Hanjan

Before we left on our Vegas escape earlier this year, we had a rare weekday lunch when we could travel outside of our usual work zone and try something new. We decided on Hanjan, the sister restaurant to Danji, since people had been raving about it for months. We weren't sure what their best dishes were (other than the special ramen that you can only get late at night), so we picked out one appetizer and two entrees that sounded good.

Appetizer: 'Dak-gang-jung' Chicken Nuggets - crispy fried chicken breast with plum sauce ($12).

We've eaten a lot of Korean fried chicken over the years and we thought this might be similar in flavor and texture. Unfortunately it wasn't. The chicken was very breaded and very deep fried, but didn't have much chicken flavor. It just tasted like non-descript fried food. It had a nice crunch but not much taste. The menu said the chicken came with plum sauce, but it tasted more like sweet chili sauce. The dish was garnished with some microgreens and peanuts. Overall, we were a little disappointed by this dish. We expected more since we know Korean fried chicken can be so delicious. Since this was the first thing we ate, we were hoping the entrees would be better when they arrived.

Entree: Jajang Ramen - fresh ramen noodles with pork belly black bean sauce ($13).

Overall, this dish was just okay for both of us. The bowl consisted of thin ramen noodles with a thick sauce, some slices of pork belly and vegetables (zucchini, onions, leeks, cucumbers, cabbage). The variation in textures made this an interesting dish. We were expecting that thick sauce to be on the sweeter side, based on how jajangmyeon usually tastes when we get it, but it wasn't that sweet. It was more rich and so rich that it was almost bland (if that makes any sense). The pork belly didn't add that much flavor either, just more richness. We went to Hanjan back in January, and it looks like the current menu has "regular" fresh noodles in a jajang myeon dish instead of ramen. But, for us, the ramen noodles weren't really the issue. It's that the flavor was just not that impressive. We were expecting more.

Entree: Wide Noodles with Spicy Gochujang Bolognese - ground pork belly, kimchi, bacon and soft poached egg ($13).

Unlike the jajang ramen where we were both basically in agreement, we had very different opinions on this one. M liked this dish and thought it was like eating a bowl of noodles doused in gochujang. It came with some small pieces of meat and finely chopped vegetables, and was topped with some slivers of cucumber and a soft poached egg. The flavor of the sauce was good if you like gochujang because that was pretty much all you could taste - the tang and the spice of the gochujang. While this was good, the fact that all you could taste was gochujang made this a little bit one-note and it lacked any other flavors to make it complete. However, A didn't get any spice or sweetness from this at all, and just found it tart and vinegary. He didn't taste gochujang at all. We both agreed on one thing though - the noodles were nice and chewy, and had great texture.

Overall, we were a little disappointed by our meal at Hanjan, but maybe it was because we had such high expectations. We had heard such rave reviews of the dishes, but maybe we just ordered the wrong things or the kitchen was having an off day. M liked the gochujang bolognese and thought it was different from anything she'd had before, but otherwise could go without the other 2 dishes. A was just disappointed overall. He didn't really like much of anything that we had eaten, but hopefully we just chose wrong. We might go back and try it again, but will definitely research more closely next time to figure out what we should order instead of just winging it.

Hanjan, 36 W. 26th Street, in Flatiron.