No, this is not a poor attempt at an Abbot and Costello “Who’s on First” skit, but a cool little Korean restaurant that just popped up on the outskirts of Koreatown (31st/Madison).
We were all set to go to Take 31 for their outrageous Bossam & Jok Bal, but the owner kindly suggested we try their sister restaurant next door, the aforementioned “Her name is Han”.
What an interesting place. Good, comfort food, upped a notch with a modern flair typical of places like Danji and the more recent Goggan or even perhaps Dadam.
We had the following:
Cold noodle salad with black sesame dressing. Noodle are hand-made, inhouse, and had a nice toothsome texture to them. Sesame dressing was nutty and aromatic, without being sweet or grainy. The Beef Kalguksu was similarly outstanding.
Sweet and sour chicken fried rice. Don’t let the name food you, this is one of the must-get dishes here. There’s something about the tangy nature of this dish that makes it addictive.
Mandu was good, but not something I would target on the menu. And something about the ratio of kimchi to pork was a bit off to me.
Pork dishes. We had the slow cooked pork belly and the deep-fried pork shoulder. Both were outrageous. Rich, fatty (in a good way), flavorful, and the aroma was just out of this world. These had to have been the star of the show.
Need to go back to try other dishes, including their various chicken dishes.
Wonderful. I could stand to add another Korean restaurant to my rotation, especially after my disappointing last meal at Five Senses (the monk fish’s black skin and eyes had an ammonia taste), which had been so great the first time, when we got galbi jjim. And that menu doesn’t look at all crazy expensive.
We had the sweet and sour chicken fried rice. Very interesting, I thought it had almost a smokiness to it. Really enjoyable, would definitely order again.
We also ordered the slow cooked pork belly, and although I liked it, it wouldn’t be an automatic order for me. I figure I’ll try another of their larger-format dishes soon.
We ordered the beef bone noodle soup. This was a stunner. Delicious noodles (hand-pulled I think) with a perfect broth. I assume the stock is based on beef bones? Anyways, the waitress said this is her favorite soup as well.
And finally, we had the mung bean, bean sprout, and pork pancake. Top notch. The richness of the pork worked well alongside the mung bean.
The lunch menu is much smaller than the evening menu, fewer and blander offerings - seems to be aimed workers who want to go back to work without munching 20 tic tacs. Go at night