Han Dynasty - Old City — Restaurant in Philadelphia

If you're like me and you love spicy food, then Han Dynasty just might become your new favorite restaurant. It is some of the best and most authentic Chinese food in the whole city, even though it isn't even in Chinatown.

Han Dynasty is quickly becoming a hip hot spot of the Old City scene. Any night you go the place is sure to be packed with eager diners. If you're planning on trying it out you should definitely call and make a reservation because tables at this restaurant are in high demand. I went with two friends once without a reservation and we waited for over an hour to be seated. We had heard really good things about the restaurant and we were dying to check it out no matter how long we had to wait.

So, why is Han Dynasty so popular? Two words: the food. Han Dynasty offers a variety of tongue-tingling dishes ranging from extremely spicy (labeled 10 on the menu. if you order one, get ready to sweat) to mild (with a low number such as 1 or 2 and are a nice break from the spice of some of the more daring dishes). When I went for the first time my friends and I played it safe; we didn't know just how spicy a 10 would be so we kept all our dishes at 8 and under. Everything we had that night exceeded our expectations. My favorite dish we had was Dan Dan Noodles (which we actually got for free because the host felt bad that we had waited for over an hour for a table). They were spicy but had a slight sweetness to them that made the intensity of spice seem somewhat less. They had a garnish of what I think was ground beef although I can't be sure, but regardless of what it was the dish was fantastic. I could go there and order just that and be happy, that's how exceptional those noodles are. I couldn't even get a picture of them because we devoured them so quickly.

My other favorite were the spicy crispy cucumbers. They were fresh and crispy cucumbers in a chili oil sauce. They were still quite spicy but the fact that they were cold and refreshing made them the perfect thing to cool your mouth off after the more spicy dishes. Even if you aren't the biggest fan of cucumbers I would still recommend giving them a try.

If you want a real challenge in terms of spice go for the dry pot style option on the menu. It is labeled a 10 so you know the dish is going to be spicy. It comes to your table served on fire, literally. You have your pick from a variety of different meats which is then cooked with vegetables in a dry spice rub.

If you want something a little more tame, I suggest you go for the dry fry style with your choice of meat or the garlic sauce style which are a 6 and a 4 respectively. I had both of those the first time I went and I was not disappointed. I had chicken garlic sauce style and for me it was a perfect break from the spice because it was slightly sweet while still being lightly spiced and garlicy.

The only dish I haven't liked from Han Dynasty was the pork belly in garlic sauce. It was a bit too adventurous for me and since I had never had pork belly before I was a little scared of it. I did give it a try but it wasn't really my cup of tea. However, if you like pork belly I think you would like this dish. When I brought the leftover pork belly home to my brother he gobbled it down in a minute and told me it was delicious.

After my first visit to Han Dynasty it only took me two weeks to make it back for a second meal despite the trek to Old City. If that isn't a testament to how great the food is then I don't know what is. Seriously, you have to check this place...

Walked in, sat down....and walked right out! I first ate @ Han a couple of times, several years ago and the experience then was overall very good. Last night however, I was completely turned off by how unbelievably DIRTY the entire restaurant was. I always loved the architecture of this historic building and its beauty both inside and out. But its apparent that no one is paying attention to how filthy the place really is and to me that's a red flag. If front of house is not clean, back of house will be even worse. The front door was dirty & the lobby was unkept. Walls were scuffed up and floors were too. We sat at a large booth and the table top was sticky. The shelf area and casework all around us was dirty and our clear view of the back of the service/hostess station was off putting as it was filled with junk and cleaning supplies (unused apparently) that diners shouldn't have to look at! Before our server arrived I took a quick trip to the restroom and it was horrible. Total eye opener. On the way I noticed how much of a mess the other service station was and a quick glance inside the kitchen was also quite telling. I headed immediately back to our table and quickly suggested to the other (3) members of my party of (4) that we should go somewhere else! They all agreed as they knew from sitting down that the place was dirty. As we walked out I took a closer look at all the dirt on the front door and thought to myself, "This is Hotel & Restaurant Management 101". How can they be so inattentive to the details? There are far too many other great choices in Old City to be this lackluster with the basics in the operation of a food establishment that charges a good $ for their dishes. Obviously I didn't taste the food but I'm sure I didn't miss a thing. It's too bad. We were out for a B-Day celebration and were looking to spend some good $ on food and drinks. Management just robbed one of their servers of an opportunity to earn a 25% tip! Clean up your act HD....or you will soon be out...

Okay, for all your Han Dynasty fans, in case you haven't heard, they have moved from their iconic location in an amazing old bank building across the street and down the block aways to a smaller, more "divy" location.

There's no signage at the old location that they've moved (as of this review) and when we talked to the folks at the new location, they say that they put up signs and they get ripped down, and their origional restaurant sign is still up at the old location, so lots of people think they've got out of business.

That's what we thought, until we happened to walk down Chestnut Street a bit and found the new location. When we talked to the hostess and wait staff there, they all said that the previous "upscale and huge space" was too big and created a lot of pressure, and they all like this smaller, much less formal space better.

As previous patrons of the original space, my partner and I were a bit disappointed by the ambiance. Lots of small tables closely packed down a very long and narrow space, with the bar right there with two TVs showing football on one screen and base ball on the other. We were there at prime time on a Thursday night in early September and the place was fairly empty. It turns out they also have a fairly large space on the second floor with a second bar as well.

While the overall ambiance was a bit of a let down compared to the old location, the space was clean, modern and fairly quiet. The server was very attentive and the food that we ordered came out amazingly fast... almost too fast, probably because the place was fully staffed and mostly empty when we were there.

We ordered the fried dumplings and spicy cucumbers as appetizers, and they instantly arrive. We also ordered the Dan Dan noodles and the crispy rice with fish entree, and both came out almost immediately after ordering... almost too fast.

But regardless of timing, the food we got came out hot and everything was really delicious. We'll be...