Hanshin Pocha in Arlington Heights

last night was the first time we visited this magnificent restaurant. But It is no doubt not the last. We enjoyed the evening very much with the courteous service, with the finest food and wine and with the decent payment. We will surely return there soon.

The food is fantastic.When you eat side dish, you want to drinkSoju.

Love this place! I've been to a lot of the Korean restaurants in the area and in many cases, the food begins to taste very similar between dishes with only minor variations on soy sauce, sesame oil, fermented bean paste, hot pepper flakes/sauce, sesame seeds, and fish sauce. This is where Hanshin Pocha was refreshing -- as it wasn't really fusion cuisine, but rather well executed versions of familiar dishes, with slight variations to make it feel just a little different. Mix that with friendly service and a homey environment, and you have a great place to sit around and enjoy a drink and food with friends. My meal started off with complimentary fish cake soup. This fish cake was deliciously soft and flavorful without having any unpleasant fish flavor. The broth was deliciously spicy and just slightly salty to match the fish cake perfectly. The banchan we received was a bit less variety and quantity than what you'd typically get at a Korean restaurant, however the quality of each dish more than made up for this. The julienned potatoes were cut into almost shoe-string sized pieces and lightly sauteed. The broccoli salad was mixed with pieces of imitation crab meat and was both savory and refreshing at the same time. The eggplant was deliciously grilled with sesame oil and garlic, one of the best versions of this dish I've had in Chicago. The pickled radish and carrots were slightly sweet with a little crunch, made with nice fresh vegetables. The radish kimchi was very spicy but once again, the quality of the radish really shined. The meat dumpling...