Gogi

The only reason this place is getting two stars instead of one is because of the service. Everyone there was super nice, and the speed was alright. However, the food here is awful. My friends and I are pretty sure we got food poisoning from the steak tartare here (considering none of us had anything else to eat that day). This place is also overprice for what it is.
The octopus and beef was not marinated the way it should be, and it was extremely difficult to eat. The fried ice cream was not good what so ever, we didn’t even finish it. All in all, I hated to pay $ 40 a person for us all to feel awful the rest of the weekend.

Our «go to» Korean BBQ by a long shot. Meat is always perfectly seasoned, fresh and tender and always grilled perfectly. But meat isn’t the only fantastic dish here… The chop chae (noodles) is super flavorful and chewy, the bokkumbap (fried rice) is garlicky and fantastic, the yukhoe is tender, nice and cold and amazing. We use to go to San Soo Gab San, but the smoke levels, the inability to communicate with wait staff and the simple feeling of always being ignored lead us to look for better options for Korean barbecue, and we found it in Gogi. Bonus is it is also super close to my home.
You def need to make a reservation if you are coming on the weekend.. Otherwise, if you come during prime hours, you will wait in a very small area for a table.
I find Gigi is also not as smoky as other Korean barbecue places that I have been to which is a good thing. If it is not crazy busy, they will cook your entire meal for you, which is a bonus for the person who always does the cooking at the table and never gets to eat — that would be me. If they are very busy, you may have to cook a little but they will also be by to do some of the cooking.
We usually get the galbi and the pork shoulder and pork belly and ask for fried rice to be made at the end, which they will gladly do for you at no extra charge if you order one of the pork barbecue dishes. Absolutely delicious and a nice way to end the meal.
The servers are typically young, energetic and a lot of fun. Every time I have brought people here, they have loved the experience and the food. Enjoy.

This place is whack.
I should’ve known as we were the only table of Koreans in the restaurant.
We drove by Chosunok and there was probably an hr and half wait. I’ve waited in that line many times before but I was with my niece and my sister and my wife so I didn’t want them to wait in the freezing cold. So my sister suggested Gogi. I hate her so much. –_​–
We got the chadol for the four of us a giant bottle of OB. There was 1 server attending to 6 or 7 tables. I forget the exact amount. But something as labor intensive as KBBQ should have more servers than that. By the time we got our green onion for our chadol we were 80% done with cooking and eating the meat. And the chadol grill was sitting on the flame for so long that it scorched the hell out of meat and a lot of it was sticking and burning. You’re suppose to lube the grill so it doesnt stick! This girl has the nerve to bitch me out when I question why we were getting shit service. I guess she felt bad enough to come back and be fake as hell and try to be nice to me later on AFTER it died down a little.
There were so many other things. The mool nengmyun was really bad. Tasted too plain no amount of vinegar and mustard could’ve saved it. Ordered two of those. The banchan sucks too. No punch in flavor all just blah tasting. The fried rice at the end of the chadol was a joke. If you can’t do it right don’t do it at all. 0 Flavor. Just red rice from the red pepper paste and rice they dumped on. We had to add 2 rounds of banchan to that thing to make it taste somewhat decent and even then it was still crap. And the stinginess of the crap they bring out. Some of the stuff they bring out is seriously enough for one bite. Hey I understand the gringos don’t eat all the banchans but seriously at least make an effort to bring some more out when it request it 4 – 5 times and you bring one out at a time and half the time you forget. Regret spending my hard earned money on overpriced food like this.
I hope y’all go out of business. I’ll goto cho sun ok and stand in line for four hours in the freezing cold before I go back to your place. I may be harsh but you guys suck. And what’s with the dude up front just sitting there like a statue when he knows damn well there is only 1 person working the tables. Help out you dick!

Good food, great service, sweet wine and cold beer. Got Korean BBQ with pork belly and brisket. Food was fresh and I was very happy with this place.

This place is a rip off. We ordered six items. Check came and showed nine items. We asked them to correct the charges. They gave us a new check but still had one item we didn’t order. Finally they corrected the check after we twice complained. The food was ok. Ventilation Fan was not on so it was greasy.

