Goshen (고센) — Restaurant in Northfield Township

Where do I even start? I LOVE Korean food and Korean pubs serve some of the best. Why? Because Koreans love to drink and the food has to be good to keep the drink flowing. Goshen (formerly Jurang) is one of the longest-standing Korean pubs in the Glenview area. It's an OG spot. IYKYK. The management changed in August and it changed for the better. Jurang was the most popping pub pre-Covid, but like many restaurants, it never bounced back up after Covid. Goshen kept all the crowd favorites from the Jurang days and added some new bangers to the menu. The new owner is seriously the sweetest and most thoughtful person and the very few staff on the weekend ROCKS! If you get a chance to talk to them, you can tell they're all passionate about creating a place where people can vibe, enjoy good food, and be in the moment. The space is HUGE. When you walk in, there are private booths with curtains if you're feeling a chill, more private vibe. If you keep walking, it opens up into a completely different vibe. It's spacious, open, and LIT. There's even a cute backdrop for a little photoshoot with your friends. They also offer a live DJ on weekends. So many fun events every month. The owner keeps making upgrades and changes for the better which I love to see. I REALLY want this place to thrive and stay open for a LONG time. It's such a great spot whether you're coming for a quiet dinner or to have a party with your squad. They also have private karaoke rooms in different sizes. Small room: $30/hr (fits up to 4 people). Medium room: $40/hr (fits up to 8, and is way more spacious than the small one. It's worth the extra $10). Large room: $60/hr (fits up to 20 people). Party Room: $150/hr (fits up to 50 people and comes with four mics. No mic-fighting here). The large and party rooms can also be connected through Bluetooth so you can easily hook up your phone. Now for food, I love Chef Auntie and the Sous Chef's cooking. Some of my recent obsessions are hot stone squid bibimbap (mix it well and let it crisp at the bottom. Add mayo if you're not good with spice. Sounds weird, but TRUST), hot stone kimchi fried rice, braised beef tendon (melts in your mouth and it's huge), bossam (pairs perfectly with their homemade radish kimchi), spicy seafood noodle soup (a classic from the Jurang days. Spicy, flavorful, and with chewy noodles), squid stir-fry (tender, flavorful, bomb. Octopus version slaps too but I'm team squid), gopchang hot pot (best one I've had. They don't skimp on the gopchang. It's thicc, plump, and absolute bonkers). I could go on but my fingers are starting to hurt. A quick list of more faves: squid platter, brisket salad, kimchi pancake, mung bean & brisket, ALL their fried chicken (personal fave: corn), stir-fried kimchi & pork belly, hotteok (Korean sweet pancakes), pineapple sherbet. Oh, and the service is fantastic....

TLDR: You'd be better off going to H-Mart or Joong Boo supermarket if you're craving Korean food. Food was very pricey and below average at best. One dish was missing the vegetables shown in the menu photos. We paid almost $30 per person for a late night dinner (but well before closing time), and we left feeling hungry. I got the impression that Ju Rang is better for drinking and karaoke-ing than for getting food.

The karaoke rooms were full and the dining area was not busy at all.

THE GOOD: 1 star for the decently sized menu, plenty of parking in the front and back, waiter call button, and food was brought out pretty quickly.

THE BAD: Ju Rang cuts corners. If you're used to getting Korean food at a restaurant, Ju Rang will be disappointing.

First, there's no banchan.

Second, I recommend observing their menu photos closely and asking the waiter lots of questions, since the food that comes out may not align with your typical experience of Korean food, or it may not even align with the photos on their menu. 😅

We were very hungry, so unfortunately, we did not notice the menu photo vs actual dish discrepancy until after we finished eating and we no longer had the menu to compare, so we didn't say anything at the time.

At Ju Rang, you will pay for more than what you get. For such a slow night and for the price, I expected more accuracy on the dishes (at least match the menu photos you're advertising) and more care taken into preparing the food.

Due to this experience, I would not recommend Ju Rang for Korean food especially when there's tastier, more consistent, and cheaper options near by.

We ordered...

bossam (ordered the smaller portion of bossam, and it came with exactly 2 lettuce leaves and about 10 or 12 slices of pork. I'm a little confused on how this can qualify as bossam if there's only 2 lettuce leaves)

tteokbokki (sauce had an.. interesting.. Campbell-esque tomato soup base... I didn't enjoy that, but the spice level was good. We ordered it with fried nori, and the fried nori had a slight freezer burn taste)

half corn chicken (we received some irregular parts of the chicken--for example, there were a few random fried chicken joints here and there. I ate the chicken joint so can't really comment on the taste since it's mostly bone)

cheesy corn (this was fine but we've had tastier cheesy corn from other Korean restaurants)

pan fried oysters (I don't recommend this dish. The oysters had an old fishy taste, so probably not the freshest or cleanest)

beef tendon soup (probably the most decent dish we had so far and I liked the sauce that it was served with, but the dish didn't line up with the photo in the menu--Specifically, it was served without enoki mushroom or jalapenos even though the photo has enoki mushrooms...

I was invited to sing some karaoke, not knowing what to expect. Google maps led my Lyft driver here although the numbers above their doors were like 115 and 125, not 611 Milwaukee. I walk in and the atmosphere was pleasant. Gave the hostess the name of my friend and I was led to another area with karaoke rooms. Our room had a long curved bench that could probably hold 6 average sized people comfortably. There were additional chairs on the side. There were only 5 of us so we were good. There was of course, a large screen, speakers, and a remote for controlling the karaoke machine. They givev you a huge Bible of songs but we just used the handheld to load up all the songs we wanted. Two microphones were shared but we just sang outloud anyway. The rating system was weird cause many times it gave us a 00, which we just turned into a 100. Haha. They tried to match the background based on the song choice most of the time it was totally off. My friend ordered all the food so I have no idea what we got. I just know it was all good. My Cosmo drink was not the usual kind but it was good. I did have sips of Soon Hari, which is something I can see myself getting drunk from one day. Overall, a fun place. Bill was about $600, but it was expected, especially with a private room & all the food we ate. Good...