A friend recommended Han Spot for its happy hour, so we decided to check it out.
The restaurant is spacious. It wasn't busy on a Sunday evening, and we were seated right away. They have nice decor like a cherry blossom display and hanging red lanterns. Asian music videos were being projected on the wall in the back.
Happy Hour is daily, 3-7pm. They have drink and food specials. Their happy hour food specials include discounted dim sum and appetizers, ranging from $4-$10 per plate.
They also have an all you can eat (AYCE) menu, which is $28 per person for Option A, which is more dim sum and noodle based, and $38 per person for Option B, which includes Option A selections plus more family-style classic dishes like Peking Duck, Walnut Prawns, and Kingdom Spare Ribs. $28 per person for AYCE is a good value, but since we went during happy hour, we felt that a la carte was the better way to go for our group of five.
The food was good, but pretty standard overall (nothing to write home about). We also ran into several kinks.
Service was friendly, but I found everything to be a little disorganized. When we were seated, we were provided with four different menus - one for the AYCE, one for happy hour, one for a la carte, and one with the chef's recommendations (more of an abridged version of the a la carte menu). We found ourselves cross-referencing the different menus, which complicated the ordering experience. This might push you into doing the AYCE for simplicity's sake.
The happy hour menu lists $4 spring rolls and $4 veggie spring rolls. We ordered the "regular" spring rolls, which we presumed would have meat in it. When we asked the waitress what kind of meat was in the spring roll, she advised that all of the spring rolls were vegetarian. When we showed her the happy hour menu and asked her what the difference was between the "spring rolls" and "veggie spring rolls," she told us that the menu had a typo - instead of two spring roll items, the first one should say "egg roll" if we wanted meat. If the restaurant knows there's a misleading typo on the menu and doesn't want to reprint new menus, they should do a pen and ink change, at a minimum.
We also ordered the pickled radish ($5) off the happy hour menu, but they brought out the sweet and spicy cucumber ($6). When we told the waitress, she told us that the kitchen reads the order wrong sometimes... After we brought it to her attention, we were given the correct dish.
Off the happy hour menu, we ordered the shrimp dumplings (har gow) ($5 for four pieces), soup dumplings ($8 for six pieces), roasted pork buns ($5 for three pieces, steamed), and salt and pepper squid ($10). The har gow was okay. I enjoyed the soup dumplings (pork) - good flavor and filled with broth. The table has vinegar, soy sauce, and chili oil as self-serve condiments. No complaints about the baos. The bread was soft and fluffy, and there was adequate filling. However, I wish the menu stated that they came steamed (I was expecting baked for some reason). The salt and pepper squid had a salty exterior but a bland interior. I was thinking the pepper on the squid would be black pepper, but it's actually hot green peppers. The squid was also just okay. They were big pieces, but it ate kind of clunky and chewy (overcooked). Serving size of the dish was small, but you could say that it was a "happy hour" portion.
Off the regular menu, we ordered the Singapore noodles ($17) and stuffed crab claw ($13 for two pieces). The Singapore noodles came with shrimp and pork and was a big family-style portion. I'm not sure if this was the normal portion, or if the kitchen was just feeling generous that night. It was served towards the end of the meal so we were pretty much already full. The stuffed crab claw was a tad salty. At $6.50 per ball, it is pricey, but done well and a nice treat (Note: the stuffed crab claws are on the Option A AYCE menu, so you can indulge!).
We mentioned that we were celebrating a birthday, and the waitress kindly brought out a purple gold yolk bun ($5 at happy hour) with a candle, which was a lovely gesture. This was an ube dessert bun with a sweet custardy egg yolk filling, which we enjoyed.
Based on the overall dining experience, I'm not against returning - the happy hour deals and AYCE menu sure are tempting - but there's definitely a learning curve here with ordering, and food is average... I can't say that I'll be rushing back. read more