Hankook Taqueria
If you’ve been a regular visitor of this site, you know that I pretty much cover the Korean beat more than anything else. I think I have close to 30 entries on Korean restaurants alone! I love Korean food and literally drive up and down BuHi, Duluth, and now Suwannee to find new places. Eat It Atlanta tipped us off via twitter about this place a couple of days ago.
I sampled all the tacos and all the snacks on my visit yesterday. My thoughts: I honestly have mixed feelings with the food. I’ll elaborate later as it is a busy weekend for me — 2 big lunches and 1 huge dinner with open bar on Friday alone, 2 food festivals today (Saturday), and 2 places to visit tomorrow.
It’s awesome and I just love it — Korean tacos — Korean flavors in a take-with-me-anywhere, eat-quickly, eat-anytime concept. They have 5 tacos here at Hankook. Fried tofu is typical of Southeast Asia and it’s how I like to eat it. The crispy outside and softer inside is a great play on texture. Added with greens in some type of vinaigrette dressing, I really liked the tofu taco. I’d get this again next time. The bulgogi taco is another hit. The marinade is milder in flavor but went well with the dressed crispy greens. Now about the flour tortillas. You must know a good bit about Korean cuisine to realize that using corn tortillas simply will NOT work in this type of tacos. The Korean flavors (sweetish/salty/spicy meat marinade) will clash with the taste of the corn tortillas. The taste of corn tortillas will also overpower the taste of the meat. It’s not a good combination. It’s like using, say, a tomato-garlic-pesto bun on a burger. You wouldn’t and shouldn’t do that. This is not Mexican-style tacos. Using flour tortillas instead is really a good call on Tom’s part.
The Naeng Myeon is a typical summer dish as it is served cold. I’ve had many versions of this dish, some made with soba noodles, some with arrowroot (clear and black), some mul (with broth), and some bibim (salad). I like mul in winter and bibim in the summer. The version here is bibim, made with chewy soba and the taste is spot on, although I would have liked it to be more on the spicy side. Think of it as a cold noodle salad. I wish they used a spicier red chili paste or at least have the option to choose the heat level. No matter, it’s a refreshing dish.
The Bibimbap isn’t really a snack but a meal in itself. First of all, the serving is huge. Second, it has all the requisite ingredients of a one-dish meal: warm rice, cold veggies (mildy pickled cucumbers, steamed bean sprouts, mushrooms), bulgogi, and topped with a fried egg (my preference over raw egg seen in more authentic Korean places). This would have been a hit in my book had they used a spicier gochujang.
Skip the thick-battered tempura sweet potatoes (pedestrian) and Duk Pokee which is rice and fish cakes in a spicy sauce (flavor is off – tasted more like canned tomato sauce). But do try the Gunmandu which gives you 6 pieces of deep fried dumplings (think pot stickers) with a good filling of minced pork. The ginger-scallion flavors are all there. The Jap Chae is bland and doesn’t really go well with tacos. It’s more of a side dish to barbecue meats.
So is it drive- and crave-worthy for me? All I can say is that I am very happy that folks ITP now have some form of Korean food that is very accessible to them. While my spoiled self makes do with a gamut of outstanding Korean places within a 10 minute-drive from where I live. I know you’re jealous (*smile*).
The scoop:
Hankook Taqueria
1341 Collier Rd
Atlanta, GA 30318
(404) 352-8881
Technorati Tags: Korean, taqueria, Korean tacos, Peachtree Hills
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9 responses so far ↓
1 Twitter Trackbacks for Hankook Taqueria [chowdownatlanta.com] on Topsy.com // Oct 17, 2009 at 12:13 pm
[...] Hankook Taqueria http://www.chowdownatlanta.com/hankook-taqueria – view page – cached If you’ve been a regular visitor of this site, you know that I pretty much cover the Korean beat more than anything else. I think I have close to 30 entries on Korean restaurants alone! I love Korean… (Read more)If you’ve been a regular visitor of this site, you know that I pretty much cover the Korean beat more than anything else. I think I have close to 30 entries on Korean restaurants alone! I love Korean food and literally drive up and down BuHi, Duluth, and now Suwannee to find new places. (Read less) — From the page [...]
2 Hankook Taqueria Restaurant Review – Westside, Atlanta, GA [First Impressions] | Atlanta Restaurant Reviews | Atlanta Food Blogs | Dining in Atlanta // Oct 19, 2009 at 8:47 am
[...] Chow Down Atlanta on Hankook Taqueria (10.17.09) [...]
3 Atlanta Upcoming: It’s Going Down | Eat It, Atlanta // Oct 19, 2009 at 6:25 pm
[...] to Thrillist, Hankook is now open. A few people have visited. (Live to Feast, FoodieBuddha, Chow Down Atlanta, [...]
4 Tom // Oct 28, 2009 at 11:15 pm
Hi, googled this restaurant on a suggestion from a friend and really happy to see you enjoyed it. Now I will surely go try it! Tom
5 bumblelion would have loved korean tacos || 1 day 1 bar // Nov 10, 2009 at 1:27 am
[...] reading about Hankook Taqueria on pratically every Atlanta food blog, I had to check the place out for myself. I mean, I love Korean food. I love tacos. It [...]
6 Hankook Taqueria // Dec 11, 2009 at 4:25 pm
[...] Hankook on Chow Down Atlanta Live to Feast Foodie Buddha [...]
7 Joe // Aug 12, 2010 at 5:11 pm
going here tomorrow. woo hoo!
8 The Quick + Dirty Dirty · Truck to Table // Nov 23, 2010 at 2:12 pm
[...] my favorite food bloggers have already covered the resto (Check it: Foodie Budda, Eat it Atlanta, Chow Down Atlanta, The Blissful Glutton, John Kessler) so I sort of knew what to expect when I walked into the tiny [...]
9 Miller Union + Westside Appeal « Mustard Muse // Dec 10, 2010 at 1:28 pm
[...] I could tell you about Yeah Burger, West Egg, Six Feet Under, Bocado, Five Seasons Brewery, Hankook Taqueria, Nuevo Larado, Urban Pla8 , JCT Kitchen- all of which fall under the category of FAVORITES. But [...]
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