Pocha 32

famous for army stew and the fruit soju!
now it’s full of all kinds of ppl so you don’t need to know Korean to eat there
(there’s a bouncer at the door though)

Pocha is definitely one of my favorites in KTown. It’s definitely a bit pricey for the quality of the food. For example, the scallion pancake is not the best but it’s still $ 15. But the food is certainly yummy enough to accompany the drinks. The watermelon soju is awesome. They not carry the flavored soju (DIFFERENT from soju cocktails). These flavored bottles are slightly less alcoholic but much smoother. Of course, if you want to have a true Korean night, you have to buy some beer and soju and mix them together! The atmosphere is great. The workers are pretty friendly but they will be on your ass about your ID.

I love this place! The décor is simple, but well-​executed to create a unique, urban asian-​inspired and comfortable atmosphere. The menu offers a variety of Soju and common korean dishes at reasonable prices. The waiter/​waitress starts you off with a plate of carrots and dip.
The Squid Soondae is SOOO good. It is an entire squid, stuffed with pork and served on a hot plate with a classic korean sauce and vegetables. There is enough food to share between two people — I highly recommend this dish if you’re a fan of seafood or squid at all.
The Watermelon Soju at $ 29 is actually a sizable portion. It sounds kind of pricey, but it is a decent amount of alcohol. I was able to share this between three people and we had plenty to go around.
Would love to come back here!

Watermelon soju all the way! They literally carve out an entire watermelon and blend the fresh juice with the alcohol. I’m not sure if this is a Korea or NYC thing, but what an awesome idea. I wish I had this back home in SF! It was so good we ordered 4 of them.
My friends also ordered food, which tasted pretty good. It was pricey though, except the ramen. I wouldn’t come here just for the food as there are better and cheaper options around, but definitely for the watermelon soju.

I must have been drunk from the watermelon soju the first time. The second time around, the food here was just alright. Just standard, mediocre Korean food. I mainly like the place for the watermelon soju but it’s not enough of a draw for me to come back again.

Great food and the watermelon soju served in a watermelon is the best meal for a drunken night… The décor is a bit absurd but it works…
One complaint is that they’re quite stingy on the kim chee… Those costs nothing to make, you don’t just bring one minidish for a table of 8…
Other than that everything is amazing… The squid and tripe dish stands out!

Whenever I am visiting NYC, some how I always end up in Koreatown… and a third of the time it’s here!
This is a great place to start off your night or end your long night. It’s located right in the middle of K-​town. Look for the sign or you might miss it, because it’s on the 2^nd floor and you have to go up a long flight of stairs to get there. There’s always a long line during prime eating and drinking hours. It’s great for big groups but it WILL get busy.
It’s a great place to have a few drinks and good Korea food! I love the set up because they are all round tables, so we tend to end up playing games around the table as we enjoy each other’s company and the delicious meal. — grab a full meal, small plates, or just drink.
Watermelon soju!!! Do it. Its half of a large watermelon blended with soju (add an extra bottle if you want) and served with ice — definitely share! It’s better than most places that have watermelon soju and it’s in a great setting to enjoy with your friends. Have fun!

Went to greet my SO after he was done with work, and since we were taking the PATH from Broadway & 32^nd, we decided to make a quick stop at Pocha 32. It was my treat (for a snack, not a full blown dinner) and I should’ve made a better decision. I’ve been trying to introduce traditional Korean food, including street food, so I initially thought Pocha wouldn’t be a bad idea. I’ve been here a handful of times since my college years.
I decided to make common street food/​dish choices to see if SO would like it before committing to a Korean ramen. He seemed to like it somewhat, but at $ 10, Pocha should’ve thrown in better ingredients. The ramen was as if they just randomly picked some veggies and threw it in a pot to justify the $ 9 extra adjustment. What I hate about going to Korea places to drink is that you simply can’t just «drink» — you have to order some food bc places like Pocha don’t have bars. It’s similar to their concept of coffee shops — you go there to hang more than just a coffee filling. Bangia was a disappointment and Pocha is not much better and it’s still as mediocre as it was years ago. The steamed dumplings were even worse than the ramen — I know these are the ones from frozen packets and cost about $ 5 for a bag of 50s or more. Couldn’t you at least cook ‘em better? Some of them were rock hard on the edges because it wasn’t fully cooked. Ugh. I tore off those pieces before feeding them to my SO.
As my SO said, the wall of drawings on napkins on chopstick wrappers and napkins are not only unsanitary, but also a huge fire hazard — it’s a scary thought when you see the waiters lugging around gel stoves to tables and a ton of drunk people digging into lit uneven pots.
The food could be so much better — for such simple dishes. tsk tsk. Even with the suspected heaps of MSG in all the foods, it just lacks the deep flavor that I so love about Korean food. The terrible and likely unsafe/​expired ingredients that are covered by spice and heat is such a huge turn off. Not sure when I’ll be here next — this place works well for big groups for a casual soju night out, but nothing more.

