variety than I expected — drumsticks, wings, drumettes, and whole fried chicken.

Old-school fried chicken is ₩7,000, seasoned version ₩10,000. As a fried chicken lover I stood there admiring it for a while haha, but my mission that day was dakgangjeong!!

Dakgangjeong came in three spice levels: mild, medium-spicy, and spicy. Sizes were medium ₩9,000, large ₩13,000, x-large ₩17,000. Given today's fried chicken prices, that's already a pass from me!!

You can even pick your sauce to taste!

Packing two boxes: mild and medium-spicy

Dakgangjeong medium size is ₩9,000. I couldn't pick just one, so I got a medium box of mild and a medium box of medium-spicy. ₩9,000 each!!

Turns out they don't just scoop pre-sauced chicken into the box — they fry it fresh to order and toss it in sauce right there on the spot.

Freshly fried is definitely the way to go for dakgangjeong too!! Watching the piping hot chicken get tossed in sauce made me want to eat it before I even got home. The portion though??

I could hardly believe this was really a ₩9,000 medium — the box was packed full of dakgangjeong, with rice cake mixed in throughout. With two boxes, the total amount was honestly way more than I expected. Great value!!

What does the mild dakgangjeong taste like?

I started with mild. This one's sweet, sweet — barely any spice at all, with a sweet sauce coating the crispy fried chicken nicely. Great for kids or anyone who can't handle spicy food.

The rice cake, coated in sauce too, was nice and chewy. Picking out a piece of rice cake between bites of chicken is its own little joy haha.

What does the medium-spicy dakgangjeong taste like?

And the one I liked even more — medium-spicy!! This was exactly my taste. At first you get sweetness, but as you keep eating, the spice slowly creeps up. Not so spicy it's hard to eat, though — sweet and spicy in perfect balance!!

The mild was good too, but if I had to pick just one again, I'd go medium-spicy!! Even with all that spicy sauce coated on thick, the crispy fried texture was still there since it was freshly fried, and the chicken inside was tender. One piece led to... another haha.

My conclusion after trying both flavors

One of Seoul's top three dakgangjeong spots — turns out that's not just talk!! I was curious so I tried it, and medium-spicy is exactly my thing!! Next time I'm at Amsa Market, I'll probably pack this again. If you're looking for a hearty dakgangjeong fried chicken spot at Amsa Market, give Gimssi Chicken a try!!