Haru Hana

24 HOUR SAKE BAR!!! KNOW WHAT WE CAN BE DOING AT 6AM ON A MONDAY MORNING?! SAKE!! Thats what I told my friend Matt when I found out Haru Hana, a 24 hour sake bar, was opening soon near our work. After coming back from the holidays, on my way to get lunch at Woo Ri Jip, I noticed Haru Hana was opened. I quickly ran back to the office after getting my lunch of course to tell Matt. I believe it was the next day that I IM’ed him to ask, “lunch?” he said sure but where? I replied “24 sake bar of course!”

*Note, I don’t see the sign that says “24 hours” anymore and can’t really find any info if it’s still is “24 hours” so maybe its no longer “24 hours”.

Haru Hana translate into spring flower. We walked into a place that sorta had a Japanese backyard/garden feel to it. They have seats like Mandoo Bar, wide benches with no backs. The menu had “spring flowers” on the cover and we were sitting down some fake sakura tree. I flipped through the menu and found the usual Japanese food items. Sushi, yakotoris, katsu of all types, etc..etc. Towards the end of the menu book there were lunch specials, thats always a plus. Though most of the lunch specials were katsu platters. I went with the pork and kimchi katsu. Why not? Matt got a beef (I think) handroll and a seafood salad. A little later the waitress puts a plate of sesame and a plate of dipping sauce in front of me. I had never seen this before and had no idea what to do with it. I guess

The seafood salad came as a pile of…WTF is that? Chopped and diced pieces of seafood piled high. They all looked like pieces of squid, it tasted okay.

Finally my pork and kimchi katsu arrived. It was sitting on a metal rack to keep the bottom fresh and crispy, nice! I was telling Matt that the pile of shredded cabbage was funny because if you add salad dressing to it its salad! If no salad dressing its garnish! I took a piece of the pork to snap a photo of the inside and realized eh…..where was the kimchi? It was all cheese and no spicy cabbage. I thought they had given me the wrong dish but I didn’t say anything. BUT with a closer inspection I saw there was kimchi just wasn’t the fiery kimchi I was hoping for. I wanted fiery kimchi damit! Anyways, the pork katsu with cheese and blah kimchi was surprisingly good. The fried bits were coming off as I bit into the pork but the fried bits were good.

I miiight go back just to try the same dish but overall it was okay. It does give Matt and I another place to go to lunch next time.

– Haru Hana 28 West 32nd St, New York City

• japanese
• lunch
• manhattan
• restaurants
• sake