Restaurant Review: POPOCHA (포포차)

UPDATED: This location of Popocha has turned into a steak restaurant. There are however, other many other similar style Pocha restaurants, so check out the review if you're curious. I hope to have a review up for the steak place soon, or the place after the steak place... you know how it is.

     Popocha is kind of hard to find if you don't know it's there. If you were to walk by it you might not ever think about going in there, it just looks you usual Korean style restaurant that serves something that you don't know and wouldn't know how to order anyway. However, thanks to Coupang (a website/phone app that sells restaurant food and many other things at discount prices, think Groupon) We decided that this was where we were going to eat on a Friday night. Luckily it turns out that Popocha is much more than meets the eye.

     Popocha has an impressive menu and a self serve salad bar. This salad bar has things that you won't find at other salad bars, namely raw food items and frying pans. You guessed it, you take what you want and cook it up how you like at your table. They have mandu, eggs, ramen, ddeokpoki, kimch pancake batter and more. As for the menu, they have some great sounding dishes. Everything is in Korean though, which might make it hard to order. That's why I went ahead and translated eveything for you. Here you go, click the pictures for full size.

My translation might not be textbook correct.

But it will get the job done. Remember to read the Romanization with Korean in mind.

     We had a deal from Coupang for the Steak Combo Set and the Dad's Chicken. But next time (and there will be a next time) I must try what I think are fish and chips. Or the fish steaks. I don't know, the mini skewers sound good too. Anyway, back to my article...

     The food was excellent and we even considered ordering more, but after the two main dishes, the salad bar food, and the copious amounts of beer and soju that we had, our group of five was stuffed to capacity. Our table was also stuffed to capacity. The restaurant was pretty busy and all of the six-person tables were full, the server sat us at a circle table that seemed big enough at first, but when the food and glasses came out, we had very little room and things were spilled as the dishes were jostled for space.

Here's Rich showing us how to make proper scrambled eggs. This was after we had finished and cleared away the main dishes.

     In the end, we had a good time and I know that we'll come back to try out some of the other menu items and cook up some other salad bar creations. You should stop by and see what you can make.

Final Review: 4/5

(About my scores.)

Location: Popocha is located downtown in an alley off of Dongseong-ro 4-gil (Rodeo street/club street) just past Club Frog. Here's a picture.

Club Frog is on the right. Popocha is on the left where that guy in a red vest is standing.

And here's a map.


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