Eatery - Han Yang (CA)
7152 Orangethorpe Ave, Buena Park, CA 90621
Pricing - $ | Dining - Casual | Cuisine - Korean
Duc and I had planned on having a dinner date out one night before I left for San Diego for nearly a week, so he made plans to go somewhere if I got out of work at a certain time. Of course, I got held back since there was so much to do at work; my boss was leaving the country and had to get details squared away so I wouldn't be hopelessly lost while she was gone. I updated that I'd be late so he went to Plan B. I ended up being quite late so when I got to his place, we went with Plan C; unfortunately the restaurant happened to be closed JUST on that night. Fun. So Plan D was to use Yelp, and that's how we found (and sort of fell in love with) Han Yang.
It's a small place but seems very family-oriented in the homey sense. I mean that the foods seemed like ones that are part of a homecooked meal gathering. I think we were the only non-Koreans there. When ordering the food, we didn't know anything on there but went with Yelp suggestions. As we looked around and saw people get all their awesome dishes, we wondered if there was a "secret menu" because none of the English descriptions sounded like what we saw! I later figured out that the English descriptions are a bit poor since both our soups sounded similar but were definitely different. I'll have to try other plates next time!
I got the sul-long-tang which was a creamy-looking beef broth with vermicelli and a choice of meat (I chose brisket). When it was brought out, the waitress also added in heaps of green onion (yay!) and what looked like salt but I am guessing was MSG. The add-ons sit at the table so you can add more if you'd like; I did because the soup initially came off as bland. However, it was still oh-so-delicious, especially on a winter night. I loved it so much that I kept trying to have more though I was bloated. Great stuff.
Duc got the gal-bi-tang which was highly recommended by all the Yelpers. Uh, we figured out why. MIND-BLOWING! It was a beef broth with bone-in pieces of meat that just heightened the overall flavor of the soup. I mean, I could taste all the flavor absorbed into the meat and could tell that the soup definitely had been cooked for a long time (only gets better!). Great find, especially on a whim - Yelp saved the date (again!).
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