Goggan
“We started off with the Scallion Seafood Jeon – delicious and chock full of seafood.”
“The premise is unique for Korean food: a fusion of traditional Korean dishes prepared and presented in a French style.”
“Also the rib eye steak was mouth watering and trout was both beautiful and fresh flavored.”
Goggan
Takes Reservations: Yes
Accepts Credit Cards: Yes
Bike Parking: Yes
Good for Groups: Yes
Outdoor Seating: Yes
Waiter Service: Yes
Price range.
$$$ Price range $31-60
8 reviews
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The food is soooo good. We looooooved the Crevette Cru. The shrimp meat tastes so fresh and succulent. Make sure you eat and suck on the head, which is even better than the body. Also comes with roe and uni. But ditch the rice portion, which has a very strange taste.
The Galbijjim is also highly recommended. The butternut puree pairs really well with the tender chunk of soy-glazed short rib. Veggies on the side needed work. Carrots were undercooked and pearl onions could have been more flavorful. Chestnut was cured in soy and treated as a savory component but I think it should have been sweet.
Service was not the traditional friendly type but more lighthearted and playful. One hiccup was being served entrees before my friend finished starter (granted he was picking up fish roes one at a time using his chopsticks… I started checking my phone). But the whole evening was a delight thanks to the amazing food and ambience. My friend later texted me and thanked me for picking this spot.
Final note is there's dining section that appears to be a private room with 2 and 4-tops. Who do I have to know to get to sit there?
Goggan does one thing really well: presentation. The food, which is definitely meant to appeal to a Western palette, unfortunately fell short of my expectations. If you're looking for a fulfilling Korean meal, you might as well take the extra commute down to Ktown for something more promising.
Complimentary diced salmon with sweet potato chip – In place of the complimentary small dishes that you usually get at Korean dishes, we were given a mini cup of fish and chip instead. The dish was alright, nothing very memorable.
Steak Tartare – Tartare is always a hit or miss for me, and in this case, it was definitely a miss. The pieces of raw steak was heavily marinated, so much so that I couldn't even taste the meat anymore. I'm usually scared that my tartare will taste too raw, but in this case, it was the complete opposite.
Uni bibimbap – Very colorful and unique take on the classic dish. The rice was a bit hard, thus made mixing the dish very tough. The taste of the seaweed was a bit overbearing, so I couldn't really taste most of the other ingredients. The uni also completely disappeared upon mixing.
Galbijjim – This is one piece of meat braised with various sauces and covered with lots of truffle oil. I really liked how tender the meat was and how well infused the flavors were! The portion is unfortunately super small for the high price.
Overall, I was impressed with the attentive service, the beautiful plating, and the classy cozy ambiance, but I can't say the food is something I would crave. Better to spend your $50 elsewhere.
Goggan, which translates to "food storage" in Korean, is a Korean fusion restaurant in the heart of Theater District. While you won't experience a typical Korean cuisine at Goggan, the restaurant offers delicious fusion food meant to appease the Western appetite.
My friend and I shared the Galbijjim and Sea Urchin Bibimbap. The Galbijjim is a long-cut short ribs braised with maison soy broth and served with pearl onions, carrots, beech mushrooms, and chestnuts with butternut squash puree. The dish is served with a huge bone on top as a decoration. I loved the crispy dried jujube (date) as well as the sweet butternut squash puree. The meat was extremely tender, but that also meant it was quite fatty. The portion is a bit on the smaller side, especially considering the price.
The Sea Urchin Bibimbap was a pretty unique dish made with organic quinoa and rice topped with sea urchin, flying fish roe, seaweed puree, perilla, kimchi, chives, and micro green. The dish is really pretty when presented, but when you mix it up, it doesn't look too delicious. But don't be fooled by how it looks! I was happy with the amount of sea urchin. However, there was way too much sesame oil (and oil in general) so I didn't like how greasy and unhealthy it tasted.
We ordered the Hotoek Fondue for dessert. It came with four, halved hand rolled and pan-roasted sweet rice gnocchi served with red bean chocolate paste, walnut, cracked hazelnut, cinnamon and brown sugar dipping. I wished it had more of the chewy, glutinous dough because four slices were way too small. The chocolate dipping sauce tasted more like nutella and lacked the red bean flavor that I was craving.
