곰탕집 GomTangJip — Restaurant in Palisades Park

I ordered their signature dish, the gomtang. It came out with rice already mixed in — I was shocked. I've been to countless Korean restaurants, and this is the first time I've ever seen rice served already inside the gomtang. It wasn't even mentioned on the menu, and the staff didn’t ask me about it when I ordered.

To make matters worse, gomtang is supposed to be a light beef soup, but this was unbearably salty. I couldn't eat it. I don’t even understand why there was salt on the table when the soup was already way too salty — it tasted like they had dumped salt into it.

The bowl was so big that it was hard to scoop up the rice. The broth wasn't rich or flavorful at all. They gave me a tiny portion of kimchi — seriously, it was like the size of a fingertip. The meat in the soup? Just a few small pieces. The whole thing looked like dog food.

I came here because the reviews were so good, but I was honestly stunned. For the same price, I'd rather go to Tosokchon and get their sundae-guk or pork soup — way better. I usually eat at Tosokchon, but decided to try somewhere new this time. Big mistake.

Maybe they serve this kind of salty soup to appeal to foreigners, but this isn’t gomtang. The spoon and bowl were nice, but the food? Not even worth $5. Total...

I had a really enjoyable meal at Gomtangjip! The service was quick and friendly, and the restaurant was well lit and clean feeling.

On the side, we were given napa and radish kimchi and marinated onions/peppers. The kimchi was fresh and you could tell that it wasn't marinated for a long time so the flavor was lighter and less fermented (personal taste. I personally prefer it to be more sour/fermented but it was still enjoyable regardless.)

The seafood pancake was a good size and was cut in fourths. It was $5, a good value. The prices of everything else were fair and for the price it was a very enjoyable meal.

I ordered the Dogani-tang, one of my favorite dishes. I enjoyed it, they were pretty generous with the amount of meat that they serve. My friends ordered the kalbitang and the gomtang supreme and enjoyed it but have had better elsewhere.

Overall I would return again if I were...

I went during my lunch break with family. We were a table of 4. A table of 2 was seated after us and given water. We didn't get water until almost 15 minutes later. The table of 2 got their order in before us and got their food before we were able to order. There was 1 server who was nice but I couldn't even dare ask for more kimchi because there were more people waiting to be seated at open tables. We never got the jeon we ordered.

For the service we received, this restaurant is not worth trying for a 2nd time. I usually give new places a second try but the food isn't worth a 2nd chance. The server is extremely sweet but can't keep up which is why I gave 2 stars instead of 1.

To the owners: if the plan is to only have 1 server during peak hours then I would suggest making this a...