Gogi Korean BBQ

LTH,

Skimming twitter I noticed Steve Dolinsky was at Gogi Korean BBQ and mentioned Makgeolli to Mike Sula. Turns out Gogi Nara is a new Korean BBQ joint where Hae Woon Dae was and Sula just wrote about Slow City Brewery producing Makgeolli locally for the Reader.

Gogi Korean BBQ



I've had makgeolli a few times, most recently at the blink and it was closed Chicago Pocha, Slow City Brewery's product seemed a more balanced flavorful version. Effervescent with subtle citrus notes, perfect foil to rich pork belly and kalbi.

Newly opened Gogi is the sister restaurant of Yeowoosai, a Korean bar a few doors North, and is owned by the personable Pete Cho. Pete and his mother Stella did a complete makeover of the space, comfortable but substantially sleeker than Hae Woon Dae, and are using table insert natural charcoal with gas assist for BBQ.

Terrific service, especially given Gogi has only been open a few days, nice selection of panchan, loved the samgyeopsal/pork belly in particular when wrapped in marinated sesame leaf.

Samgyeopsal (pork belly)



Quality kalbi, good attention to detail they switched type of grill for kalbi, and Pete and Stella both checked on us during our meal. Stella kindly bought out a salad lightly dressed with sesame oil that I should have asked the name for future ordering.

Kalbi



My bride and I both enjoyed Gogi, its not the faded glory home-style of HWD nor the benign neglect service of San Soo Gap San, which I love, but neither is Gogi sophisticated to the point where it looses the fun casual feeling of cooking at the table.

Gogi Korean BBQ, count me a fan!

Regards,
Gary

Gogi Korean BBQ
6240 N. California Ave
Chicago, Illinois 60659
773-274-6669
http://gogichicago.com/

Thank you Gary for your review! I had the wonderful opportunity to have my buddies who happen to be LTH Forum members stop in tonight. Small world! They informed me of awesome gatherings from this site. I look forward to joining in on the events soon!

Sincerely,

-Pete Cho

Owner of Gogi
6240 N. California Ave.
773-274-6669
www.gogichicago.com

Some friends and I met Pete some months ago at Yeowoosai (we're the buddie's he mentioned above!). We bonded over discussions of craft beer, music, and of course food, and were very excited when invited to visit Gogi for the grand opening. Friendship aside, (of course I would be nothing but honest with Pete and the forum) I'll be damned if it wasn't the best korean BBQ I have had in recent memory! One thing that really sticks with me is that the quality of the meat. It was really a step above what you see at other places. The ban chan was all extremely well done, and I especially appreciated the salad with green onion and perilla, served with the ssam. It was nice to see the use of perilla, one of my favorite leaves, which is something I haven't seen at korean BBQ before.

Business seemed to be doing pretty good considering it was the second day they were open. I feel as though Gogi really went the extra mile with everything, food, service, the build-out, etc, and I hope it pays off for them!

As for the remodel of the place, sorry if I'm basically repeating Gary. While the upgrades are modern and clean, none of the homeyness I love in my favorite Korean places has been lost. We were very comfortable and the service so friendly, we felt like we were dining with family.

I forgot to mention a big WELCOME to LTH Pete! From as much as I've gotten to know you, I know you'll fit right in here. I hope you start chiming in on more restaurants.

Thanks Matt! I like this forum a lot, been reading up on some cool places I want to check out! I also had the pleasure of meeting two more LTH members the other night!

looked around and can't seem to find a good pic, does anyone know the seating arrangements of the place? i never went to the original HWD.

movable tables, good for groups, etc?

dudefella wrote:looked around and can't seem to find a good pic, does anyone know the seating arrangements of the place? i never went to the original HWD.

movable tables, good for groups, etc?

Tables are not movable but rooms can covert to hosting 20-30 people.

-Pete

Hey Pete, can't wait to try your new place out. One question. Your website's menu page is broken. What is the menu like price wise? Is there all you can eat too? I'll come regardless, of course, but just wondering anyway.

marothisu wrote:Hey Pete, can't wait to try your new place out. One question. Your website's menu page is broken. What is the menu like price wise? Is there all you can eat too? I'll come regardless, of course, but just wondering anyway.

There is no all you can eat option. From what I remember the prices were typical for korean BBQ. The most expensive meat we ordered was $20, and I think most were about $18. The value for the price was definitely high, as the meat was of the best quality.

marothisu wrote:Hey Pete, can't wait to try your new place out. One question. Your website's menu page is broken. What is the menu like price wise? Is there all you can eat too? I'll come regardless, of course, but just wondering anyway.

