Chef Brandon Kida’s Go Go Bird comes to Citizen Public Market
By Dolores Quintana
Culver City’s Citizen Public Market has added to their roster of specialty food stands with Chef Brandon Kida’s Go Go Bird.
The concept of Go Go Bird is LA style fried chicken and gyoza with each serving made fresh for the customer. If you are curious about what this translates to as a menu, the restaurant describes that concept and the menu by saying, “Go Go Bird fried chicken is a crispy burst of flavor inspired by Kida’s childhood in LA. An “ode to Pioneer Chicken,” wings, thighs and drums are marinated in koji, white soy, paprika and a kombu, shiitake and bonito powder blend, then fried and finished with a szechuan-style chili oil. The menu features Chicken Boxes that range in size and style from tenders, to spicy wings to a sandwich that comes with a scoop of slaw and a biscuit. Additional sides include fries and mac n’ cheese, and more of Kida’s familiar childhood flavors including mashed potatoes with Japanese curravy! Mister Miyagi, the house-made beverage, is a refreshing blend of green tea and yuzu lemonade.”
We asked Chef Brandon Kida about how the opening at Citizen Public Market has gone and he said, “We’ve been open for three weeks now and we had previously done a pop up here at Citizen. To be honest, the neighbors and all of the other vendors are what make this place. It was really such an easy decision to come back because when you have a good community it makes everything so much easier. Business has been great. The other vendors told us that this is the slow season and we thought, ‘oh my goodness” because if this is the slow season, it’s going to get even busier.”
The chicken is amazingly crispy and light with great flavor. Standouts among the side dishes are the biscuits, the fries, the Go slaw, and the mashed potatoes and curravy. Chef Kida, who trained at the Culinary Institute of America in the classic French style of cooking and later honed his skills at such top-flight restaurants as L’Orangerie and Lutèce, Asiate and Clement at the Peninsula Hotel in New York City.
The menu also includes pork and chicken gyoza that comes with the same chili oil and aromatic soy sauce as the chicken. In fact, Kida’s first pop up was Go Go Gyoza, a handmade dumpling concept, that came to life in April of 2020 and then Kida launched Go Go Bird later that year after joining Culinary Labs and heading Hinoki and the Bird as executive chef.
Incidentally, you can purchase the gyoza, aromatic soy sauce, Chef’s spice blend, and the chili oil to take home for your home cooking needs at the restaurant as well.
Go Go Bird is bringing fried chicken and gyoza to Culver City that is exploding with new and different flavors at the historic Citizen Public Market. It’s not just spicy chicken, it’s LA style chicken right in the heart of Culver City.
