Gogo Pocha — Restaurant in London

THE PERFECT LOWER MARSH EATERY...

Having left the BFI Imax Cinema in Waterloo my guest and I were on a quest to getting something post film to eat.

Having lived in the area some years ago we opted to find out what was on Lower Marsh as all the good restaurants on Waterloo Road had long since been replaced by chains or supermarkets.

Many of the places I used to frequent on Lower Marsh had long since gone too. A walk the entire length only produced 3 options (the area seemed incredibly quiet for a Wednesday night).

GoGo had a queue outside, was buzzing and busy inside and looked like a place that had been thrown together rather than designed - which appealed immensely.

We were quickly seated at a table for 4 which very quickly had to share with another 2 guests (which was totally acceptable).

The service was warm, charming (we discovered later this was a family & friends run establishment) and efficient.

My guest ordered her first ever cold soup, the Buckwheat Noodles with Radish & Cucumber (£7), I the Fried Kimchi, Chicken & Vegetables with Spicy Sauce (£8) and we shared a Rice (£1.50) & Sweetcorn with Cheese (£5) - In essence £10 per head (without booze).

The portion sizes were excellent and the food well cooked.

My chicken was wonderfully spicy and was just the comfort food that was required.

The cheese corn was a tasty surprise.

Staff checked all was well, tap water was brought in a bottle to our table and the Korean Hite Beer was a lovely accompaniment.

Lower Marsh was always about inexpensive, home-styled food in cheap surroundings and this place matched everything perfectly.

So if you're looking for something, quick, inexpensive, spicy, filling and tasty post an IMAX Cinema or Theatre (Young & Old Vic minutes away) visit - then this is definitely the Lower March classic...

I don't normally write restaurant reviews, but I had a very strange and odd experience at this restaurant. Firstly, it was extremely hot in the restaurant and they did not turn on the air conditioning nor turn on the fans, but this was not the reason for my review. The waiting staff came over multiple times in the space of a few minutes asking if we had finished, even though I was clearly still eating and there was still a lot of food on the table. It was extremely uncomfortable as I was trying to eat. It felt as if they were watching us and trying to hurry us to finish our food. As soon as I finished, they hurried over to clear everything away and slammed down the bill. Not even a 'is there anything else you'd like?' or anything. We had not even asked for the bill and they even had the card machine in their hand. Very strange and poor service to be honest. I wondered if it was because there was a huge queue outside (not that that's an excuse), but upon leaving there were empty tables in the front room and no one waiting outside. Food was nothing to shout about and service was beyond bad. I would not recommend this place for a korean meal as there are other places in the same price range which have much better service and more...

Overall, the flavors were not what I was expecting, nothing was salted very well and the spice level was low. It’s a small hole-in-wall pocha vibe, and the servers were attentive (none were Korean, thought owners seemed to be). One surprise was you have to order any banchan you might want as “starters.”

Here’s what we had ordered:

Seafood Soon tofu soup: looked ok, but was bland, tasted almost like watered down seafood broth, and the was lukewarm Raw beef bibimbap in stone pot: fine, the gochujang was more like chojang and kinda sweet and tangy but add a little salt or soy sauce and decent Steamed egg: more like a scramble but tasted alright, they add a lot of sesame oil on top with no sesame seeds or anything else, but give you a big portion Kimchi was not very fermented but rather, like gutjuri, a heap of it

They seemed busy for a Saturday and people kept walking in - the demographic was largely non-Asian, that should have been my first warning sign. But it was close to our lodging and we just wanted some simple hot soup. It’s possible I ordered the wrong things but I consider these dishes pretty basic...