Fixed! Menu is now online! http://gogichicago.com/?page_id=39

After another week since opening and another visit from me, I'm happy to say there is a new top K-BBQ spot in town, in my book at least. Nothing coming out of that kitchen is less than amazing.

Between the 7 of us, we ate 4 meats: Samgyeopsal, Jumulleok, Gopchang, and Chadol Baegi. Each was again high quality and delicious. Of the 4, my favorite is still the Jumulleok, which is the beef short steak. With really nice marbling, it comes off the grill so flavorful, tender and juicy.

The Pajeon was awesome with a really crisp exterior and moist interior packed with fresh tender seafood. Like the one at yeowoosai, it gets me really excited.

The soondubu was thick and rich but not overly salty. Again the seafood was fresh and tender, and the tofu good quality.

The grilled mackerel is also the best I've had. Something as simple as grilled mackerel can easily be overlooked, but the one at Gogi is just the right balance of salt, juiciness and a fresh mackerel taste. Usually it is so salty that you need to eat little bits of it with rice, but that wasn't the case with this one.

Another must order item on my list for future visits is the Yukhoe (steak tartar) which was an amazingly fresh and flavorful with a great texture.

I also have to give props once again to the banchan, a lot of thought and care goes into the banchan here, most, if not all made in house and fresh. I counted 3 or 4 uses of ggaennip (korean shiso leaves), which is something I don't see in other restaurants and I applaud the extra cost and effort put forth. There was a seasoned ggaennip banchan, fresh leaves to use to wrap the meat, as well as it being in the mixed salad (which is awesome!). It may have also been in the yukhoe, but I'm not sure if I'm remembering correctly, or if i just added some of the salad to mine.

With all this food, and $34 in beer, we still only spent about $32/pp after tip which for the amount of over ordering here, that's quite a good deal! This is exactly why the all you can eat korean bbq idea is simply pointless.

I'll have to bring my camera in next time to get some pics to encourage more of you guys to get your butts in here.

laikom wrote:Another must order item on my list for future visits is the Yukhoe (steak tartar) which was an amazingly fresh and flavorful with a great texture.

Very much enjoyed Gogi's Yukhoe, which is cut in thin tender flavorful strips, different than any yukhoe, or steak tartare for that matter, I've had. Takes real confidence in the taste, quality and texture of the meat to serve in this fashion.

Gogi Yukhoe



Crispy Gogi pajeon goes directly into my Gogi must-order file.

Gogi Pajeon



Second visit, this time with a group, service, quality, and overall deliciousness were consistent with the high bar set on our first visit, if anything, ratcheted up a notch.

Regards,
Gary

I had dinner here last week as part of an 8-top and enjoyed the meal. It didn't transcend for me quite the way it did for some of the others who posted above but it was still a very positive experience. First and foremost, the service was spectacular. Not only was everyone in the restaurant remarkably friendly but they continually made sure that we had everything we needed throughout the meal. Waters vessels were refilled without us having to ask, banchan bowls we'd emptied were replenished and a couple of the servers even tended to the meat cooking over the live charcoal on our tabletop grill.

Ingredients were fresh and deftly prepped for service. Meats seemed to be of very good quality. I thought the marinade on the kalbi was particularly tasty. I think where it kind of unraveled for me was in the logistics. The live coal grill at one end of our table performed admirably but the gas powered grill at the other end would not stay lighted. As such, the griddle that was placed on top of it would not get up to the proper temperature. This was eventually remedied via a portable burner but the glitch slowed things down a bit, made it tougher for the staff to pace things and resulted in some meats that ended up more steamed than grilled. The bottom line, however, is that were a big group in a restaurant that had been open for less than a month. Given those circumstances, Gogi showed great promise. Here are a few shots from our meal, thought it's only partial coverage of what we had . . .


Fried Mandu
Crispy, tasty.



Soondubu Jigae
A fine bowl and I very much appreciated that the egg was served uncooked, without my having to request it that way.



Seafood Pajeon
This wasn't quite as crispy as I'd hoped for (or as the images posted upthread looked to be). Fresh seafood for sure, though.



Yuk Hwe



Kimchi & Sprouts



Salad
LOL, we knew it was for the lettuce wraps but the staff told us it was salad, and it was delicious.



