Hangawi

We loved our visit! If you need a little break from the hustle & bustle of Times Square, consider this your oasis! The food is all vegetarian & wonderful. Our meals were hot & fresh. The service was excellent — we needed to be in & out in an hour to get to a show & the staff accommodates us very well. The ambiance is relaxing & beautiful. We would highly recommend this restaurant & dining experience.

First time to a vegan place. Great food, great experience the way they seat and the fact that you need to take off your shoes. So make sure you don’t have smelly socks if you going here .
Everything there has a really organic taste, fresh as hell and a completely different taste. The fresh juices are just so freaking tasty.
Must go if ure a tourist here in NYC.

Hangawi was such a treat! We came in on a Sunday night with a reservation. While the food isn’t super unique, especially for the price, the atmosphere in Hangawi makes the experience incredibly special — you definitely are paying for the experience at Hangawi. The restaurant is dark with soft glows from the candles. You take your shoes off when you enter and you walk barefoot into the restaurant. The dishes came out in a timely manner and we were not rushed at all, which made it such a haven from the rush of the city. We came out of the restaurant feeling refreshed and peaceful.
To start, we got the shissandra chinesis tea ($ 6), which comes in a fairly large mug. It was delicious — slightly sweet. For our appetizer, we got the spicy kimchi mushroom pancake ($ 14). The presentation was impeccable, but the portion was small and the pancakes themselves were okay but didn’t blow my mind. Then, for our entrees, we decided to skip the stone bowls as it looked like just glorified dol sot bibimbop — I don’t pay over $ 15 ever for them. Instead, we got the mongolian hot pot ($ 19) and the organic tofu steak ($ 21). The mongolian hot pot was quite special and I really enjoyed it — the broth was delicious and there were an assortment of various unique vegetables and mushrooms. The organic tofu steak was not seitan steak as I had originally thought, but rather triangular slices of tofu covered in a yummy mushroom-​like sauce. It was filling, but not really special.
The food itself is really a 4/​5, especially considering their prices. But the atmosphere really makes this place 5 stars — this is how awesome of an ambience they have. Will definitely come again for a special occasion :)
Note: there is a minimum of $ 18 per person after 5pm.

How much more Korean and vegetarian can this restaurant get? This one is by far one of the best restaurants I have been to in New York. Tucked away in the midst of heavy traffic, this place with its soothing ambience, lighting, and music made a perfect lunch date :) It may be one of the many awesome restaurants in New York City but it definitely makes it worth a visit for its rich Korean theme.

I love stone bowl rice dishes. This place has stone bowl rice. Heck, it has amazing stone bowl rice. Pricey? Yes. But completely worth it especially when you consider they back up the immense quality with great quantity.
I came here for dinner with a friend. We ordered Spicy Kimchi Mushroom Pancakes and Vegetarian Dumplings. Both were pretty great, especially the former as it came with 3 tasty sauces.
Then came the star of the show, the Kimchi stone bowl rice. The waiter does give you the option of adjusting spice according to your taste and will mix the bowl in front of you. They will also leave the sauce for you so you can adjust the dish as you please. The rice bowl was stellar. It was served incredibly hot so it takes some time to cool it down to the point where you don’t have to blow on it with every mouthful. But as you get into it, the vegetables’ flavour comes to the fore with every fantastic spoonful. It’s a definite must-​try.

imo best vegan place in midtown. love the seating and the décor~
my personal favorite is the mushroom and vegetable wrap that they will mix and wrap when serving to you.
kale pancake is too bitter for my taste but all pancakes look adorable

Pricy but legit Korean vegetarian restaurant!
Location: cross the main korean restaurant street, you will see this place. Inside, the decoration does give you a sense of Asian decoration, or even more Korean traditional decoration. You will soon be greeted by their front manager, who will tell you to take off you shoes so that you can enjoy their food. Please do so.
The tables are next to each other, left no intimate space between different tables.
Food: we were there around 2:30, when their lunch hour was almost the end. However, we were luckily enough to order before their kitchen closed. We did had their pre fix lunch and the gluten free — egg plant stew.
I personally very enjoy the egg plant stew, very balanced well, and gave different textures of veggies at the same time.
Their pre fix salad and spinach porridge is bit off, in particularly the spinach porridge. The porridge should be more spinach, however, the corn is definitely override the spinach taste making it hardly to be enjoyed.
The entrees are good tho. I would recommend both.
We also ordered their vegan platter.
Pretty weird
Service: waitresses and waiters do care about their customers and keep well-​behaved manner.
This is a very good, pricy place but it provides a different perspectives in korean cuisine.
It is worth a try, especially if you are a vegetarian.
4 stars

