Hana Sushi - open again

[aranthe]

Walking into Hana today I was hit by the fact that nothing really changed - oh there are a few differences but nothing remarkable. There was a new hostess and two new sushi chefs though. In addition the older woman who walked out of the kitchen was completely new to me. I would later confirm that yes, Hana is under new management.

Another thing that hits you right away is the j-pop music. Its kinda interesting background music - so it may be a plus. The staff -in addition to being new - held another huge change in store for me - these are the friendliest, most attentive staff Hana has seen since David worked there years ago. Lunch no longer takes 80 minutes.

Settling down, I took a look at the menus - for the most part the sushi menu is the same. There are a few new rolls - none of which interested me since they almost all contain cheese and/or are fried. To me, Maki should not have cheese but I digress. Since I had a mild craving for something Korean - it turns out that now Hana has some Korean dishes (they may have always been there but I don't remember them - if fact I don't think I've gotten non sushi there) so this seemed like a no brainer to me. My mind was all ready for bibimbop but somehow my mouth came out with bolgoki. Oh well - I was ok with that.

Now for the food - the miso came first and was a little bland. nothing amazing. The bento box came shortly after and it was pretty big. The fried portion had a well done shumai and fish cake. The fried gyoza was overly greasy - which kinda left me at a wash. The salad was standard non-descript iceberg/carrot/citrus dressing only the dressing was watery. The california roll was standard fair too - I'm not a crabstick fan so it also had that nondescript flavor (as almost all california rolls do to me). And now the bolgoki. Wow, this was bland, overcooked and slightly gray. No sauce either (I like a little sauce to be around the plate). It was edible - it just didn't do anything for me at all. Harmless is a word that comes to mind. The rice was at least perfectly done. Overall I was disappointed with the meal.

I'll most likely go back one more time for the sushi just to see where that's at but so far I'm really not impressed. I really hope they find themselves as I love having a sushi place in that location and everyone at the New Hana is really nice - which goes a long way.

[ashley79]

I go here often for lunch and was hoping too that there would be an improvement.
I was disappointed and missed the friendly hostess who was there prior to the switch in management. Although I'm not finding too many sushi places in/around Porter Square that are any better...