Seasoned Pork Belly is added to the Kimchi & Sprouts
After this cooked up, the belly was crispy and delicious. The entire dish was great, actually.



Accoutrements



Bossam

I look forward to returning. Given how scarce live coal Korean BBQ is these days, it's great to see a new place that clearly takes the task seriously.

=R=

This place is great. My kids made me come here 2x in 3 days. It meets our raw beef requirement for the teen boy, our dumpling quota for the younger daughter and the steak allowance for the older one. Don't overlook the soups (not that anyone has) which are the best I've had. Banchan are great but a touch subtle for me. I like the more rustic full on funk and heat of the older spots. A mild personal asterisk. This is the place for K-BBQ now.

JeffB wrote:This place is great... Don't overlook the soups (not that anyone has) which are the best I've had. Banchan are great but a touch subtle for me. I like the more rustic full on funk and heat of the older spots. A mild personal asterisk. This is the place for K-BBQ now.

I love Korean food. But that love is inevitably grounded in the soups and stews and never for the BBQ. However, after three visits to Gogi, things seem to be working in reverse. Gogi is all about enjoying their wonderful BBQ (and friendly, attentive service) while staying clear of their more pedestrian jjigae/tang/guk offerings. Every soup or stew I've had here - soondubu, Ttaro gukbal, yukgaejang, and gamjatang, has been centered around an insipid broth.

The meat quality here is a standard deviation better than any other Korean place I'm aware of here in Chicago. Couple that with their use of live coals and you have a very special place well worth seeking out.

G Wiv wrote:Very much enjoyed Gogi's Yukhoe, which is cut in thin tender flavorful strips, different than any yukhoe, or steak tartare for that matter, I've had. Takes real confidence in the taste, quality and texture of the meat to serve in this fashion.

Fully agree. Quite notable.

I completely agree with Jeff that their banchan overall is a bit timid yet still enjoyable.

Hmmm. I thought the pork and tofu soup was pretty swell, though more on the strength of the meat and beancurd. I thought the broth was good and balanced on my 2 tries, though timid like the kimchee. As long as we are talking about Gogi's mildness (not just mild on the Scovilles but on the fishiness and garlic), I noted no gochujang was served with our BBQ and none available when I asked for it. Are they making an effort to bring subtlety to a cuisine that I love for its lack of tact? Anyway, the meat is great and, in my 2 bowl experience, the soup did it for me too!

LOVED this place. Five of us split 3 apps (tartare--wonderful, once it defrosted a bit; mandu; and panjeon with some of the freshest, most abundant seafood I've ever seen stuffed into batter) and 3 meats on fire (loved the thick cut short steak and pork belly; bulgogi was the typical prep). Loved the salad. Shiso leaves with the lettuce for wrapping were crisp and delicious and a nice, unique touch. Service was wonderful--lots of attention yet not intrusive at all. Can't wait to go back. JeffB--your kids are on to something!

Hmm...all in all I must say we were thoroughly disappointed with our initial visit to Gogi Nara. Definitely has some things going for it and it may be the glowing reports on this board raised expectations too high. Still, we came away distinctly underwhelmed. First, we were seated in the side room off to the left when you enter, which may have been reasonable given the size of our party. That said, it was gloomy, cramped and generally inconvenient (including for our server). Whatever - you don't go to Korean BBQ for ambience (unless you're in LA). So then came the banchan plates, which were ok - not bad - if nondescript and lacking variety. Basically forgettable. So onto the main attraction, the meat, which was somewhat better on the whole. Kalbi was very good; jumullok unimpressive and surprisingly gristly; pork bulgogi tasty if relatively dry; and pork belly, which was also rather dry and lacking in flavor. In short, the items were very uneven in quality. One major qualification for all of this, however, is that the service was almost totally inept and unhelpful throughout. And I don't just mean charmless. I mean, like the most incompetent in memory. Suffice it to say, the kalbi was nearly burned to a crisp, as was the jumullok. We did what we could to salvage the situation - it would have helped in each member of our party were more expert in the art of table grilling - but it was basically too late. Unfortunately our server was either absent or inadequately 'skilled' to help. The kicker was when we asked for rice to mix with the remains of the pork belly/kimchi/sprouts on the grill (bokumbop) and were met with a blank stare. By the time the waitress returned to the table to report "Yeah I guess we can do it if you really want to" the remains were charred to a crisp. Yikes. I swear if this happened in Flushing Queens or LA they'd be laughed out of town. Maybe it was a bad day, or a bad server, or a bad mix in our party, or a bad something...but we won't be back. Ouch.

