Daehan Gopchang 대한곱창 — Restaurant in Fort Lee

Some bad reviews made me hesitant to try out this restaurant for over a year. And after today’s visit, I kind of understand why this decent gopchang restaurant fails to satisfy some guests.

Overall, my dining experience was very good. The food was excellent and the server put in decent effort to cook our meats properly. All sauces were distinctively tasty. Yes, I will come back in near future for sure.

But I would not come back during busy times. I can see how my dining experience can quickly deteriorates here during busy hours. The meat cooking process is very labor intensive and there is no way to keep it up during busy times.

And I will not get any takeout orders here. I just can’t see how their version of gopchang can possibly taste good 1 hr after they seared them.

3 orders of mixed gopchang costed me $108 plus tip (about $45 per person including tips and tax) so it was a relatively budget-friendly table-side Korean...

I used to stop by here occasionally during my visits in NYC but I’ll no longer be eating here again. I ordered gopchang combo as usual. However, when the server finished grilling and I took a bite of gopchang, I literally thought i was chewing rocks and sand. I told the server and asked what this is and he had no idea. He says that he’ll ask the kitchen and came back with “kitchen has no idea either”. Eventually, I found out that they didn’t clean the food thoroughly as gopchang requires a lot of cleaning before it’s served as food. To me, this means that they don’t maintain the kitchen in clean and chances are the food that is being served might not have been washed correctly before serving. The server tried to replace gopchang with another one and offered free soda but I had already lost my appetite and could not eat anymore. This place was great when they first opened but has gotten worse with taste and sanitation...

Food was good. In fact, their best meat was samgyupsal. However, one big downside. They require you for some reason to order gobchang. Their logic is that we take up a “gobchang grill” so we have to order 2 portions minimum before ordering other types of meat. Doesn’t really make sense to me. The grill doesn’t look any different than a regular kbbq grill.

Feedback for management - get rid of this unnecessary rule. You have other good meats that paying customers want to order. What does it matter what specifically I order as long as I order some meat? You get the same money - the price you set on your menu. Not everyone wants to be stuck with the choice of ordering gobchang or eating at the all-you-can-eat side and paying more.

Food was good but being made to order something I don’t want left a bad taste...