The food here is really good, but oh my god, is it expensive. So expensive, I can't afford to go back. The place is super cute. Very romantic. There's a table next to a wall with a shuttered window. Super cute.
If you want Korean food, then don't come here. This place uses Korean food and smoosh it with French cuisine to create a new fusion type of food. It's definitely an interesting take on two very different cuisines. We experimented a beef medallion dish, an uni bibimbap dish, bone marrow, and pork belly. The beef was really tender and flavorful (almost like pulled pork). The bibimbap was very interesting, although I could barely taste the uni after it was mixed. I didn't enjoy the pork belly that much as it was a little dry and didn't like the apple bits with pork. We tried the green tea tiramisu for dessert and it was ok. The green tea flavor was very subtle. We also received a sorbet dessert sampler for free, so that was nice. The chefs paid very close attention to the details of the dish, so i have to applaud them for plating so well.
I am always looking for new Korean places and I stumbled upon this one on Resto Row. I was a bit apprehensive at first since I typically do not enjoy fusion since it is neither here nor there and find it somewhat indecisive. Goggan has a warm welcoming decor. Kind of shabby chic which was fun. in terms of the dishes, they had French twists on Korean classics. I enjoyed my preliminary experience but would like to return a second time to get a good sense for the menu.
Very good! Had no idea what to expect. Had reservations and they seated us immediately. Place wasn't pack but started to fill up during our time there. They started us off with potato chip and salmon tartare. It was delicious …. I would of liked more! We had the Galbi steak and Goggan ramen. Both very good. The steak was so tender and loved the Swiss chard served with it. The ramen was perfect for a cold night! The waiter asked a few times after I ordered if I liked spicy (I do) but because he asked more than once I started to wonder how spicy would it be? It wasn't even spicy …. I'd consider it flavorful. Overall great meal and service.
KenScale: 8.5/10
My mom has been in town for a while and I figured I should take her to a Korean restaurant at least once to see how the Korean food is doing in NYC. There has been a lot of promotional activities for Korean food sponsored by the previous Korean government, and the profile of Korean food has certainly grown in America over time. It's just that Manhattan doesn't necessarily offer the greatest collection of Korean restaurants (even more so in K-Town where you don't have to have a great restaurant to be successful since there will always be a mob of Korean, Chinese and other curious American crowds flooding the neighborhood). I do feel like Goggan is an exception. While on my previous visit I thought this was more of a New American restaurant disguised as a Korean one, my return visit with my mom was just as pleasant as last time.
While Goggan doesn't display the kind of flair that places like Jungsik in TriBeCa shows, the consistent level of execution and clean flavor are the winning formula at this modern Korean restaurant nearby Times Square. The mushroom salad with kale and sesame dressing doesn't really look like "muchim" salad dish in Korea, but nevertheless I had a lot to like about the nice balance of flavor. Seafood scallion pancake with shrimp, oyster, scallop and calamari also had richness to the flavor without being overly heavy and all the seafood worked together quite well. Grilled Flatiron steak with pickled moo, scallion and ssamjang was prepared more or less perfect medium rare to display the meat's juicy, tender texture and I really liked how the meat wasn't over-seasoned with salt and other condiments to potentially undermine the texture. The highlight of the night was the simple-looking bibimbap, which has over time become a popular dish even among Americans after Korean BBQ. The assortment of beef, carrot, zucchini, bean sprout, spinach, shiitake mushroom and egg was spot on, and I absolutely loved how the texture of rice was just sticky enough to make sure all the ingredients came together at once. I am always a fan of a nice bibimbap dish, and the one at Goggan was definitely a winner. After a satisfactory meal, my mom and I ended with delightfully refreshing omija (five-flavor berry) sorbet.
Getting a reservation at Goggan doesn't still seem too difficult, although the restaurant was starting to fill up in the course of our meal. I tried the hwayo (premium soju) cocktail with yuja and tonic water and it had clean flavor to go along with the dishes. My mom lamented how it is hard to truly display the authentic Korean culinary experience in an American metropolis like New York but she saw a lot of promise from a modernized version that can appeal to broader audience in the country. I do feel Goggan has a lot of promise to make that happen and hope this place continues to draw more attention and thrives among extremely selective New York diners.