I haven’t been here in a couple years… what happened to the watermelon soju? It used to be amazing with the sweetness of the fruit and icy cold soju being mixed together. Please bring back the right ratio! So, we just ordered regular soju.
I really like the environment and it’s just fun. The music is loud, it’s dark and you sit around a table just catching up with friends. The mussel soup was good, and the corn cheese was excellent.

Everything was fine, nothing especially good or bad.
The service was fine. Tables were crowded but that’s to be expected. We had the bulgoki rice, seafood pancake, squid, soldier stew, and pineapple sawa. All were ok. Nothing was especially memorable.
And there’s a steady stream of customers so once you stop eating, they will definitely rush you out.

ONE OF THE BEST LATE NIGHT KOREAN EATERIES EVER.
Seriously, though, if you are craving ramen or bulgogi at night, they are your one stop shop. Plus, many sources have told me that their watermelon soji is unbeatable, served in a half watermelon bowl. The place is super authentic, with many Korean visitors. It’s super hole-​in-​the wall but I love it. The boodae jungol is this hodgepodge of delicious goodness (ramen, hot dogs, rice cakes, cheese, and more!)
5% discount on your bill if you pay in cash!

I could totally picture drinking here. IF I lived in New York. Cool ass vibe and good food. The only two things that matter when you go to a sool jip. It reminded me of a little pojang macha in Korea or something. It was packed on a friday night, ordered some Spicy Mussel Soup along with the Grilled spicy pork belly with veggies. Couple bottles of soju and that was my experience there.
As with everything in NY parking is a bitch im from outta town so yeah it was stressful finding a place to park but I made it work.

Pocha Pocha Pocha. I love this place. Located right in the heart of 32^nd St, Pocha has this appeal on an upper floor with tables and a tables to share with your friends and low ceilings covered with chopstick wrappers. Not like your Korean bars in California, Pocha definitely has great appeal for a night out with friends in the city that never sleeps. I stumbled here with friends at around 2:30 AM to remember that hey, we ate dinner about 8 hours ago, so it’s a great idea to eat and continue drinking till the wee hours of the morning in the Big Apple.
FOOD: Most memorable food of that night was the scallion pancake. Definitely one of the best I have had and especially good to help get something in that stomach (that is probably just alcohol …). Fried to perfection and filled with so much scallion goodness inside giving it that real earthy taste that is refreshing. The oil is a little heavy, but it adds an aroma to the pancake. Definitely worth it!
DRINK: Pineapple soju and watermelon soju. OK. The watermelon is definitely what people get here and for good reason. You think, hey, I am drinking watermelon juice, only to figure out when it’s too late that it is spiked with lots of soju. The pineapple was alright, but definitely watermelon is the way to go.

Really cute spot! Gets busy so go earlier. They mainly have big round tables that seat like 4 – 6.
Their stuffed grilled squid was so good! I’m such a sucker for grilled squid so I’m glad I found the spot. I looked around and a lot of people were getting the watermelon and pineapple sojus.
Also décor is so cute! Reminds me of a lot of places in Asia

Small Korean restaurant in k –town. Nothing fancy but kind of charming in its super casual décor of wall filled with paper and ceiling filled with hanging bottle caps.
PRO TIP: Try the watermelon or pineapple soju, but bring a friend.

