Hancook — Restaurant in South Bend

I'll preface this with, I've had Korean food before, lived in Japan, and Asian cuisine is one of my absolute favorite things.

First off, the building was really clean and beautiful, with utensils and water with cups already out for folks to get at their leisure. I loved the tables, that even had wireless chargers inlaid to the tables.

We got to the counter, asked if it was dine-in or takeout, we were dining in. The girl handed us 2 menus and told us to have a seat anywhere that was open. We sit there for about 10 minutes, unsure of if she comes to take our order or if we go up to the counter. If dine-in had to order at the counter, it would have been nice to know that so we could get our order in. Eventually my BF did get up to go order at the counter, and sat back down. About 15m go by, folks that came in after us were getting their food, and she came over and asked if she took our order. We told her she did, that we went up there, and my BF was telling her the items we had in our order as she flipped through her notebook, and after a minute she asked if certain items were part of our order, like she didn't pay attention to a word my BF was saying at all, which was VERY bizarre. If she was hard of hearing, or just very frazzled or anxious, we weren't sure.

We finally get our dishes, one at a time, over the span of the next 20ish minutes, and it looked like it was going to be very delicious. The plating and such looked very nice! Then we had some.

Never in my life have I ever had anything from any kind of Asian cuisine that had such a lack of any kind of discernable flavor to this magnitude, and I absolutely cannot overstate just how tasteless it was. Just texture, literally. We took multiple trips to the utensil and spice area to get salt, pepper, soy sauce, anything to give a modicum of flavor. I was shocked and so was my BF, as this has never been our experience anywhere in the world we have been.

And listen, we get that this is a casual place, we don't go to super fancy places anyways, and this was just so disappointing it actually sort of ruined our night....

Finally, the Korean restaurant I've been hoping would come to this area... I was driving down Lincolnway, and saw that Hancook was open, so I stopped to try. I always order my favorite, Kimchi chiggae (Kimchi stew), as a test of authenticity. It was delicious. There was a lot of cabbage, tofu, and enough meat in the stew, and it was just the right amount of spiciness. Loved it!!!! And I also loved the prices on the menu. I will definitely return. The only thing I would suggest in terms of atmosphere is that they play a more relaxing type of Korean pop music - the techno stuff does not seem appropriate for the clientele. Other than that, I loved it. I suggest anyone who likes Korean food or who is interested in trying Korean food should stop here and have a meal. Update: I went again a few days later, and had Kimchi Fried Rice. Absolutely authentic...

Don't let the location steer you away from trying this place. The food is seriously good. Everything we tried included great attention to detail. Every ingredient is properly prepared resulting in a variety of enjoyable textures and flavors. Each dish tastes different and is driven by the star ingredient. Nothing was sloppy or overly sauced. The granishes were all spot on too: paper thin shaved bonito, shredded seaweed, sesame seeds, pickled radish, etc. are all included where appropriate leading to a huge amount of dynamic flavor development in each bite. The price is quite good considering the amount of food each dish includes. Any entree can easily feed an adult, even though some dishes are as low as 14$. Food was cooked to order and tasted fresh. Friendly staff as well. Inside dining available, not a ton of atmosphere but it's very clean and...