90 3rd Avenue (between 12th & 13th St),
New York, NY 10003
tel. (212)390-8685
website: http://handynasty.net/

Han Dynasty, which opened not long ago, on lower Third Avenue, has plenty of things for both Platt girls to love on its economical, generally exemplary menu, although it was Daughter No. 2, predictably, who couldn’t wait to go back. The ­proprietor, Han Chiang, grew up near Philadelphia (where he operates five popular Han Dynasty outlets plus one in Southern ­Jersey), although his mother is Taiwanese and his father is from Sichuan. The ­restaurant has a dining counter with lucky coins embedded on its top. The yellow walls are decorated with oil paintings (one of which depicts Han Dynasty princes and poets) that look like they’ve been purchased from a back-alley gallery in Hong Kong. The bustling busboys wear crimson-colored T-shirts, the polished wood tables are all neatly set with plastic red chopsticks, and everything is bathed in the kind of flat, utilitarian lighting that you find at the finest establishments out in Flushing.