I brought my cousin here for a vegan dinner experience in the heart of Ktown. While Koreans are known for smoky meat BBQ goodness, Hangawi is a standout among area establishments for being anything but BBQ. Interesting is one of those words best reserved for places like this.
They are anything but typical, in that they often recommend reservations. It must be popular amongst non-​meat-​itarians… and rightly so, however it wasn’t packed to the gills when we went early in the evening. It is quite an experience as had been told by others to me in that once you arrive for your dinner, there’s a cubbyhole for shoes you’re required to leave behind before being ushered to your table, which is at ankle-​level. Cushions line the floor for seating and all the servers are dressed in traditional garb. So everyone sits on the floor, as best they can. The ambiance is zen, rustic, dark, intimate, and lends itself to a different era. The service was stellar as can be expected of a place that showcases little fanfare.
From among the items on the menu, there are some standouts, like the Avocado stone rice bowl we ordered… sizzling upon arriving, it’s aromatic and smooth to the palate. The dumplings/​mandoo we ordered were less impressive, well… because they’re dumplings that was too subtle in flavor. We didn’t get to try much else beyond that.
4.2÷5.0

Good vegetarian versions of Korean classics, but they try too hard with meat replacements.
I recommend ignoring anything with fake meat (Soy absed) junk, and going with their dishes that focus on the vegetables!
Their Zucchini/​potato etc. fritters were impressive.
The clay pot bibimbap too.

This place is a delight for vegetarians. Vegetarians always get fewer option on the menu. Well this is your abode to try something new and choose out of completely vegetarian menu. The starters are great, innovative and there are good options on the main course as well.
We went on a Saturday afternoon, the place is always crowded so make reservations in advance.
I would recommend trying the carrot ginger juice. There is a good variety of cocktails, try nirvana if you are ginger fan. The taste complemented the Korean cuisine and spices.
Try vermicelli noodles, the dish stood out of todak (some form of stem) and quinoa platter. You might not like the taste of everything but its a great place to dine and experiment with a Korean style of ambience.

Made a reservation for this place @ 6pm yesterday. When my boyfriend & I arrived, it was pretty empty but it started filling up very soon after. This place is adorable! I love the traditional theme and they make you take off your shoes right upon entering the restaurant. It’s a cute, dimly lit place – perfect for dates!
We ordered the mango and pear cocktails which had some lime and soju mixed with them. They tasted pretty good, although I preferred the mango one much more. Either way, the taste of the fruits is authentic.
Since we aren’t vegan, it took a while to decide what to order for food. We decided on the combination pancakes, which turned out to be pretty tiny for $ 17 — 4 of each flavor (leek, kimchi, and pumpkin), but tasted incredible with the three side sauces. For the main dish, I had the avocado stone rice bowl and my boyfriend had the vermicelli stone rice bowl. I wasn’t expecting too much because avocado + rice did not sound that tasty nor filling, but I am glad that I was proven wrong. Aside from avocado, there is fried tofu and some other veggies. The rice bowl itself is somewhat spicy, and the order comes with a side of kimchi or plain cabbage; mix those two items with the rice and you have a delicious vegan meal :) I only had a few bites of the vermicelli bowl, but it was a pretty good combination of noodles & rice, paired with various veggies as well.
We stayed here for about 1.5 hours and I must say that it was interesting to see the friendliness of all the staff members and how determinedly they try to maintain the traditional setting. Would definitely come back; although it is a little on the pricey side, it is indeed filling.

