Wineshark HK Restaurant Review - Han Ga Ram Korean Cuisine

This Korean restaurant is located in QRE Plaza, just opposite Hopewell Centre in Wanchai. Almost all the floors of QRE Plaza are bars and restaurants, another testament of how many of them survive the crazily expensive rental in HK, by moving up from the ground level.

On a Wed early evening the restaurant was very quiet, with only a few tables occupied. We were seated at the back near the wine fridges. Interestingly(?) there were many jars with marinated fruit as decoration on the wall but because of the lighting it was kind of eerie, feeling like the jars were holding organs in hospital or laboratory. Apart from that, the table, seating and overall environment is fairly typical for a Korean restaurant.

We had ordered two dishes for the BBQ, with samgyupsal (thick pork belly) and saewoo (prawns). The two pieces of pork belly were nice and tender, without marination, to retain and highlight the original pork flavors. The saewoo was also good and of decent size, with four prawns in total.

In addition, we had the Andong cchimdak, or braised chicken in dark soy sauce Andong style. This dish was one of my favorites when our family toured Seoul last year, and with that fond memory we probably had too much expectation for this dish. It was not bad for a braised chicken, but compared with what we had in Seoul, there was no spiciness and more just sweet soy sauce. Even the chili they put in the pot had no hotness. Maybe they tried to accommodate to the local taste too much?

To fill up our stomach we had a dolsot bibimbap, the famous mixed rice in stone pot, to wrap up. This in our opinion was the best dish of the night, with a good mix of vegetable and meat seasoned with the chili sauce. I personally like a bit more spiciness but still this one was tasty and would be a nice dish for lunch by itself.

The service was nothing exceptional, and given that there was only a few tables on the night, I would expect the waitress to grill the pork belly for us. It was apparent that they were observing how we were cooking the meat, as they came to reduce the heat a few times. If only they could offer to help, it would provide a much higher level of service to customers.

Finally on the price. With the meal for three, the total bill is $684 and considering what we ordered, it was slightly high, but still within an acceptable range. To improve the price/value ratio, maybe offering some free dessert or fruit on top of the hot yuzi drink at the end would help a lot.

My overall rating for the restaurant is 60/100.