With the release of Deuki Hong & Matt Rodbard’s Koreatown: A Cookbook, I definitely have had a strong hankering for Korean food lately.* New York City, being the melting pot that it is, has anything that you may crave. While there is a Koreatown in Queens, I am familiar with the Koreatown on 32nd street between 5th and 6th filled with almost nightclub-like restaurants that come alive after-hours — many are open 24 hrs! This Koreatown started in the 1980s with a few restaurants, rice-bowl to go spots and Korean barbecue joints to feed workers in the nearby Garment District. Naturally this evolved into a tourist mecca, but still attracting many Korean New Yorkers. A lot of these restaurants even have special late night menus with saltier fare and higher prices — all the better to soak up that alcohol my dear!

My early 20s in NYC working in fashion PR was definitely a fun time. Just out of college, I seemed to have an endless amount of energy and my girlfriend, Raquel and I found ourselves in K-Town on a few occasions for late-night eats. Raquel is half-Korean and I loved to let her take over the ordering. I still have mouth-watering memories of bold delicious flavors and  textures of things I can’t even begin to pronounce. Last night, Raquel and I met for dinner and a long overdue catch-up and I couldn’t think of a better place to dine than K-Town!  Koreatown is in another stage of evolution now, becoming a real foodie destination with cuisine and dining experience to be reckoned with. I can’t think of a better example of this than the restaurant we chose, Her Name is Han.

A block away from the main thoroughfare of Koreatown on 31st between 5th and 6th, Her Name is Han is the Sister restaurant to Take31, another K-Town restaurant changing the game; owner Kihyun Lee named it after his mother. And if mom was a chic East-Village hipster, it would feel like we were dining in her home. The decor is seriously dope. The crowd is mostly young, artsy and Korean — Lee went to the Fashion Institute of Technology — and the restaurant has a mid-century aesthetic.

Her Name is Han specializes in home-style Korean fare and the stews are out of this world. Enough chatting. Check out these eats and go, like, NOW!

They brought amazing bites of kimchi, fermented fish etc but we started with this delicious chopped tuna salad. The fish was fresh and delicious and the chopped pears added all the right tang.

Even the menu is chic

really, the paper quality and images are great.

Lychee Soju based Cocktails

Raquel enjoying our Spicy Assorted Seafood and Homemade Dumpling Soup.

*Also, sorry to say that the recent news stories about the Queens spa SpaCastle, have also fueled my Korean food cravings. A few years ago friends and I attended a birthday party there. Our takeaway, “At least the Korean food was delicious!”