Shoes Off — Appetite On
This is one of our favorite places to eat a lunch at while in the city.
Vegan Korean food that kicks ass!
When you arrive, the place doesn’t look like much from the outside, totally unassuming. Once you open the door though, you enter another world and you leave the loud, chaotic city behind.
The hostess greets you, and informs you to remove your shoes. They have a spot to sit take them off, and cubby holes to store them.
They direct you to your table that is sunken of sorts, and you gingerly sit down so that your almost level to the floor.
They have lunch specials you can choose from, or select from the regular menu. Whatever you divide on, its sure to be outstanding, as everything we’ve sampled has been.
Notable dishes:
The Combination Pancakes (leek, kimchi mushroom and kabocha pumpkin with mung beans)
Vegetarian Dumplings
Spicy Tofu Clay Pot, in ginger sauce
Tofu Kimchi Hot Pot (tofu with spicy preserved Korean cabbage and vegetables in hot pot) served with white rice.
Mongolian Hot Pot (wild bracken shoots, mushrooms and variety of vegetables in hot pot) served with white rice.
Spicy Mushroom Stew
The service is professional and efficient.
The last time we were here they asked for my ID when I handed them my credit card. Although it was nice they took the «security» measure, it bothered me. We all thought it was odd since they had never done so in the past.
The «Pear Fantasy» elixir, was anything «butt». I had no idea that pears are a natural laxative… It made for an interesting trip to the Guggenheim later. My rumbling stomach made quite the scene at the Frick Museum.

As someone who wants to eat more vegetarian/​vegan to be more environmentally friendly and overall better for my body, I went with my group of friends in KTown to find this vegetarian/​vegan place. Who knew that Korean food could be vegan thinking about how much egg/​meat are used in their most popular dishes?
Korean Stone Bowl — Traditionally, served with egg and a small portion of meat, this stone bowl came with more vegetables but with good rice at the bottom. I do love how the rice gets crispy at the bottom (giving it that burnt crispy rice!) and overall the spiciness is good too. I was disappointed in the little selection of banchan (spicy kimchi, not spicy kimchi) for the table. I know a lot of those can be vegetarian/​vegan friendly, but with that said, the kimchi was pretty standard.
Overall, with my experience of eating Korean food, Hangawi appeals more to a western crowd trying to push a vegetarian/​vegan mentality into the cuisine. I think it’s a great approach; however, the price is high for what you do get. Great ambiance inside, no shoes (wear socks!), and dimly lit for a more laid back vibe.

As a vegetarian, I usually avoid K-​town for the same reasons I’m avoiding Chinatown — the smells. It’s just not veggie friendly in any way. But as my friend lives across the street from this place, I just had to try it out — and I’ve found my new Korean haven.
ATMOSPHERE: completely and utterly romantic. Pure zen. Seriously. What a unique place for a date night out. Intimate with candle-​lit tables that put you ladies in the best lighting. You wanna play footsie? By all means you can do so, as you are shoe-​less and you are «lowering» yourself into a cube where your legs are practically hidden. GENIUS.
DRINKS: As I was coming down with a sore throat, I opted for tea — be sure to try the shissandra chinesis tea, a «a popular Korean herbal tea that refreshes and revitalize the body from fatigue», no additional ingredients necessary. This refreshing tea is light but flavorful.
FOOD: The soup of the day was a mushroom soup with veggies in a miso-​based broth — 5 stars. Hands down. Moved on to the avocado stone bowl rice and tofu with mixed vegetables in brown sauce for dinner; both were excellent. The rice bowl is served nice and hot at your table, and the server brings a side of miso paste. Pending your desire, they’ll add a small amount and leave the rest for you to add as you please. The rice is still crackling as they leave the table. Tofu dish is not served with rice, but it was not needed as the brown sauce was flavorful enough, while the tofu was fried but chewy.
SERVICE: Attentive, yet respectful. They wear [what I assume is] traditional Korean clothing. Very informative of the menu and answered any and all of my questions. Don’t you dare leave less than 18%!
PRICE: Okay, yes, it’s not going to be your typical $ 10 per person kinda place. But given the lack of veggie friendly places in K-​town, I’d gladly fork over a bit more every now and then to try these unique flavor combinations. Safe to say you’re looking at $ 30 per person, without dessert /​minimal drinks.
I would HIGHLY recommend this place if you’re looking for new restaurants. This place doesn’t SCREAM vegetarian, but rather they’re a bit more subtle. You’d never realize their entire menu is vegetarian, and they’re so innovative that you’d never even miss the meat. Definitely coming back here with my family!

