Gabose Pocha — Restaurant in Lauderhill

Pocha is my favorite gastropub! After taking friends to Gabose to show them "authentic" Korean food, I always follow that up with a visit to Pocha for LA-style American fusion.

My favorite appetizers are the cream/spicy tteopokki (rice cakes). The cream comes with bacon and is a great choice for the spice-intolerant. The spicy comes with fish cake in a delicious, complex gochujang (red pepper paste) sauce.

The corn cheese appetizer is a simple but heavenly combination of corn and cheese baked in a dish. It sounds underwhelming but tastes like how bring wrapped in a warm blanket on a cold day feels.

The doria bulgogi is cheese over fried rice and thinly-cut marinated beef, baked. It's so good that I always order at least one when I come here. I've gone to Pocha immediately after having a meal, and I still made room for doria bulgogi. Taking the spicy sauce leftover from the tteopokki and drizzling it over the doria takes it to the next level.

If you can tolerate spicy food and have friends with big appetites, order the budae jigae (army stew). It's a savory stew that's filled with foodstuffs that were introduced to Korea through the US Army, like beans and Spam. The pot is big enough to share, and it arrives on a stove so that you can keep it bubbling. I always ask for an extra side of cheese and ramen noodles to add as it cooks.

The drinks are great. Koreans generally don't associate alcohol tasting good with being "girly," so feel free to try the watermelon soju or the jelly without feeling like your manhood is eroding.

It can get a little crowded which slows down the service, so consider going a little earlier or later in the night to avoid the rush on the weekends.

They also have karaoke and have fun events for holidays. Also, be sure to check out the Korean beauty store, which is connected to Pocha. It's got a ton of Korean makeup products that you can try at prices that can be better than Amazon (while not being knock-offs).

Tl;dr Pocha is awesome and...

Frequented Gabose next door before the pandemic, always great, but now usually just stick to ordering take out, so i decided to try Pocha. The experience I just had ranks as one of my worst ones I’ve had in a while. Saturday night placed an order at 9pm. 2 orders of Korean fried wings, 1 order chicken shake, 1 order of kimchi tots. Was told order would take 20-30 mins to be ready. I arrived at 9:35, and food still wasn’t ready. Staff was nice, but noticed a cook in the kitchen not wearing a mask. Now, I’ve seen cooks at other places wear theirs below their nose, or around the chin, It gets hot back there I get it. But the cook at pocha didn’t have one at all. Moving on, I was told by the server to wait outside, and I would get a call when the food was ready. Waited 15 mins outside, went in a 9:50 to ask about food, it still wasn’t ready. Finally an hour and 10 minutes later, my food is finally ready.

Now I’ve seen the reviews, so I’m thinking the food must be worth the wait. Once I had the food in my possession, I didn’t even wait to get home. I made sure to try everything in the car right then and there. I wanted to make sure I was tasting the food at peak freshness. The kimchi less tots, were the best of the bunch and that’s not saying much, cold, hanging on to a glimpse of crispy and no kimchi anywhere in sight. Chicken shake, lifeless, cold and soggy, with a hint of flavor. Now to then mains, the fried chicken. Flavorless, hot soggy mess. My disappointment is immeasurable. Doesn’t even compare to other Korean fried chicken, matter of fact, I’ve gotten a crispier more flavorful wing from the fast food joint across the street. 0/10 will...

Let me start by saying this used to be my go to secret spot. I had been going there for nearly 7 years and I had never had a bad item from the menu nor a bad experience. That was until most recently when I thought I'd be able to celebrate after nearly a year of not being able to go.

Walking in, there was an attempt at a Korean greeting from someone who didn't even look at us and seemed to be a customer as they were in a dress that exposed their mid drift.

Sitting down, no one came for awhile and no one introduced themselves or welcomed us officially when they came to us. Everytime we tried to get drinks or order stuff it was at least 30 minutes in between each thing arriving.

Food was unseasoned, burnt, and drinks had imbalance in alcohol and flavors.

The "staff" wore their own clothes and almost seemed like a bunch of volunteers who would just grab our food and bring it at the slowest rate possible.

The music was loud and was not at all like the vibes there used to be. Being there for 3 hours, only 3 songs were in Korean and the rest were 2000's r&b, rap, and even rock music. It felt like we were just flopping back and forth between the staff's individual playlists. I literally wanted to pay just to leave.

They drew smiley and frowny faces in sauces and danced behind the counters. It felt like we were in a Chili's, sports bar, or Hookah bar, but for twice the price.

I am so sad to see the transformation of what was such an important place to me and I hope that it can get a fresh reset to the amazing place it once was, but I don't know if I'll be brave enough to go back...