As you know, I’m totally behind the Atlanta Street Food movement. Please check out my previous posts HERE and HERE. I don’t know what it is, but I just love ordering from a truck. We’ve got some pretty solid street food vendors in Atlanta, yet the Korean taco vendor Yumbii remains one of my favorites.
I don’t quite know why it took me so long to visit the “brick and mortar” restaurant that produces the food – Hankook Taqueria on the Westside.
Pretty much all of my favorite food bloggers have already covered the resto (Check it: Foodie Budda, Eat it Atlanta, Chow Down Atlanta, The Blissful Glutton, John Kessler) so I sort of knew what to expect when I walked into the tiny bare-bones space.
(Of COURSE I remembered that it is BYOB AFTER we had arrived – so I promptly sent Greg to the liquor store. Don’t forget your booze, kids.)
The menu was, predictably, much more extensive than that of the Yumbii truck – but still rather succinct. Cari and I let the boys choose and they returned with a MOUNTAIN of food. Here’s what we ate:
Tacos: Bulgogi (beef) and Dakgogi (chicken) which were prepared with lettuce, green onion, and green cabbage tossed in soy sesame vinaigrette and onions, cilantro, lime and jack cheese
Burrito: Pork with kimchee fried rice and the same garnish as the tacos
From the “street snacks” section we selected:
Quesadilla: Bulgogi, roasted onions, and jack cheese
Gogi-Nachos: chips, jack cheese, topped with ribeye beef
Ko-Kuma: Tempura fried Korean sweet potatoes
Daeji Gogi Sliders: 2 spicy pork sliders with cucumber kimchee
Bibim-Bop: Beef, vegetables, fried egg with pepper sauce on top of rice
You guys. This order was no joke. Particularly the Gogi-Nachos and the Bibim-Bop. They were HUGE! I am here to tell you we ordered all of that (PLUS 2 plain tacos for an unnamed picky eater at the table) for a mere $11/person! I die.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: I’m not a foodie, I’m just a party girl who loves to eat. This food ROCKED. MY. WORLD. And I’m pretty sure I share that sentiment with my dining partners. We had enough food to feed and army and we did some serious damage, if I do say so myself. Every bite was amazing.
I didn’t take any pictures because a) while delicious, I’m not sure I could snap an attractive picture of this meal and b) the food was GONE before I could reach for my camera!
Bonus: we got to hang with McKenzie and Tom– the owners of Hankook – and get the Q+DD straight from the source!
Tom, who owned Tomas in Norcross and Wok-In Wok-Out in Duluth, and who previously held the title of executive chef at the Buckhead Diner, let us know that he decided to trade his white tablecloths for delicious, affordable fare. A strategy fueled by a down economy and a love for street food.
Oh and McKenzie? Totally charming and adorable. I don’t know if it was the fact that she helped us order with an amazing amount of enthusiasm for food she has undoubtedly eaten a zillion times or that she gabbed with us at our table long after the restaurant had closed and humored me by taking our picture outside…
…but I may or may not have involuntarily hugged her. (Ok, so I did.)
She let us know that they do absolutely zero advertising and rely solely on word-of-mouth so I definitely want to do my part. This place was fantastic, and it’s just a hop-skip-and a jump off the beaten path – so I encourage you to check it out!
And take me with you. YUM.
xx, L
Hankook Taqueria
(404) 352-8881
1341 Collier Rd NW
Atlanta, GA 30318
