Mr. Han's Restaurant and Night Club (?)

6944 NW 10th Pl

5 thumbs down.

Mr. Han's is a bit of a legend in Gainesville. Unfortunately, that legend is all in the past and what is currently offered is a bit of a joke. Apparently, it was THE place to go after Gator Growl back in the 80's. This is evidenced by large faded photographs of the owners with Rodney Dangerfield, Robin Williams, and other performers who haven't set foot in Gainesville since the Reagan Era. For some reason, the entire place is painted black inside. I find this very unsettling. I also have no idea what takes place in the "Night Club" downstairs, as I can't imagine anyone heading out to I75 and Newberry Road to get their drink on on a late Saturday night.

Regardless of the creepy vibe, the food just isn't good. I've eaten here 3 or 4 times over the years, always with a big group, and always with someone who knew the owners and got special treatment. Even with this preferential treatment, the food was extremely unsettling and a few of us would always end up eating somewhere else afterwards.

First up would always be the Gelatinous Shrimp Soup. I have no idea what they're going for with this item, but there is so much corn starch in this "soup" that you could probably stand a chop stick up in it.

Then, an assortment of entrees would arrive, including a dry, pre sliced and fanned out duck, goopy soggy eggplant homogeneously mixed with a weak brown sauce, dry old white rice, and other stir fry mysteries.

You have to understand that I'm not a huge fan of Chinese food in general, but I really really really hate Mr. Han's. It's creepy, the food is bad and the ingredients seem cheap. Eventually, we stopped accepting invitations to the big group dinners because they'd end up just being a waste of time. We'd have to come up with some excuse for leaving early and not eating much and it just got old.

I do not like this place.