Kalguksu is the restaurant’s staple, a dish truly meant for all seasons—one that can warm you up in the winter and also take you to the sea in the summer. That’s because kalguksu is a noodle soup scooped up from the ocean, with fat, hand-cut noodles swaying like kelp among the soup’s seafood. Swimming through Hangari’s slippery noodles are clams, leeks, zucchini, potatoes, trumpet mushrooms and a single shrimp. It may be on its own, but the shrimp is always the centerpiece—it’s always whole and always huge, a bulky thing with longing black eyes that seem to stare straight through you. And if you order kalguksu, you have to down it all, gnashing your teeth through everything from head to tail.

HANGARI NOODLE HOUSE 9916 GARDEN GROVE BLVD | GARDEN GROVE 92844 | 714.537.0100 | OPEN MON-SAT 10AM-10PM | FOOD FOR TWO, $15-25

Tags: dinner, garden grove, hangari noodle house, korean, lunch