Hankki Modern Korean Restaurant

Hankki in Wardour Street located right in the heart of London’s Chinatown is an small nondescript entrance-way to a great Korean dining experience. On both the occasions that we have ended up at Hankki have been unplanned. We were not even purposefully looking to have Korean, somehow the really friendly and chatty servers waiting at the front door have always managed to entice us in.

A welcoming force is essential in the ridiculously competitive food scene in London’s Chinatown. It is a split second decision to either strike up a friendly welcoming conversation or to let a potential customer walk away to the next stop. At Hankki, the servers who work there are friendly, chatty and definitely fans of the restaurant’s food.

The Vibe – CyberPunk Styled Interior

Once inside, it’s easy to mistake Hankki for a club rather than the restaurant that it really is. Dark walls decorated with neon lighting, reflective mirrors all along one side, 3D neon art all contribute to the club-like atmosphere. On one wall a mural of a village in Korea where everyone is going somewhere, doing something or settling down to share food is more representative.

Typical of most restaurants in Chinatown, seating is relatively close quarters with tables set for 2 or 4. Split over two levels, it is cosy but not cramped. Each place setting on the table is laid with a pair of lightweight metal chopsticks, and a small box of what looks like playing cards. Don’t be fooled though, the box of cards is really a box of tissues.

Food We Ordered

Chuncheong Chicken with Cheese

치즈 춘천 닭갈비 / 春川糖心芝士鸡

On our first visit to Hannki we decided on a sharing dish, the Chucheon Spicy Cheesy Chicken. Fairly confident that we could take whatever heat level it was at, we ordered it without a second thought.

Chuncheon is actually a place in Korea and the closest to what the dish actually is, seems to be called Dak Galbi (Korean Spicy Chicken Stir-fry). According to Sue at My Korean Kitchen, Dal Galbi originates in Chucheon, which probably explains the name. The dish consists of generous pieces of chicken with tteokboki and a variety of different vegetables. All of it cooked in a large cast iron skillet.

While it did take some time to arrive, when it did come it was an impressive dish. The sauce is made primarily from gochujang (Korean chilli paste) and more heat is added with gochugari (Korean chilli flakes) and Korean curry powder. The tteokbokki which was the primary ingredient here was perfectly chewy. The vegetable slices of peppers and onions complemented the pieces of chicken breast smothered in the hot sauce. The cheese sauce poured over the dish went some way to tempering the heat but to be fair, it was still a challenge.

If you like the challenge of heat and spice but would also like to temper it, order an extra serving of cheese sauce. It will make this dish more creamy and also slightly less of a challenge.

On our second visit we decided to go for slightly less challenging Go Chu Jang Cheesy Noodles and the far more conventional Ja Jang Myeon.

Ja Jang Myeon

(Noodles served with diced Pork)

자장면 / 炸酱面(手打面)

Hankki’s Ja Jang Myeon, noodles in blackbean sauce was served in a claypot topped with 2 halved quails eggs and cucumber and spring onion garnish. The noodles here were regular yellow noodles although they were slighly overcooked so were a bit on the soft side.

The sauce though was tasty, thick and complemented the quail’s eggs very well. Taste wise, the Korean version of black bean is quite different to that of the chinese style black bean dishes. Chinese black bean sauce based dishes tend to be overwhelmed by the fermentation process which makes it more savoury and pungent. In contrast, the Korean version is far more subtle allowing other flavours to permeate in a nice balance. The diced pork was a perfect texture, considering that challenge of being small pieces with ‘not over done-ness’ as that would have made the pork particularly chewy.

Admitedly, the sloppiness and softness of the noodles were a bit of a disappointment, but the overall taste and texture of the dish made up for it.

Go Chu Jang Cheesy Noodle with Fried Egg

치즈 소고기 국수 / 芝士牛肉面

Gochujang cheesy noodles are a fairly common dish in the Korean repertoire. It is easy to make at home with just gochujang paste and noodles. As we ordered this, we did ask for it to be less spicy based on our previous expereince. This dish was nicely presented on a large platter with the noodles surrounded by the beef and sauce with the fried eggs loaded on top. A simple crispy seaweed and spring onion served as garnish.

Although typically these gochujang noodles are made with udon, here they were the instant noodle style curly noodles. It detracted a bit from the flavourful sauce and beef but perhaps served to temper the heat. The beef was succulent and tasty and the fried egg complemented the overall dish very well.

Like the other dishes we tried at Hankki, the meat-based sauces are generally very flavourful and the soft textures of the beef slices suggest that care is taken over the main part of the dish. Similarly here too, the noodles were slightly over done leaving them with softer mouth bite than would have been expected. Thankfully, this did not detract too much from the taste and flavour of the dish.