Hangwi serves Korean vegetarian cuisine. Korean believe in Um and Yang – everything is balanced by opposing forces is translated into dishes they serve. The restaurant is located in Korea town in Manhattan. As soon as you enter the restaurant you know you are in a place that is serious about its rules. You are told to take your shoes off and you are not allowed to make a step into the dinning room till you do so. Tables are at the floor level, you basically sit on the floor but the floor underneath the tables is lowered so you can actually enjoy your meal in regular sitting position, keeping your legs down. This definitely adds to the charm of the place. The ambience is traditional; ornaments, art, pots and pillows scream Korean. Dishes, chopsticks and spoons are all wooden and not one time use.

It is a good place for a date, not only the experience with no shoes and sitting on the floor can be nice surprise but also the ambiance and atmosphere is very romantic.

Cocktail menu is very interesting and ecept regular wines it offers soju and nangju coctails, both soju and nongju are rice based alcohols. We ordered awakening (green tea, mint leaves and nongju). Sweet, milky flavor of nangju cut with refreshing mint and green tea was excellent start of the meal. If you are at Hangwi be adventurous and order one of their unusual cocktails, it is worth it.

When it came to food each of us ordered a salad as appetizer. Organic mix green salad with almond dressing was fresh and the dressing was very delicate, I think I would prefer stronger Korean flavor. Kale and broccoli kimchi salad did not disappoint, strong kimchi flavor and spices made the salad unique and appropriate for the place.

For the main we got Maitake mushrooms with spinach and spicy kimchi stone bowl rice. Mushrooms with spinach were sautéed to perfection in brown sauce that was salty with strong Asian flavor, very tasty. You can eat it with rice or without, both ways it is delicious meal. The entire dish was served inside lettuce leaves and it is definitely worth getting it again.

Stone bowl rice was prepared at the table by a waiter, which is nice touch and it adds to the dinner as an experience. All ingredients were mixed in extremely hot ceramic bowl, I believe they were still being cooked inside the bowl while mixed. The dish is served with a side of kimchi and spicy sauce. Kimchi was fresh and tasty, the bowl of rice was just that, bowl of rice. It was lacking distinctive flavor, it was just spicy vegetarian dish.

For the dessert we ordered vegan dessert platter with blueberry coconut cake, tofu pudding, soy ice cream and vegan marshmallow. Coconut cake, pudding and the ice-cream were very good, although the pudding is more of a mousse than a pudding. Marshmallows were not impressive, too dry and almost unnecessary. Nevertheless the entire dessert was very good and you could not tell it was vegan. I recommend getting it.

If you are in a mood for some vegetarian-asian flavor dinner it is worth stopping by. Hangawi offers good variety of dishes; just not all of them have strong local, Korean flavors.

Cuisine: Korean, vegetarian

Avg price per person: $55, all major credit cards accepted

Attire: Casual

Overall Rating: 3 plates