Mukbang Pocha — Restaurant in London

A group of us had the unfortunate luck to have entered this restaurant - not by first choice, but because it was available whilst the other preferred choices were busy or closed.

Just to make it aware, I was told everything here was Halal (except for the chicken dumplings and pork).

Service:

In all honesty, this review was going to be a 1* but because of a certain waiter, who was super friendly, kind and helpful, he made the whole evening and experience so much better than it actually was. Unfortunately I never got this name, but he did have somewhat longish black hair, so whoever you are, you have our thanks!

On the flip side, the other members of staff weren't as helpful and seemed like they didn't want to be there. When we asked for small sharing plates, it was just given to me as I was the nearest person to the waitress and then I had to hand it out; whenever we had further questions about additional dishes, we were just given the menu and told to decide. This made it frustrating and annoying - we're paying at a restaurant, at least have some decency and respect your boss and the customers - if you're not interested, just quit - no one is forcing you to work there.

Realistically would have given this 0* but because of that waiter, he alone pulled it up to 2*

Food:

We ordered a variety, got Korean Fried Chicken and Seafood Pancake to share and then I had ordered, as usual, a Seafood Soft Tofu Stew.

Cheese and Onion KFC

This was not KFC. Drenched in oil, chicken seemed a bit old and overcooked and the seasoning was literally some crumpled up powder that wasn't even spread evenly. Disappointment.

Seafood Pancake

I'm not sure how the chef thought this would be acceptable to serve? It wasn't fully cooked, I could chew through the uncooked soggy dough. What was the chef thinking?

Seafood Soft Tofu Stew

I always ask for extra hot, and they did add that. But they forgot to mix it and also forgot to add salt. So I had to request for salt and do what the chef found difficult to do - cook. Well a slight exaggeration, but the chef could have added salt and mixed the chilli oil once they added it. And for once, I dreaded to finish a meal. I had so many moments to give up and not eat, as it was that bad, but I soldiered on. This should have been a relaxing evening with delicious food, not a war.

There was a reason why this place was available, and there is a reason why the reviews are low. Because it reflects the quality of food and service that this restaurant provides - which is low quality. Ironically the price isn't reflective and they're charging what I would consider an extortionate amount for what they have served and against average Korean restaurants. You wouldn't see a Korean eat here.

If you would like to waste money, be disappointed and be treated rudely with uncooked food and bad service (but not that guy, he was wonderful, the ONLY good thing about this restaurant) then please visit this restaurant they will not disappoint your expected disappointment.

I'm giving it a 2, realistically 0, but that guy made the experience better.

I would recommend others not to visit and go elsewhere to enjoy better Korean food - just make sure to have a reservation during the weekend or have the...

Couple of weeks ago I visited that "restaurant" with my husband. We're not London-based, just had some things to do there. We were a bit hungry and tired, so decided to have a dinner in Mukbang Pocha before the train. We asked for a table with a socket and this absolutely basic question made the staff faces so grumpy as we asked for something impossible and unacceptable.

We're not familiar with Korean cuisine and this restaurant as well, so it took quite a lot of time to learn the menu. In meantime, waiter tried to take an order, we asked for couple of minutes. She went back quite quickly and we were still not ready, so we ordered 2 bottles of asahi and asked to leave a menu with us, so we can finally decide what we want. Next time the waiter came, hardly spoke English and took our order. We ordered a plate of spicy chicken to share and 2 bows of rice. This is a normal-size dinner for us. Especially when we saw the size of a portion on a table next to us.

In couple of minutes the other waiter came and started saying "it's a restaurant, you need to order something". Firstly, we had 2 bottles of beer at the table. Secondly, we ordered food 5 minutes ago. Appreciate that the waiter doesn't speak English good enough to understand what we said, we repeated again despite the fact that it was very rude for another waiter to say "it's a restaurant, it's a restaurant". After that they both tried to embarrassed us because we didn't order enough. We were so shocked so didn't even get what the problem was. They both continued saying "it's a restaurant" which is unbelievable, as we're not blind and we could easily see that it's not a gym or a spa whatever. I don't know if we looked wrong, maybe we were not good enough to sit there. Then they said we must (!) order one menu per person. We asked if there's a special system in their restaurant or some dishes should be ordered together or if it's not allowed to share. They didn't answer and said that they will let us "have what we ordered that time because we ordered 2 bows of rice but next time we need to order one menu per person". I must say that there's no note in a menu saying that we have to order minimum number of dishes. I checked. No other mentioning of that "rule" in the interior of the restaurant. What if my husband or I were not hungry? What if your guest comes with their friend who doesn't want to eat? Is it not allowed?

The service is rubbish and simply unacceptable. I have never felt so embarrassed and sad after visiting a restaurant. When they "let us" have our food that we ordered, we got a huge portion that we simply couldn't finish together and took takeaway. So why did we have to order more if we wouldn't eat that? Anyway, the whole evening was spoiled.

Please, advise your staff how normal (not even good) customer service should be. If you have a rule that people cannot order what they want, you have to make it clear and mention that in your menu or on the entrance doors. I'm not making a tragedy from them not to speak English. The problem is your approach to...

I gave one star only because of the experience, not the food. I hope this message reach to all of the staffs and management.

We came before to take away their chicken to try and we loved it so much. Today we came all the way from north wales again as soon as the restaurant open at 12pm to have our first dine in (hotpot and fried chicken). Food was perfect and amazing 10/10. Service was good at the beginning.

However we had a very disappointing service at the end of our meal. My husband told the male waiter that we would like to take away the hotpot and chicken and he gave us 2 takeaway container for us to fit in the foods. We couldn’t fit in all the food in the container, hence it only fits the chicken, not the hotpot foods. A lady waiter came to our table asking ‘are you done?’, and my husb clearly said ‘yes, but i want to takeaway for both’ . She then cleared the table with us thinking that she is packing the hotpot foods for us. After awhile we asked again where is the hotpot foods but she said it was cleared and thrown away because we said yes, although my husband did clearly reply ‘yes but we want to take away all the foods’ to her.

We were upset because of this as we didn’t eat much , probably about 60% of the hotpot was thrown away. The hotpot costed us for nearly £40.

I believe that it was a misunderstanding but i really think that a solution needs to be there. I even kindly asked if i could speak to the manager to resolve the situation but the tall lady said the manager is not here and the staffs are part timers. As i tried to negotiate if the restaurant can do anything about it like if they can substitute with anything like making a small batch of food or anything, but they said they can do nothing abt it and she said sorry few times. I am not even asking for a refund of anything like that. The tall lady was respectful and understood the situation as I was explaining and I told her I do not blame anyone in this situation. She was apologising in which that we are okay but suddenly another male staff went straight to my husb while pointing fingers to him.

He was very rude and disrespectful to my husb. The customers were all looking at us. It was a very shameful situation. My husb was only explaining to him that we thought that when the lady came to take the hotpot, she had heard that we asked for takeaway. There is no need to be defensive or making a remark like we are a troublesome customer. We were not shouting or even blaming the staffs. The tall lady kept saying sorry. This has never happened to us before and we left the restaurant feeling unhappy. We kindly ask the management needs to look into...