What an amazing dining experience! One of a kind restaurant in NYC– vegan Korean cuisine in a fine dining setting.
When you enter, you immediately feel this sense of Zen. You are requested to remove your shoes and the staff puts your shoes away for you. (On a Thursday evening I managed to get seated for 2 immediately, but the whole restaurant was pretty packed). As you get seated, your server carefully unwraps your chopsticks and explains the menu. You sit on the floor but there is hidden space under the table for your legs (so not a true sit-​on-​the-​floor experience).
The menu is fully vegan and consists of many unique appetizers, salads and entrees. There was so much I wanted to try! I tried the kabocha pancakes (savory), organic wheat-​free kale dumplings and Zen bibimbap hot stone bowl. All with great flavors and quality. Presentation was beautiful as well. Nothing was too greasy or salty. They don’t serve a plethora of small dish appetizers like other Korean restaurants usually do. But they do offer some yummy spicy and non-​spicy Kim chee.
Also tried the blueberry coconut cake for dessert– perfect ending to the meal. Not too sweet.
There is also a variety of alcoholic drinks and teas.
The only «downside» is that it can be regarded as pricey, depending on what you are expecting. Hot stone bowls are $ 25 – 28 range and appetizers $ 10-​$ 14. Easily $ 40-​$ 50 per person if you have dessert.
The service was excellent– very attentive and friendly servers. They wear traditional Korean clothing to help complete the experience.
All in all, Hangawi is a great place for a special occasion. I will definitely return for 100% vegan Korean cuisine that is healthy & delicious!

This is my second visit to Hangawi and it does not disappoint. Being a vegetarian, trying some cuisines comes with its own challenges due to absence of vegetarian food. However Hangawi does a perfect job of bringing authentic Korean vegetarian recipes which are not available otherwise.
From the arrival into the restaurant, the ambience is perfect, its dark with good mood lighting and quiet. They kindly request to take off your shoes and take you to the table. The tables are low seating and it can be uncomfortable for some.
For drinks We had the Zen Blossom (lychee flavored and really good), kamasutra (recommended by the server and tasted nice and sweet) and enlightenment (fell flat and we had to return it, the server was kind enough to do that).
For appetizers we had the spicy baby dumplings (which were really good) and the pancake combo. All were amazing but mushroom and kimchi pancake was my favorite.
For the entrees we had the todak stone bowl rice (8/​10, perfectly crispy rice and a very different musty taste, however lacked some zing), crispy mushrooms in a sweet and sour sauce (10/​10, my favorite dish of the day), zen noodles (5/​10, texture was perfect however the taste fell flat), avocado stone bowl rice (6/​10, the avocado was good and plentiful however the miso flavor dominated the dish).
The service is nice and friendly, despite being new years eve, they didnot rush us and it was a long 2 hour meal. I would return and stick to some of my favorites!

Came here with friends to celebrate the end of the semester! Initially, we came in without a reservation but they said that they could not accommodate a party of 6 so we just left. However, because one of our friends couldn’t make it, we gave them a call outside the restaurant at 5:45pm and we were able to get a reservation for 5 for 5:45pm. We walked in at 5:47pm and they were able to accommodate our group of 5… very odd… Despite this, I really enjoyed the décor and service here. It has a very peaceful and tranquil ambience and seemed very high end. The service was superb! You have to take off your shoes before you enter the dining area but you can just drop them off and someone will take care of it for you. Our server was very polite, attentive and informative.
This is my first time eating at a vegan restaurant and I was kind of nervous that I wouldn’t like it since I’m carnivorous lol. However, I ordered the tofu steak and I thought it was delicious. The tofu was very silky and had a very nice outer crispy layer. The sauce on top had mushrooms, asparagus, and peppers in it and it mixed perfectly with the bowl of rice. For a vegetarian dish, I was very impressed with all of the flavors!
$ 30 for tofu and a bowl of rice is pricy but I think the service and ambience of the restaurant really makes it more worth it. People usually get turned off by vegetarian dishes because they lack flavors that are present in meat. However, Hangawi really nails vegan korean dishes! Definitely recommend this place for tasty vegan food and a unique dining experience!

