Hanjan

Hanjan is the talented Hooni Kim’s big-city homage to the old travelers’ taverns of Korea, called joomaks, which in style and atmosphere resemble the gastropubs of England and the old-fashioned izakayas of rural Japan. As at his fine uptown restaurant, Danji, the bare-bones, deceptively simple small-plates menu here is divided into columns ( “Traditional,” “Modern,” and “Skewers”), although the food has a heavier, more rustic, more classically Korean feel to it, and many of the dishes — the barbecue skewers threaded with chicken hearts or sizzling strips of gizzard, sticky ddukbokki (rice cakes) tossed in pork fat, vats of viscous, spicy cod-roe stew — are designed to be consumed at the bar, in a spicy lather, with copious amounts of sake, soju, and bottles of cold beer. Pay attention to Kim’s elevated versions of old favorites, like tong-dak fried chicken, the fried-rice bokkeum bap (mixed with chunks of chopped brisket), and the classic scallion-and-squid pajeon pancake, which has a lightness and texture to it here that’s as different from your sodden, run-of-the-mill pajeon as a fresh-baked apple pie is from a frozen version by Sara Lee.