For someone (ahem, me) who loves my Korean food as much as Japanese and French, I certainly have been neglecting my appetite for Korean cuisine. My last eat out for Korean food was in… September 2016! Gasp.

And because of that, when my friends suggested Italian for a recent meet up, I counter-proposed with Korean. And I am thankful they were up for it! 1 clique cannot have more than 1 picky eater. Luckily I am the only one. Haha.

As taken from Wangdaebak POCHA’s website, it’s opened by the same owners of Wangdaebak Korean BBQ. And POCHA is an abbreviation of Korean words that translates to ‘Korean street food wagon’.

Reservation was made for a Saturday dinner. However, the problematic issue about dining in Telok Ayer area on weekends was the parking. It’s very difficult! My friend took almost 30 minutes to find a lot, although my other friend was luckier; Parked within 10 minutes.

The interior decor of Wangdaebak POCHA was designed to reminisce the Korean street scene back in 70’s and 80’s. It was also after our dinner that I realised (from their Facebook page) that one could also borrow Korean games to play.

And from the dinner menu (pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5), we ordered:-

1) Corn in mayonnaise, Complimentary (above) – This only came complimentary with the order of certain dishes.

2) Kimchi soup, $17 (small) (above) – There’s pork, tofu, glass noodle in the soup too.

3) Honey soya chicken, $22 (above) – Crispy fried chicken in honey soya sauce. I wasn’t too pleased to see shoestring fries occupying half of the served plate. But that said, I thought the chicken was not too bad. Though I wish they were more generous with the pickled radish cubes (not pictured).

4) Spicy pork knuckle, $43 (above) – Homemade pork knuckle with special spicy sauce. This was really spicy. Even for my friends who take spicy food. But because it was oddly addictive, I was washing the sauce off the pork knuckle with my soup before consuming in order to save my tongue from the spiciness. Haha.

5) Spicy pork belly with baby octopus, $39 (above) – This should cook in less than 10 minutes. Am mentioning this because my friends and I were so engrossed in our conversation and eating the other dishes that it took us almost 20 minutes to realise our gas stove’s canister was low on gas. Haha. It suddenly dawned on us that something was amiss because our neighbouring tables ordered the same dish and they were already halfway tucking into their cooked pork belly and baby octopus while our dish refused to be cooked despite mixing it continuously. And I enjoyed this dish. Been watching quite a fair bit of Korean cooking shows and I was craving for baby octopus. So yeah!

6) Ham & pork spicy noodle soup, $39 (above) – And it’s written on the menu that soup refill (second time) is at $3 and extra noodle at $3.

I enjoyed my time much at Wangdaebak Pocha. The set up of the eatery created an ideal ambience for catching up with friends over food and drinks. And for the lucky few who works in the area, lunch menu (pages 1, 2, 3) is available.

However, as Wangdaebak Pocha is for diners to experience the olden days of Korean street scene, do note there’s no grilled items. For BBQ, one would have to head to Wangdaebak Korean BBQ. Which is a good thing cause one wouldn’t leave the eatery reeking of smoke.