PS Mandu were really good (both fried and steamed).

We stopped by for dinner on Sunday night. We thought the service was top notch. At least three different people, all very personable and friendly, stopped by to check on us and our food.

We had the pork belly and one of the servers made fried rice at the table for us with the leftovers together with the salad, kimchee and sprouts. I had not seen this done before and we were told that there is only one other place in Chicago that does this. We were not charged extra for this dish, despite the extra rice it required. The rice was left in the pan to the point where it developed the nice burnt-rice crust. This made for great leftovers. (We over-ordered, though with no regrets.)

Upthread, someone commented that the seafood pajeon was not as crispy as they had hoped. We had the pajeon made with rice flour rather than wheat flour, which is an option on the menu. It was very light and crispy. It's retained this light and crispy quality when heated up in a skillet as leftovers.

We really enjoyed our dinner here.

bw77 wrote:I had not seen this done before and we were told that there is only one other place in Chicago that does this.

that'd be cho sun ok, in lincoln square.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6803

Cho Sun Ok
4200 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60618
773-549-5555

dudefella wrote:

bw77 wrote:I had not seen this done before and we were told that there is only one other place in Chicago that does this.

that'd be cho sun ok, in lincoln square.
viewtopic.php?f=14&t=6803

Cho Sun Ok
4200 N Lincoln Ave
Chicago, IL 60618
773-549-5555

Not to downplay Gogi at all, but I'm sure there are a number of other places around Chicago who end a meal on the stone this way. I have seen at least a few bars, Dancen and Yeowoosai included, who do this.

Right, pretty common and the places that don't do it for you automatically are happy to let you do it, DIY style, in my experience. Depends on what's left over and what kind of cooking equipment is on the table- seems always to be how the black goat stew meals end.

JeffB wrote:Right, pretty common and the places that don't do it for you automatically are happy to let you do it, DIY style, in my experience. Depends on what's left over and what kind of cooking equipment is on the table.

Okay, thanks. We usually don't have much in the way of leftovers, so I haven't seen this before. Just was passing on what I was told at the restaurant.

It's a great thing about Korean food that people should know about, so I'm glad you brought it up.

The Small Household Food Exchange convened at Gogi last night. Overall, the meal was excellent ... perhaps better than the many meals I'd had when the space was Hae Woon Dae.

I started with a drink. The menu had several beers crossed out, leaving only OB and HITE. Having recently heard that Koreans frequently mix their beers with soju, we ordered OB Golden Lager, and Chum Churum, a soju made from sweet potatoes. Our server suggested 1/3 soju (17.5% ABV) with 2/3 OB (4.8% ABV, from an AB-Inbev brewery in Seoul). The soju slightly sweetened, and definitely out smoothed the flavor of the beer.

Appetizers started with Goon Mandu, a fried dumpling stuffed with meat — finely ground, probably pork and beef.

Haemul Pajeon, seafood pancake, as described above, wasn't particularly crispy, but the ingredients had a variety of textures, and remains one of our favorites at similar Korean joints.

Yukhoe , steak tartare, was good, but my least favorite of the appetizers. Personal preference, but I'd prefer the meat as a coarse grind, rather than strips. (No idea which style is more common in Korea.)

The grilling started with Galbi, beef short ribs. The thinly sliced beef was cooking a bit slowly on the first set of coals delivered; after a while, it was replaced with a new, hotter set of coals. Much better.

As the barbeque meats arrived, so did the vast array of panchan.

Samgyeopsal, sliced pork belly, was great fatty goodness, especially when wrapped in the crisp Romaine leaves. Along with the pork belly, Baby Octopus was reasonably tender for being so quick-cooked, and the marinade added a bit of extra flavor.

At about $27 pp, with plenty of food, I thought it was a worthwhile evening, even if we didn't end up at the karaoke joint a few doors down.

I would have cheered you and Sharon on if you were going.

The Small Household Food Exchange (edited) went April 28, we had Gogi Pajeon, fried Mandoo, Gogi Yukhoe, pork belly, octopus and short ribs. I'll only post pictures I think are at least partly new (anyway, I forgot to take pictures of short ribs cooking and dumpling photos were both blurry). Sorry, I don't know why the captions are being split and not below the photos.

diversedancer wrote:The LTH North group went April 28,

That would be the Small Household Food Exchange.