SEORAE JIB (TAMPINES MALL) — Restaurant in Singapore

Can we eat Pocha! food in Seorae? Today, 24/3/24, I reserved table for 4, at Seorae for lunch. Upon reaching, my children were drawn to their other side of their restaurant, Pocha!. As I was standing there, an Indian young man from Pocha!, came forward. I clarified my reservation. He offered my children, we can order "dried" foods like corndogs, fries from Pocha!, as takeaway order, to eat at Seorae. We ordered corn dogs & fries, then went seated at Seorae.

We did our order of meat, skewers & drinks at Seorae. The corndogs & fries arrived. James offered to remove the lids off the plastic boxes our Pocha! food were presented in, the lady cashier came & objected to James' actions. She said this was not allowed, if customers want to eat , let them open themselves. And this was not to be allowed in the first place. I witnessed it & after the lady spoke to James, she came to me & repeated that this is & was to be the only time I would be allowed to order from Pocha! and to eat Pocha!'s food at Seorae.

I was not happy. I replied that I was offered to have it, not that I requested at the first place. She then told me it was OK, she understands that children like Korean street food. She walked off & I decided to just let it slide.

But it was not the case for this lady, she kept going on telling every other server in the restaurant that because of me starting to have the corndog in Seorae, some other patrons were requesting for it to. And "we" = Seorae cannot allow it. As though, her verbal objection was not enough, she had to gesture big X with her arms. I also tolerated it as Leonard did a great job, cooking my meats & my children happily tucked in the food, both from Seorae & PoCha!, in Seorae's seated table.

How did I finally lose my cool?

My husband came in just as the meats were cooked. He settled down nicely, started eating too. I didn't mention what we went through but suddenly, he asked, is there something that went wrong earlier because, as his seat is facing the lady cashier's directions, he kept seeing the lady throwing looks & body language as though our table of 4 was offensive to her. In short, she kept throwing dirty side eye balls at us. Her body language was so clear that the next incident happened. I told my husband, yes something happened. I was prepared to let it slide & not mention it. But, I cannot keep quiet anymore.

Next to us, a table of 4 sat down. They wanted to order some food from Pocha!, to eat at Seorae's table. James answered ok. But the lady cashier, till now I really did not bother to take a look at her name, quickly said, loud enough for all to hear, "No, cannot . But because this table (my table) start already, so we just say ok ok. But only for this time!"

All the time, the big arm "X" , the "tsk tsk" sounds and the unhappy side eyeing my table happening at the same time!!!!

At this, I stood up, went to James & ask to clarify how is it that my ordering from Pocha! to eat at Seorae can cause such a bad taste in the lady? Am I really in the wrong? Because I was offered by the Indian young man to order as take away and enjoy it at Seorae. I didn't make any request. James replied was, "Yes. It is allowed. But don't know why the lady always disapproves??"

The newly seated table of 4 next to me looked over, and I naturally shared what I was going through. The lady seated next table shared that she felt the discomfort too, but she thought that she was the cause of it as they wanted to order a soupy noodle. She too felt the daggers the cashier was throwing out.

You know what, the lady cashier came to me, squated by my table & went on a long speech to explain herself. I was seated, she squated, right in the middle of a very unhappy, heated moment.

Please clean up the decision of can or cannot eat Pocha! food in Seorae.

Or clean up the distasteful acts of the lady Cashier.

We end up being very confused as to can we eat Pocha! takeaway in Seorae.

I was made to feel that i did a very sinful thing akin to smuggling outside food into Seorae to eat. When, it is clearly...

When Seorae first opened in Tampines Mall, we wanted to try it because the shop front billboard was enticing. However, last night's experience was first marred by the poor management of my reservation. Despite not being understaffed, we were on time for our reservation, but was told to wait, although several tables were empty and marked reserved. The counter staff told me to wait for some other person to attend to me. When the older lady attended to us, she just told us to sit at the table right at the entrance, and refusing to allow us the corner tables that had been marked reserved, despite my insistence we had reserved for 4 persons online the day before. The lady insisted that those tables were for 6 persons and refused to let us have the reserved tables. As the night passed where we stayed until 945pm, there were no groups of 6 that came to occupy the reserved with 6 seats. Each table only had 4 persons for each reserved table. Why was I refused a table in a corner reserved table when I reserved?

The authenticity of the food is a little below what is expected, but it is to be expected of a chain restaurant found in the heartlands of Singapore. The marinade and sauces are strangely lackluster and authenticity. Banchan (side dishes) are fair, but in traditional Korean restaurants, these are served with greater variety, instead of a self-help counter. The order of the Ultimate Set - the seasoned pork tasted a little odd, as if it was slightly rancid. All 4 of us agreed to the strange taste of that portion. The plain cuts of meats were good. Seasoning was poor for the pork, and it was merely the same chili sauce poured on the plain meat. Haemul Pajeon - completely pales in comparison to other restaurants elsewhere. And it was pale looking and not very tasty. The pricing is similar to better, proper Korean restaurants - for the same price, a better quality and experience can be had elsewhere.

If Singaporeans take the effort to try individual restaurants opened by Koreans along Tanjong Pagar Road, like Guiga and Charim, the taste and experience is closer to that of what you get when you are in Korea, including the hospitality. When you have tasted better, you will know...

Honestly don’t know how this place got 4.5 stars. Biggest gripe is that some cooked dishes were served warm/at room temperature. Would have been better off driving 20minutes to any of the kbbq places in town. At least the restaurants there grill your meat for you or offer to, and might even be cheaper. Honestly the food quality and non existent service doesn’t warrant the price point. Manager tried his best with the service but for the first time in any kbbq restaurant we had to pull down our own exhaust pipe, and note that there were not many customers around.

Hangjeongsal (pork jowl) - the only decent thing on the menu, but also not very fresh as seen in the picture Samgyeobsal (black pork belly) - taste is fine but tastes just like normal pork belly Galmaegisal (signature) - tough Tteokbokki (rice cake) - this was served at room temperature and the tteokbokki had a hard layer on the outside? Kimchi jeon (kimchi pancake) - also served at room temperature and pancake was soggy Sundubu jjigae (tofu stew) - tastes like chili soup, had only 1 clam which had no clam meat, never seen zucchini cut so thick in sundubu jjigae before. The rice that came with it was hard?? Rice is the most basic thing and it was hard? Gyeran jjim (steamed egg) - quite bland but acceptable Kkochi (skewers) - just stay away from this, $23 for 5 sticks, meat was rolled in so many layers it was impossible for the under layers to be cooked. We ended up with very burnt outsides and undercooked insides, and we had to unroll all the meat to cook the underlayers Peach tea - fine Yuzu tea - looked (colour) and tasted like ice lemon tea - when we inquired with the staff she told us it was yuzu tea and she could see the yuzu skin in the tea, sure but still, tastes like lemon tea Side dishes - kimchi was okay, beansprouts were...