Hanki — Restaurant in Guildford

OK, lets get the positives out of the way. Clean space inside with seating for about a dozen people. Fridges with soft drinks and alcohol. Busy counter space. Welcoming service from server. Good first impressions. Ordered salmon teriyaki/rice and fried chicken with edamame as an extra, plus canned pop. Arrived within 10 minutes. All of it was delicious and fresh, the standard kfc had a delicious crispy coating that wasn't greasy and the chicken was moist inside. Teriyaki was tasty throughout and the edamame pods were devoured very quickly. Worth going back for, food-wise

Now to the negative - and it's a big one really.

Considering there were at least 10-12 customers when we arrived (four tables, all eating and drinking Hanki food), I was surprised to learn halfway through our meal (and needing a pee) that there are no toilets.

I was sent to the council loos about 2-3 minutes walk away. But of course, they were shut at 6pm on a Saturday. So I had to sweettalk the lovely beer shop two doors down to use their loos instead. This is NOT fair on the neighbouring business (who informed me that "we get this quite a lot"), nor is it fair to paying guests. Had Hanki informed us that there were no onsite toilets, we would have still ordered but we could have gone to the loo, before being seated.

Regulations differ from council to council, I get that, but the rule-of-thumb law is if you're seating more than 10 in a cafe environment for the consumption of your food, you ought to provide toilets for your sit-in customers, especially if selling drinks. Or at least warn them before sitting inside (or outside) - it's good manners. I can't imagine where the neighbouring older (and (infant) customers went to the loo - they were in there a lot longer than we were.

The tip of the day is: Yes, enjoy the food but be aware of the loo situation and take your order out instead. A few nearby bars will let you eat food brought in but check with the bar first.

All of which caused me to forget to take a picture of the admittedly lovely food. So it's the drinks instead. Pear and...

What a lunch we had. Authentic delicious Korean food. We need Hanki all around the country, please. :D

Visited the place since we were in the area, and the reviews were very promising. Even though it is located in a narrow street just off the high street, it was all full. Luckily, we did get a seat after a short wait. The staff were very greeting and attentive. Didn't have to wait long for the food to arrive either.

We had rice cake, spicy pork on rice, beef gimbap and half-half fried chicken (sweet chilli and sweet soy). The portions were very generous. The two of us could only handle half of everything and got the rest to take with us.

Chicken was the best I've ever had. Mouthwatering coating and soft and juicy inside. Spicy pork was full of flavour, very tender, and easy for me to eat even though I usually can't tolerate spicy food. Gimbap had a very good balance of beef, sweet fried eggs, and veggies. Did feel like I needed some soy sauce to dip it in, though, and once asked, the staff were happy to provide some in no time. Lastly, rice cake was spicy as well but not overly spicy. Had a pleasant flavour of gochujang going through the sauce, which is always a perfect flavour for rice cake.

The place has no toilets, and there is a good explanation for it (being a takeaway place only and starting business during the pandemic). I do hope they will manage to extend the space, get more seating areas, and accommodate customers with bathroom facilities. Until then, please start providing us with some citrusy wet wipes, especially when ordering fried chicken. It is finger lickingly tasty, but I still would love to clean/wash my hands after enjoying...

Tucked in a little lane away from Guildford's High Street, this is a Japanese and Korean food place with an 'ingredient pick and mix' slant, similar to what the Subway chain has done for sandwiches. One basically picks from the set menu, or you can choose the mix of ingredients you put into the 'poke bowl' dish. Most of the ingredients looks relatively healthy, and you have a choice of white or brown rice.

For this first lunch visit, we chose the Salmon and Unagi (Eel) sets. Portions were ample and the prices are comparable to similarly sized-sushi sets you get elsewhere. Ingredients are fresh but sometimes sauces make it overly vinegar-ish, so perhaps having a separate sauce to add may be the way to go. Other than that, we observed other patrons ordering soup-based udon dishes, which looked attractive (the dishes, not the patrons).

There is limited seating with just one row of seats facing the window (which faces the lane and a wall - so all you is a lazy stream of people walking past this alleyway). This cafe is more for takeaways and quick lunches, and the pricing reflects the former (i.e. it's more expensive if you stay and eat).

Overall, both our dishes went down well. We would come back to try the soup dishes. A small, hidden gem of a...