The entire waitstaff were very nice and attentive. Helpful when we asked to explain to us the menu. Will definitely go again. The food was amazing.

We went there on a Friday night. There wasn’t a lot of people so the service was pretty fast. We ordered marinated pork and octopus. We also ordered the kimchi pancake which is recommended by my friends who have been here before. All of them are very delicious! The owner indeed cooked everything for us, which I like. However the only downside is that I feel a little rushed during the meal. I think they want to be efficient, so that they came up to ask us if we are done or if we want the bill.
Overall I recommend this place for their good food.

We came here for dinner on a Saturday night.
Chose this place based on reviews on Unilocal.
We ordered fried mandoo, chop chae, kalbi, bulgogi, pork belly, and beef briskets.
The food was Awesome! Very yummy!
Variety of good banchan (side dishes). The kimchee here was very good!
I have not found a BBQ place where I would recommend to my friends but now I found one!
The only complaint I would have is that when it’s packed, your server does not come as often.
And I was a little disappointed when we didn’t get the fried rice after cooking our meat as I have read it on the review and also saw next table eating it. My waitress said its because we asked for white rice with our meal.
But the waitress promised me that she will make us fried rice next time we come. I will DEFINITELY be retuning! It was really YUMMY!

My friend and I loved this place! We got warm hospitality and great food here. The restaurant owner is a nice lady who served us and made us yummy barbecued steak and pork belly, and kimchi fried rice in front of us! Yummmy! Love authentic Korean food in Gogi.

Delicious Korean BBQ, the price is a little expend though. the waiter will cook the BBQ for you.

First time here. Meat was amazing but I wish they had better sides. Service was amazing!

Chicago has a disappointingly weak selection of K-​BBQ and Korean food in general. Now with that in mind, Gogi is one of the better places available in Chicago for Korean food.
After having been to Cho Sun Ok, San Soo Gab San, Woori Village, Jang Choong Dong, and a few other KBBQ spots which I don’t remember the names of, I would have to say that my experience at Gogi was the best of them all.
Pros:
–The seafood pancake
–All the meat selections are generally good quality (I’ve had the kalbi, bulgogi, dak kalbi, and samgyeopsal)
–The employees do most of the cooking/​prepping for you (This may be a bad thing to some, but I’m lazy)
–They are not stingy with the the banchan! *cough* looking at you Cho Sun Ok
Cons:
–Service can be extremely slow and forgetful. Requests for banchan and water must be made 2 – 3 times before someone brings them
–The vents are way too high, leaving you smelling like BBQ for the rest of the day — this is not just an issue here, but almost all the other kbbq places in Chicago have this issue as well.

I wish I could give this place 5 stars, but they fall shorbecause of pretty easy to fix problems.
The quality of meat here is pretty good and the price isn’t too bad.
Definitely go with the pork belly or galbi.
My 2 negative points are the tiny amount of charcoal they use and their flavorless kimchi. It took damn near 15 minutes to cook some Galbi which should take no longer than 3 – 5 minutes to cook because of lack of heat. I get that they have to save money, but is a bad customer experience worth saving a few extra charcoal chips?
My biggest issue was the kimchi. When you order the pork belly they give you some kimchi to grill which is very common. The kimchi had no kind of saltiness and sour flavor. The grilled kimchi is usually one of the best parts of KBBQ but they missed the mark big time. It tasted like the watered down unfermented kimchi you would get at a Korean Chinese restaurant. I was pretty disappointed that a Korean restaurant had nasty kimchee.
Other than those two issues which are easily fixed the food is delicious aside from the kimchi.
Last few times I came here I don’t remember the kimchee being so gross. I guess they just need to work on consistency. I know I keep going on about the kimchee but it was really that bad.

If I can give zero star or negative number I will definitely do it! OMG! Last Sunday was my first time in this place, you know what! I saw a mouse running around in the restaurant while I was eating the lunch! Then I talked the waitress about this, she said «do not worry the mouse is from next door»! No staff went to check it. They did not say sorry to us! Disgusting
BTW, the food is not that good!

