Restaurant: Hanbat “한밭” (Palisades Park, NJ)
Hanbat “한밭” • 452 Broad Avenue • Palisades Park, NJ 07650 • 201-585-0800
Category: Korean
Rating: (2)
Hanbat “한밭” recently opened about two months ago in Palisades Park. I’m not quite sure whether the ownership is the same as the one located in NYC and since I haven’t been to the one in NYC in quite a number of years, I can’t really compare the flavors of the two restaurants. What I can say about this new location is that I’ve now dined here three times and it is one of the better Korean restaurants in NJ.
We ordered three items off of the menu tonight for dinner.
The seolleongtang “설렁탕”, which is a ox tail broth soup with beef brisket, was quite tasty with a deep intensity to the broth that can only be accomplished by slowly cooking the bones over a low flame for a prolonged period (typically over 24 hours). By doing this, the broth becomes very milky in color while the flavors intensify. Many restaurants fake this by adding cream or milk to their broth which is not the case here.
The yukgaejang “육개장”, which is a spicy shredded beef and scallion soup was quite good as well although quite similar to many other Korean restaurants that serve this. This is one of my favorite Korean dishes and I’m quite particular about this dish. It’s a dish that’s I find few restaurants screwing up but also even rarer to find a restaurant that can make one that impresses me.
Finally, we also order maewoon galbi jjim “매운갈비찜” which was incredibly tender, moist and quite delicious. This was the highlight of the dinner and will be ordered again the next time I visit Hanbat “한밭”.
Of note, the rice served here is cooked in a stone pot called dolsot “돌솥” and each person is served their own personal dolsot rice “돌솥밥”. By cooking rice in this manner, the rice not only tastes better but also has a much better texture.
UPDATE: We have revisited Hanbat several times since this posting. Each visit has gotten progressively worse in terms of both service and especially the food. On the last and most likely final visit, the food was just passable and the service was neglectful. The galbi jjim “매운갈비찜” which was so delightful the first time around had a quarter inch layer of fat floating on the surface of the broth that they didn’t bother to skim off. We skimmed it off ourselves and literally filled a small side dish bowl with oily fat. The first time around, we had ordered a small size and because it was so delicious last time, we went ahead and ordered a large size. The large size this time around ended up being a smaller portion than our small size last time. On a previous visit, we have also experienced burnt rice that was served to us. I have lowered the overall rating of the restaurant from 4 to 2 although truly it would be closer to 1.5.
It’s truly sad that a new restaurant that started off great has fallen to the wayside due to owner neglect or whatever else may be the case. Instead of standing out in a crowded field of Korean restaurants, it will be just “another” restaurant that will no doubt still continue to cater to the Korean community until it eventually closes for business.
hamatama 