Jane C
Google
My husband and I visited Soosanghan Kotdaeji some time ago and had such a blast that we decided to try this spot, the presumed sister restaurant.
Our TLDR take: Yikes, what a bust.
'Pocha' is short for a Korean outdoor tent bar, and you can see that as soon as you approach. There's a heated outdoor space that closely resembles a Koraen pojangmacha, complete with metal tables, low slung chairs, and lots of soju advertisements. We sat in the indoor space, which was attractively dark with fun bar vibes.
For all the ambiance, the food was disappointing. I love a good seafood pancake. When well-prepared, it's fried hard in a pan, making for a crispy exterior with tender bits of seafood on the inside. Here, an unfavorably fishy smell accompanied its arrival to our table, making me wonder about the freshness of this seafood. It was surprisingly gummy and mochi-like in texture, making me think it must've been prepared with a sticky rice flour instead of regular flour. At a whopping $25, this felt like a poor menu choice.
Our spicy pork entree - the jeyyuk bokkeum - was another disaster. While the taste was spot on (and surprisingly spicy!), it's tough to call this a meat dish. Though it comes in a large platter, the serving was almost laughably bereft of actual meat, consisting mostly of filler cabbage, cooked kimchi, and onions. Trying to find any meat in the pile felt like a futile treasure hunt, and at $27, a truly questionable value.
Food compunctions aside, service was great. Food came in a timely manner and our water jug was refilled promptly as needed (much needed to calm the spice alarms from the pork).