I was very happy with this restaurant. The staff was extremely polite and helpful. The food was very good. We tried the pajeon, galbi beef, and Mul Naeng Myun. All were delightful. Perhaps we over-​ordered… it was a lot of food.
I can’t highlight enough how I enjoyed the entire staff’s professionalism and good demeanor. I really appreciate when you are welcomed warmly, the service is prompt, and the waiter knows the menu and has a real passion for the food. The restaurant was also spotless.
I would certainly recommend this place to anybody on the far north side looking for good Korean.

The meat (bulgolgi and kalbi) we ordered was pretty good and was cooked on the table in front of us. It seemed like the waiter forgot about the bulgolgi while it was cooking so it ended up being overcooked. The leftover meat was used to make fried rice at the end, which was okay. We ordered fried ice cream for dessert and it tasted sour (it was probably fried in used oil). I took one bite and couldn’t finish it because it was so gross.

This place is so charming and is in the same plaza as the throwback kareoke joint I used to frequent during my college years! Man I miss those nights when life was so simple and carefree!
Ambience: loved it! Such a cozy feel and perfect for date night! There was jazz playing and GogiGseemed very intimate and super clean and classy.
Food: food was tasty! We ordered the pork belly, bulgolgi, some sort of kimchee soup and everything came out with those cute mini-​dishes.
Bathrooms: super clean which is always a perk in my book!
Minus one star– the waters were kind of strange– tap water in weird clear canisters and tasted funny.
PS: free parking!

This was a great find. Thanks to fellow Unilocalers.
I haven’t had good Korean BBQ in a very long time. The boy and I decided to venture out from the normal date places and try something different. The owner and staff were all very hospitable. They made sure we had everything (rice, salad, extra bowls to share and etc). The owner/​manager came to help make sure the meat was cut properly and there was no waste to cook on the grill.
The Galbi was very good tasty. My favorite Korean dish, soon doobu, though a bit scant on the seafood was not a let down. The flavor was spot on and the tofu was great. The spicy marinated pork was good too but not as great as the galbi. They made for great leftovers though.
Took me back to my time in K-​town in NYC. They didn’t give you an egg to crack into the soup as they do in NYC. The bon chon was ok but I have seen better varieties in other cities.
The only complaint was that we were seated in a spot that was drafty/​cold whenever the door would open. the smoke just hits your face which was not fun. Otherwise, we had a good time and I would definitely like to come back.

Good Service, great food but you can get the same thing at other Korean restaurants without paying $ 20 for each order of meat. I dear say that you’re paying extra for ambiance and service. Gogi actually really reminds me of famous Korean bbq places in Los Angeles.
They have an good variety of banchan dishes which you can ask for more of. The spicy marinated pork was excellent and just what I was craving. The bulgogi was good, but not great. It was not marinated enough so by itself, it lacked flavor. It tasted much better with the dipping sauce on the side.
They ran out of cheesecake the day we went for dinner which was a bit of a bummer!

4.5 Stars.
I highly recommend that you go with a large group. That way, you can try the menu as there are a lot of great items!
I can’t remember all the items we ordered because I didn’t take charge ordering but here are some of the items that I’d recommend:
(First and foremost, I don’t know how to pronounce any of these dishes so I am looking at the menu as I am doing this to find the dishes)
We tried 3 soups but Kimchi Jjigae (Fermented Cabbage with Pork and Tofu) was the best. Yukgaejang– spicy shredded beef soup was really good as well!
Mul Naeng Myun: Buckwheat Noodles in cold ice broth. —I was hesitant to try this because it said noodles in cold broth but it was actually really good, especially for a warm day!
Pajeon– we had 2 of these. These are like egg pancakes. Pretty good appetizer!
Towards the back of the menu were bbq combinations. We got one of the two choices that had like 4 or 5 meats in them. Delish!
I’d say this place is the cleanest and has the best service of all the Korean BBQs in Chicago.