Hongdae Pocha BBQ Sydney — Restaurant in Sydney

With only its breeze block bar visible at the rear of one of Central Park’s residential towers, Hongdae Pocha BBQ is not the easiest spot to locate. It makes up for the discretion on the outside with flashy neon, pulsating tunes, and the convivial chatter of group tables barbecuing up a storm, within. We’re here for the pocha (pojangmacha)—Korean street food cart—side of things, so get seated at a metal table without any ventilating hardware.

Named for a neighbourhood in Seoul that’s known for its nightlife, Hongdae is a Vuza Hospitality Group venue. They’re the mob behind the short-lived Funda—which I liked very much—and Buttered next door, who made a splash with their Korean salt bread. The kitchen here is in the capable hands of Haeseung Choi (ex-Firedoor). He’s having fun with gochujang wagyu yukhoe ($18/2), piling the spicy beef tartare dotted with sesame seeds and cubes of nashi pear, onto lowbrow hash browns. Tumbling out of a ramen cup, a column of fried rice and ramen noodles ($15) topped with grilled cheese screams late night stoner food. The rice mixture is moist and well-seasoned, the richness broken by tiny cubes of pickled radish. Creamy Queensland prawns make the saewoo minari jeon ($24) here one of my favourite crisp pancakes about town.

The flavour of Queensland cuttlefish gets a bit lost in the red intensity of osambulgogi ($45). Teaming shreds of pork belly with rice cakes, baby king brown mushrooms and baby bok choy, it’s best eaten wrapped up in a perilla leaves with juicy bean sprouts. NeoulBom makgeolli ($18), plucked from a list of four, is your best way to put out the fire without the addition of artificial sweeteners. Saero soju ($19) is a sugar-free way to get drunk, punctuated with pieces of Korean fried chicken ($19) and daikon...

Recommended items: Kkotsal/beef short rib very marbled and delicious, but the portion was small for the price compared to other places. Can't go wrong with the poktan/steamed egg. Freshly cooked and great flavour Hangjeongsal was a nice, cheap cut with decent marinade.

Chimasal was promoted on social media as 'the best Butcher's cut'. The meat was tender, but there wasn't much marbled fat. Not for me, but some people may like this cut.

The wagyu yukhoe on hash brown sounds nice on paper, but you get warm, spicy yukhoe on a soggy hash brown. I prefer the regular, refreshing yukhoe topped with egg and vegetables.

The fried chicken portions were freshly cooked and crunchy, but chicken portions were small with lots of breading, more breading than other places.

The pork jowl should be prepared more thinly for the meat to cook better.

Rib finger had great flavour but was abit chewy. I suspect that the lower MB5 grade is a factor. If they went with MB8+, the cut won't be as chewy.

I would give 5/5 for customer service. The staff were lovely and are more lively compared to other KBBQ places.

If you pay with cash, the bill is 5% off if the bill...

My partner and I heard about this place from a friend of ours and we decided to give it a try last night. Since we arrived at 7pm there was a 30min wait for BBQ which was understandable. We ordered the Ganjang KFC, jeyuk bokkeum, kimchi udong and the galbi gopchang jeongol.

The fried chicken was juicy and tender, and the jeyuk bokkeum had a good, lightly spicy flavour but for $25, very little pork belly was given. Similar to the jeyuk bokkeum, the kimchi udong tasted fine but the portion was very small for the price of $22.

At first the galbi gopchang jeongol was fine, the cabbage, udon noodles and galbi pieces were mostly tasty and tender. But then we got to the gopchang. Each piece we tried had grainy, bitter insides. We started to feel sick so we stopped eating the gopchang and ate the rest of the galbi gopchang jeongol.

We both have diarrhea the next day after eating here. We're not sure if it's because of the gopchang but I would advise caution if you are to order it. There is a chance you may be spending all morning on the toilet like us.

Overall the place was nice and clean, but the dishes that were not KBBQ were a...