LA Chef Bringing Handmade Noodles To East Coast; First Step: Catonsville's Hanoori Town

An Los Angeles chef is opening his first East Coast location in Catonsville -- and bringing hand-cut noodles, reports Lisbeth of the Lisbeth Eats blog.

Lisbeth and I actually emailed weeks ago, and I overlooked her report about a new restaurant going into the shopping center with H Mart in Catonsville.  Down from the supermarket is a space called Hanoori Town that has three restaurants and a frozen yogurt store upstairs and a housewares store in the basement.

A Korean-Chinese restaurant in Hanoori Town has closed, and a new restaurant specializing in handmade noodles is opening there.  The noodles are kal guk su, a Korean noodle dish served in large bowls of broth.  I don't have full details, but it's exciting enough that folks should know.  I'll update as I learn more.

Here is Lisbeth's full email with a quick description of the restaurants in the Hanoori Town down from H Mart and some news about the new noodle restaurant that is coming:

When you're standing in the parking lot facing Hmart, Hanoori Town is to the right.  There's a Korean food court on top with Korean retail stores (Asian housewares, gifts, beauty products, clothes and bedding) below.  When the place was called Besesto, I think everything was under the same person.  But it was reopened as Hanoori Town under new management about five years ago, and I think each individual shop is sub-leased under one owner. I think the owner wanted to create a space where different ethnicities could come together to shop and eat.  Hanoori means 'Us as one.'

On the top floor there are actually three different restaurants -- two to the left and one facing you as you walk in.  When we went there [in August], I heard that a new restaurant is going into the second space. 

So as you walk in, the first restaurant to the left is Bu Du Mak (closest to the window). They specialise in a cold noodle soup called naeng myun, Korean blood sausage called soon dae, and traditional Korean soups and stews.

The restaurant next to Bu Du Mak was a Korean/Chinese noodle restaurant that specialised in jja jang myun (black bean noodles), jjam ppong (spicy seafood noodle soup) and typical Korean/Chinese dishes like Hanjoonggwan in Ellicott City.  But they are no longer there.  A new kal guk su restaurant is going into that space.  The new chef/owner is famous in LA for his fresh hand pulled noodles and soup, and he's bringing it to the East Coast with his first location in Hanoori Town. I was told that it should be open in roughly late September. 

I love kal guk su  so I'm very much looking forward to checking them out. Kal guk su is well known in the Myung Dong neighborhood of Seoul. 

The restaurant facing you as you walk in is called Chan Mat and they offer all sorts of Korean food, Japanese sushi lunch buffet and I saw new signs for Korean/Chinese cuisine on their wall. I 'm guessing when the Korean/Chinese restaurant in the middle closed, Chan Mat added those items to their menu. 

I like the housewares store and the Korean bedding store in the basement. I got my shabu shabu pot from there and the Korean bedding shop in the back corner has lots of gift items and comfortable blankets, mats and pillows for the house.