Finally had some food at Pocha! We ordered the Boo Dae Jji Gae ($ 27) WHICH IS INSANELY GOOD and the Gochu Pa Jun ($ 15) which was meh. Come for dinner and get the boodae jjigae! Also their quoted wait time is always around 1.5−2x longer than it actually is, FYI.
Also went to some other pochas nearby and they suck. #pocha32forever

What sold me to this place was the watermelon soju, honestly. I never had it, but the pictures looked amazing!
I went here during the weekend with a couple of friends around 5 pm on a Thursday. It was kind of early, so there was plenty of seats. They play korean music videos on giant flat screen TV’s, which I didn’t mind. Some of the songs were pretty catchy. We ordered the yogurt soju and the watermelon soju. They tasted great! Then again, I never had it so I had no expectations.
However, these drinks are shareable. The watermelon soju is of course a bigger portion, so I would recommend sharing it with a larger group of people (Maybe 4 – 6, like someone else mentioned?). I think it was around $ 27? The yogurt soju is definitely sharable among a small group of people. On Thursdays, I think drinks were 20% percent off, as long as you pay cash, which is great! I’m all in for cheaper drinks!
We mostly just ordered appetizers. We ordered the sweet potato fries (which were massive fries), corn cheese and the seafood pancake. IF YOU HAVE NOT TRIED CORN CHEESE, DEFINITELY GET IT. YOU WILL NOT REGRET IT AND YOU WILL THANK ME! (Sorry for those that are lactose intolerant, you’re missing out!) It’s basically corn and melted cheese. The cheese was super cheesy and it had that stretch factor. You know, the one you see on commercials and wondering how high it can go? Yep, it went pretty high.
The seafood pancake was also good! Definitely recommend it, as well.
I will probably come back for drinks and try their other appetizers.
But, check this place out especially for the watermelon and yogurt soju experience. And you can’t forget about corn cheese! It’s the bombbbbbb!

Fun place for a group to grab some late night eats in K Town!
This place seems like a pretty popular place for late night revelers — seems like it’s always packed. During peak times there’s often a wait, but they have a pretty convenient texting system to notify you when your table is ready. They got a pretty groovy vibe/​décor inside –as you walk in you’ll notice hanging nets on the ceiling with strung out Christmas lights, and then the walls are covered in tied chopstick wrappers.
Favorites here that you’ll often see people ordering here are the watermelon soju — cutely served in a cored out half watermelon and served with a ladle. They have an analogous pineapple soju that is quite good as well. Last time we were here we ordered the budae jjigae («army stew»). Basically it’s a soup with a Korean base with a bunch of random stuff added to it — spam, hotdog, macaroni, ramen, cheese, etc etc… sounds a bit crazy, but it’s quite good! Other food is alright, but nothing mind blowing.
5% off if you pay in cash… with credit cards, can split across a maximum of 4 cards. Not a food destination, but definitely would come back if look for a late night hangout or meal!

The decoration at Pocha 32 is really creative, there are lights hanging on the ceiling and chopsticks wrappers tied on nets in the side. The Food and drinks/​alcohol beverages is relative good here but expect service to suck if you’re not Korean. The two times I’ve been here it took forever for them to take my order and I see them going to all the Korean speakers first.
I really like their fruit sojus, over the summer I had my first watermelon soju and was not a high amount of alcohol which is good for someone who doesn’t have a high tolerance with alchol and the second time I had the Melon soju which I liked even more. They put in a bar of melona ice cream bar and they scoped honeydews.
My favorite is the squid soondae which is squid and pork belly, boodae jungol which is like a pot mixed with kimchi, spam, hotdog, pork, ramen, rice cake, mushroom, vegetables and cheese and the spicy rice cake.
*Take note if you have a weak stomach try not to mix too much of the food, soup and soju.
I would come back regardless of the service because the food is pretty good but not on a day if I’m having a bad day since I would be even more pissed from all waiting.

Overall a cool, hip place to hang out with friends and split a watermelon soju (not sure if they reuse the watermelon rinds or not and also not sure how I feel about that). The reason for this review is because the food was just average (we had the beef bibimbop). Second and most importantly, one of the waiters/​bus boys had extremely bad body odor; I felt nauseous and lost my appetite for the night.
Whenever he had to pass by, I seriously had to hold my breath or my nose so I wouldn’t catch a whiff of his stench. I have never been to a restaurant where the scent of one of the staff members was so unpleasant. When we looked around the dining area, we could see other people’s disgusted facial expressions after noticing the bad smell as well.
Plus, the watermelon soju was overpriced. Half of it has ice cubes and it is very watered down. It has very little alcohol and two people could easily finish it together.