Generally good food, but very inattentive service.
We made reservations here for a party of three and we were promptly given a table, on time. Everything seemed great to start off, but a reoccurring theme was how slow the service would be throughout the night.
Anyway, we started with a round of drinks. While flavorful, they were all fairly weak. When you pay $ 12 for a cocktail, you expect to be able to tell that there’s at least some alcohol in the glass.
On to the food. We were starving, so we ordered a ton of appetizers. The spicy kimchi mushroom pancakes were outstanding. In fact, everything we ordered that was based on mushrooms was fabulous, in the appetizers and main dishes. The sesame tofu leaf patties were petty good, I especially liked the sweet/​spicy sauce that they came with. The only appetizer that was lackluster was the acorn noodle salad. Very earthy without much flavor. We had a variety of spring roll-​type treats (can’t recall the name) as well that were fairly delicious.
Even after we were done with our round of appetizers, it felt like forever before we ever got our main dishes. The sweet and sour crispy mushroom entrée was the best thing we tried. It really has the feel of a meaty dish, but safely vegetarian (vegan). They were out of the spicy noodles, so I had the organic zen noodles. They were pretty good, although we didn’t understand why the bowl came with two small, thin seaweed wrappers. Good luck trying to wrap any amount of long, stringy noodles in those things.
We finished our plates (entrees) and our server hadn’t stopped by to check on us, not even once. He didn’t ask how the meal was or if we wanted more drinks. We even witnessed him walking by on numerous occasions, looking the other way each time. Although it was dinner, it didn’t feel overly busy for a Wednesday night. They had at least three or four servers on duty, so there was no reason for us to be ignored. That definitely turned us off.
We finally got his attention and we ordered dessert. The vegan dessert platter was so-​so. The blueberry coconut cake was good, although there was barely any frosting on the cake. The ice cream was good. The four tiny marshmallows plopped on the plate were kind of a joke. Minuscule and kind of tough to chew. There was a larger «marshmallow» cluster (reminded me of s’mores) that was much better. The tofu pudding was odd, very thin and it had a sour flavor.
After dessert, it once again took a lifetime to get our server’s attention, this time for the check.
Overall, the food was 4/​5, but service was ²⁄₅. Although friendly, we were essentially ignored the entire night. Considering how much money we spent, we expected better.

I was very impressed by their Emperors tasting menu. They have few other combinations but this one was very reasonably priced at $ 55 a person. For the amount of food you get and the creativity of the dishes, it is well worth it and perfect for a special occasion.
The ambience is superb and it has the ingredients of a memorable experience. The façade is impressive with that of a Korean palace door. Once you get inside there are people to greet you. They ask you to remove your shoes and you are escorted to an elevated area where the legs dangle under the low tables. It was very comfortable. The lighting is mood and quite dark. Décor is just really nice overall although you will likely be sitting next to a larger table if you’re a party of 2.
I think the service is excellent. Each course is timed exactly to your pace of eating. There is no more than a 5 minute lag from when they take away your previous course to when they serve your next course. They also help serve some do the dishes. Very nice!
For the tasting menu, I was surprised by the sheer number of courses. In addition to the 5 courses on the menu, they also offered some additional items.
I didn’t keep photographs of the dishes because they were too dark but I remember that there was not a single dish that was mediocre. All were creative, beautifully presented, well portioned, and most importantly delicious. Each appetizer actually had multiple dishes. I especially loved the use of persimmons and fruits mixed with savory flavors.
In summary, I recommend one of the tasting menus to get the full experience. I think it’s one of the best deals for Korean food in New York. High quality, creative, great ambience.

In the middle of NYC chaos, Hangawi is a delicious oasis.
I love the ambiance, you take off your shoes and put them in some cute little cubes.
You enter the dining room and sit in a low table.
The menu is huge and and everything is vegetarian, so I was in paradise.
I had their $ 22 lunch special, if I remember correctly I tried the yam soup that at the time sounded kind of weird but it was delicious. I followed with the vermicelli delight which was also very good. Next, the vegetarian stone bowl rice with kimchi. In the end you get a tiny dessert.
All the dishes were great, the wait staff not the friendliest but the food and ambiance makes up for it.
I really loved this place and I can’t wait to go back on my next trip to NYC.

Perfect service, delicious food, perfect price!!!
Sehr leckeres Essen, sehr gemütlich barfuß dort zu sitzen.

Excellent ! Un vrai repos pour les papilles et l’estomac cette cuisine coréenne végétarienne ! Un bon rapport qualité prix: c’est un très bon restaurant, les plats sont variés et les saveurs sont au rendez-​vous. La finesse de la cuisine, le cadre et l’ambiance (calme et intime, tout en restant très convivial) justifient totalement des prix assez élevés, loin d’être exorbitants non plus.