In search of ... Korean

5953 Buford Highway, Atlanta, 678-530-0844, no Web site

Woo Nam Jeong (Stone Bowl House) offers Korean classics — bulgogi, dolsot bibimbap and soondubu — but with a homey difference. Meals here seem to be prepared with a loving hand and splash of panache from owner Young Han. Opened last spring, the tidy restaurant is tucked away in Seoul Plaza on Buford Highway, and the moment you step through the door, you know you’re in for a treat: The smells of kimchi, garlic and sizzling galbi (sweetly marinated beef short ribs brought to the table on a griddle, fajita-style) meld to make your mouth water. A 12-course menu has a few of my favorites, most notably persimmon tea with pine nuts — a sweet, cold, ginger-laced treat for after the meal, as well as sweet rice cakes (boo koo mee) crowned with slivers of dried jujubes.

Hankook Taqueria, not rated

1341 Collier Road, 404-352-8881, no Web site

Owner Tomas Lee spent years in Norcross fine-tuning fine dining at his eponymous spot, Tomas, so opening a street snack joint in the old Good Eats space on the Westside might seem a little, well, whacky. Whacky like a fox: Fashioned after the Mexican/Korean street vending trucks of L.A., Hankook serves a kooky calamity of Korean and Mexican dishes, including traditional bibimbap alongside gogi nachos. Taco combos might include chicken and stir-fried tofu, or pulled pork with spicy barbecue sauce. Baja-inspired fish tacos get the Korean treatment with panko-encrusted fried tilapia and hoisin sauce. Foodies may complain about Hankook’s quality, but no one can deny the idea’s time has come.

Honey Pig

3473 Old Norcross Road, Duluth, 770-476-9292

Fashioned after the pork belly barbecue spots cropping up across Los Angeles, Honey Pig relies on the charm of the old Seoul-style barbecue spots, where giant, drum-size lids of iron rice-cooking pots are inverted, then fashioned into a grill. Smallish slabs of pork belly (think thick bacon) are grilled with whole-leaf kimchi (tongbaechu kimchi), mushrooms, onions and an array of other meats, including prawns and bulgogi (marinated sirloin, Korean style). No matter what size your table (and bigger is best), there will be a steward button. A server will arrive tableside, armed with scissors and a heaping plate of pork belly, kimchi and Korean-style miso soup. Small servings of siracha and bean paste, as well as sesame oil and salt, will accompany the meat, but drag anything through them — bean sprouts, kimchi, mushrooms. Lettuce and thick rice paper are for wrapping the meats and devouring them with a fork or chopsticks.

Bakery Cafe Maum, not rated

7130 Buford Highway, Suite A180, Doraville, 770-263-7447, www.bakerycafemaum.com

Inspired by Japanese and French patisseries, Korean bakers have developed a love of all things made with eggs and flour, and the phenomenon has made its way across the continents and landed, remarkably, in Doraville at Bakery Cafe Maum in the Global Forum shopping center (the bakery has another location in Duluth). The look is a little La Madeleine, a little Nordstrom Cafe. The real draw is the beautifully baked treats, from delicately sweet and light green tea and coconut buns to pizza bread spread with a naughty conglomeration of cheesy mayo, some funky version of Veg-All bits and a Spam-like meat that you just can’t help but like. A pristine pastry case toward the front of the room is home to the slick, French-inspired cakes and tortes for which Maum is quickly developing a rep. Korean breads are made with a combination of malt or rice flours mixed with wheat flour; the result is an ethereally light loaf with a fine, almost cake-like grain.

Café Mozart Bakery, not rated

5301 Buford Highway N.E., Doraville, 770-936-8726, no Web site

Inside this tidy Korean- and Japanese-style bakery is a world of refined pastries filled with cream, bean paste and chestnut puree. Soft, cakelike yeast breads are filled with a smooth pastry cream and made into lots of shapes — loaves slit in half and filled with billows of cream; bear claws filled with more cream. Walnut cake is like French génoise, but baked flat and decorated with a concentric swirl that leads to a huge walnut half in its center. Bean cakes are soft yeast breads filled with sweet red bean paste that are neither sweet nor savory. There are bubble teas and shaved fruit ices, plus lots of tea and a pleasant place to indulge in them all. (A second location on Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth is three times the size of this location.)