Han Shin Pocha

[guanubian]

Does anyone know if this Murray Hill (Flushing) pojangmacha is still in business? Yelp is reporting that it closed, which would be a big shame, but I wonder if it is confusing it with the Los Angeles place of the same name.

[Lau]

im pretty sure its closed, i ate at hanjoo about a month and a half ago and drove by it and its something different now unless they changed the sign

although honestly i was fairly disappointed when i tried that place a long time ago, i thought the food was pretty bad

[guanubian]

I haven't been in years. The last time was in about 2007 or 2008. It was quite good then, and a lot of fun, though if we're going to be totally forthcoming, believe it or not my friends and I were subject there to an anti-Semitic broadside by a couple of drunks, so the place was hardly without its problems. That's the price you pay for "authenticity" in these matters -- sometimes there's so much as to create a parochial environment, which can give expression to xenophobia. Anyway, it's a moot point now.

Are there any operating pochas in Murray Hill?

[Lau]

oh whoa, sorry to hear that...that sucks

i thought it was a fun place, but i thought the food was whatever. its kind of like sik gaek, where i think its a fun place, but i dont think the food is great although i think the food is better at sik gaek than han shin

let me ask my friend as to what a good pocha type place is in flushing / murray hill, she knows the food there better than me

[Lau]

so my friend said:

Gugongtan: my low key seafood grill type place (more similar to Han shin, but supposedly better)
http://www.yelp.com/biz/gugongtan-flushing

Zurong: similar to Pan in the city, said the food is pretty good
http://www.yelp.com/biz/zurang-flushing

[squid kun]

I thought Han Shin Pocha was also known as Goo Gong Tan.

[Lau]

hmmm when i drove by it looked like a different place, but maybe they just redid the sign or something? (i haven't eaten at this new gugongtan if it is new)

[Polecat]

If you look at the Korean on the signs of the two Yelp versions, they are identical. Gugangtan is not a new place.
P

[Lau]

ok guess i was wrong then

[Polecat]

Gugongtan is actually the real name of Han Shin Pocha, and the address given on Yelp is the same as HSP.

Han Shin Pocha, I think, translates roughly to "eating and drinking place." Gugongtan is the actual name. Calling the place Han Shin Pocha is like referring to, say, Katz's, as "Deli."

The wife and I hit up Gugongtan a few times and, yeah, it's a fun joint. We never mistook it for the best Korean food in the neighborhood but it's essentially a drinking place. The more you drink the less you care. Also, like much of that part of Murray Hill, it reminds us a whole lot of places we've been to in Seoul.

P.

[guanubian]

Thanks for the clarification. I remember now the name "Goo Gong Tan" from long ago. I must have elided the two.