Seoul Pocha Korean Pub/Grill — Restaurant in Gainesville

This place had good reviews and we've wanted to try it for a while. After our experience, I will never be going back. The most regrettable part of our experience was the service. Our server is the one who actually sat us, in a table at the very front of the restaurant, which makes it even more notable that somehow she completely forgot about us. She then sat another table in the back. She passed us and said she'd be right over with waters. She poured waters. Made eye contact with my husband. Then walked right past us to the table she sat after us with the waters. She took their order. 15 minutes passed. We were getting ready to leave when she walked past us, looked at our table, and suddenly gasped and apologized for "completely forgetting" us. She asked if we were ready to order. We were hungry and it was late, so we ordered. I wish we hadn't. She then got a message on her phone, pulled it out to look at it, and apologized (seriously?).

She put our orders in. Another table was walking up to her to place their order, because apparently our's was not a unique experience. Sometime later, we got our waters. My husband had also gotten a soju cocktail. He asked about it, and she said they were busy but they were working on it.

After a short time, my pork jeyuk came out. I was looking around because any other Korean restaurant I've ever eaten at, the dishes come with rice and kimchee dishes. Several minutes passed and I could not catch our server. When she did come back to the dining room she had two rice bowls and the kimchee. She told my husband his was coming soon. At this point, we still hadn't had the dumplings or corn dog which were ordered as appetizers... then several minutes passed with his rice getting cold before the other three items came out together.

The spicy octopus dumplings were not spicy whatsoever, if the correct ones were actually ordered because they have a non-spicy version too. It was unclear if they just weren't steamed long enough or sat in the window, but they were cold and tasted like they were just out of the freezer section. The corndog wasn't super hot or cheese melted. Our dishes looked good, and they were just okay. The pork jeyuk was a bit oily and tasted like they went overboard with the white pepper. The pork and squid bulgogi had decent flavor, but had jalapeños (not typically in Korean food) and some of the squid was chewy. Overall, just not very authentic.

As we're eating, we again ask about the soju cocktail. Our server says they were busy but she'll just go make it. When she comes back, she apologizes and says the other girl forgot to make it and chuckles... but says she'll "try to get a discount" since it came nearly at the end of our meal. Check comes. No discount... at this point we just want to pay and leave. When she comes back for the check, she apologizes again and says she couldn't get the discount but we can have a free packaged ice cream. Our overall experience had been so poor at this point we just wanted to leave.

Needless to say, this was the one and only time we...

The service here is one of the worst services I’ve received at a restaurant.

We went while assisting my sister to move in to UF and she was telling us about Momoyaki. If you were craving Korean and can’t go to Momoyaki because it’s lunch time and they don’t open until later, I would advise having a snack and waiting as opposed to coming here as a substitute.

Our party of 5 was told to wait as they cleaned off the table to make it ready for us. Come to find out, some tables that may be less visible to the front, they do not clean the messes off of until the table is needed. The table next to us, which can seat up to 8, was filled with the previous diners’ plates and trash the entirety of the time we were there and we are unsure of how long it was there because they were gone before we arrived.

The food gets delivered with seemingly no order of tickets. The 2 Bibimbaps came out about 30 min after ordering followed by the 2 Yakisobas about 10 min later. However, the beef bulgogi took approximately 1 hour to come out, after watching many dishes other tables ordered well after us being brought out first. I did not receive my meal until everyone else in the party had completely finished theirs. When my party had nearly completed their meal, there were multiple attempts to determine where this meal was by having to go up to ask the front desk. The first attempt after the rest of the party had already received and eaten their most of their meals, was apologized to and acknowledged the delay for the first time and said it was being prepared. Once the entirety of the party had completed their meal, we had gone up to the front desk to ask again if it was near completion. At that point, the hostess wasn’t sure if it was being made and a cook came out to ask if we even wanted the meal anymore or if it should be in a to go box. The cook was minimally apologetic and customer service is not something that would come to mind while thinking of this establishment.

I was shocked by the number of positive reviews because this place seemed so good. They did have signs offering to give something for free if you completed a review so my only guess is that inflated the review numbers.

The hostess stated they were understaffed but simply any kind of acknowledgment of the situation earlier on and we would not have had a problem. The fact that we had to go up and request where the food was for them to even begin cooking the meal is concerning and we will never be...

I really enjoy Korean food. I enjoy trying new things. I wasn't impressed with my experience here.

We walked in and were seated fairly quickly, but were only give one menu because they didn't have enough? Weird. When our server finally got to our table, she said "do y'all just want the water?" My partner asked for a Coke, and she said, "Ok so the water is good?" He had to mention wanting a Coke a second time. I started to respond as well, but she walked off without looking at me. It took at least 5 minutes for her to get back to our table with a bottle of Coke from a fridge that I could see from our table. When she got to our table, she asked if we were ready to order. I had to ask her for my drink and another menu. When she finally brings me my drink and the menu, she leaves them without a word beyond a "we don't have any extra menus, so here's a smaller paper copy."

When we do order, my partner ordered the Tteok-bokki for us to share, and another dish. She then started to walk off without looking at me, and my partner had to stop her with a "and she wants..." - I ordered the chicken.

When we get the Tteok-bokki, I could barely find the rice cakes, there was so much other stuff in the pan. There wasn't a lot of them either. There was more celery and other random veggies than there was rice cakes. Not sure why they added so much unnecessary stuff to what should be a simple dish.

We get my chicken (it's average) and we nibble on the two dishes while we wait for his dish to come out. After awhile, she comes back with the check. We ask her about the missing dish, and she apparently never put it in the system, claiming we never ordered it. Maybe if the music wasn't so blaring loud, she would have heard it. I could barely hear my partner sitting across the table from me, and he had to raise his voice to practically shout.

Neither of us enjoyed our time here, and the food was so-so. We...