I love the idea of Korean food, like all Singaporeans influenced by the K-wave soft power. However, I find Korean food to actually be quite similar after a while, even in Korea, as a lot of their food relies on the sweet/spicy sauce. However, I was intrigued when popular Korean street food restaurant POCHA! invited me to try the menu featuring food from all parts of Korea, not just Seoul, in July in JEM. This menu style might no longer be available, but the dishes will remain largely intact I think!
We started with some Sundubu Jiggae (S$15.90) which was warm, comforting and came with plenty of ingredients including an entire block of soft tofu. Nothing mind-blowing, but decent. It was a great way to warm us up for what's to come! 3.5/5
The Jjajangmyeon ($13.90) was a bit strange though. The thick black sauce DID NOT taste like normal jjajang sauce. Instead it was quite watery and had a strong peanut taste. While the noodles were nice and bouncy, I was quite disturbed by the sauce. 2/5
The Daejeon Seafood Kalguksu ($16.90) was a bit bland, not gonna lie, after the prior dishes. It felt like something someone would order if they are looking for a super light dish to soothe the stomach. However, all the seafood inside were pretty fresh and you could taste the seafood flavour in the soup. Noodles were pretty average. 3/5
One of my favourite was surprisingly this Stir-Fried Octopus ($14.90) which was spicy (not overbearing) and slightly sweet. The strong fllavoured sauce and soft onions went perfectly with the bouncy baby octopi. 4.5/5
I also really enjoyed this Stir-Fried Chicken With Cheese ($13.90) which was my friend's favourite. The cheese was melty on the hot plate, and the chicken chunks were tender and coated with a similar spicy sweet sauce. 4/5
We also tried the Busan Gukbap ($20.90) which was the most expensive dish on the menu. It came hot and bubbling on the stone pot - did not look like much, but we could all taste the 12 hours that were put into simmering the pork belly! The generous chunks of soft pork belly had a distinctive porky taste - not gamey, but some people might not be a fan. For me, that was fine. I liked this dish quite a bit! 4/5
Lastly we had the Rose Tteokbokki ($12.90) which was also very satisfying because there were pork belly slices mixed in and the sauce was balanced between creamy and spicy. 4/5
We ended the meal with a refreshing yuzu sorbet ($3.90) - there was only 1 portion by the time we got to it, so their food does run out!
The restaurant had a bit of a queue at around 7pm on a weekday, indicating its popularity.
I appreciate that POCHA! is bringing craveable Korean street food to Singapore at wallet-friendly prices. While a few of their dishes were misses, the general vibe and quality of their stir-fried dishes and stews are there. I would still recommend them as a place to go if you have Korean food craving and do not want to spend too much!
🙅 Thank you, next
🤷 Try if you are in the area ✔️
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POCHA! Korean Street Food Dining
50 Jurong Gateway Rd, #03-05/06 Moon Moon Food (JEM), Singapore 608549
Open daily from 11.30am to 10pm
Thanks to POCHA! for the invite!
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