Hanon

Hanon is located in the North Williamsburg area and is literally across the street on Union St. from the Metropolitan G stop and diner. It has been awarded the Michelin 2021 Bib Gourmand award. It originated in Kamakura, Japan in the summer of 2018. I hadn’t heard about this restaurant much at all and stumbled onto this through Yelp’s Hot & New filters. I wanted to try this restaurant out because the pictures of the udon sets look quite interesting, and the price point was pretty reasonable.

Ambiance

We had a reservation at 5:30 PM which is basically their opening time. The restaurant is fairly small, so when you enter, you can see a set of small tables against the wall. There seems to be some solo dining counter seats right next to the front window of the restaurant and at the bar. In the back of the restaurant, there appears to be a backyard that probably would be pleasant during the summer time. The lighting of the restaurant is quite dark, but it felt comfortable and wasn’t loud at all.

The service was great, and everything came out pretty fast and on point.

Food

The Kaisen Chawanmushi ($16) came with a seafood steamed egg custard. This had shrimp, scallops, pieces of fish, crab, and oysters in it. It was very delectable. The seafood was cooked perfectly with plenty of flavors that matched perfectly with the egg custard. I thought this was the epitome of a chawanmushi done right.

The Washugyu curry udon classic ($22) came with washugyu beef and onion. My partner really enjoyed this. The curry was fortunately more soup like instead of gravy, and it was seasoned great to match the udon.

The Kamoten Seiro ($26) came with tempura (shrimp, fish, and vegetables) with sliced duck in a hot dipping soup. On the side, there was spicy yuzu flavored peppers, radish, salt, and classic tempura sauce. The set was also ordered with half Zenryufun hanon udon and half Sasauchi hanon udon. The former was white and is blended with fusuma and haiga, which is a wheat bran and wheat germ that is low in fat and high in protein. The latter was green, which came from a blend of bamboo leaf and barley baby leaf powder which have a multitude of nutrients that are a good for the body. Both were deliciously chewy and had subtle flavor differences. I actually liked the green udon more than the white because it had something peculiar about it (maybe more earthy?) that matched the dipping soup pretty well. The spicy yuzu peppers were really spicy when eaten alone, but were great to toss into the dipping soup and provided a very balanced heat signature for me. As expected, the soup was very salty on its own, but the noodles of course harmonized perfectly with it. The thin cut sheets of tender, delicate duck meat were an added plus. The tempura had a very fluffy and delicious batter. I’ve never had fish meat tempura, and this was surprisingly really good and tender. Lastly, the soup came warm, but it was salty and delicious with the cold udon. If you are someone like me where you enjoy a decent filling noodle dipping set, you will feel pretty happy with this. Everything tasted really clean, fresh, and healthy.

The Cheese Pudding ($10) came with a mint leaf and house-made whipped cream. The cheese pudding had a delicious texture such that it was light and dense enough where it kept its shape as you carved into it. The sweetness was delicately balanced and did not leave me thirsty at all to wash the sugar down.

Final Verdict

If you’re a Japanese noodle fan or looking for an accessible, deliciously light, and healthy restaurant, check out Hanon. The price point is totally accessible, and all the things we’ve ordered tonight were very enjoyable.

Yelp Jabs

the green & white udon tasted the same despite the color. Udon texture is still a bit too chewy for me. The soy dipping sauce was not that flavorful. The tempuras were crunchy and not very flavorful by itself. There is a small side dish of salt to dip the tempuras.

This Elitist probably has a smoker’s tongue. If you are an udon or noodle eater, there is a very noticeable flavor profile that is different between the white and green udon noodles. Most people love udon for the chewiness, so if it’s too chewy for this Elitist, then they like their udon noodles overcooked. Lastly most, if not all, tempura is served with a light salty broth. The main emphasis of tempura is the interesting batter and not the seasoning.

Also note still water and sparkling water both cost extra ($6) but they do give you the choice between those & tap.

Perhaps this has changed when we dined, but we did not see still water as an extra charge on our tab.

Quite underwhelming to be honest. I ordered the tempura udon and bulgogi hot udon. The cold udon was too hard and I didn’t taste the difference between the green and white one

This Yelper might need some more calcium in their diet.