Hong Dae Pocha — Restaurant in Santa Clara

The word "pocha" in Korean means a late-night alcohol plus comfort food on the street. You do not go to a pocha for proper meals. You go there for food that goes well with beer and soju. And that is exactly what Hong Dae Pocha delivers in Santa Clara.

"Hong Dae" itself refers to a famous area in Seoul near Hongik University where there are plenty of nightlife, bars, and food and is an iconic tourist attraction. So the owners calling their store Hong Dae Pocha sets it up for a high standard to be authentic to serve the late night crowd.

HDP (Hong Dae Pocha) has a great lineup of food that you'd commonly expect with draft beer and soju. Keep in mind that this is a bar before restaurant. So whatever you order, you shouldn't be expecting dining-first Korean cuisine. What you should expect is a diverse selection of "tapas" that can be enjoyed with a group of friends over drinks.

We have chicken gangjung - phenomenal I would say, as well as corn-cheese, and a few other dishes. Most were exceptional and went well with the draft beer we had. Some, like komjanguh, was quite "off" and we didn't know what to make of it. But as you can imagine, between good friends, and beer, everything is jolly and forgiven.

Service was pretty poor - they seldom took notice of us despite we being seated in the center of the restaurant. And notably, they forgot a couple dishes. But again, compared to other Korean bars and nightlife here in South Bay (which isn't much), HDP truly is outstanding.

Will...

This evening, my friends and I visited a restaurant that we have frequented many times in the past. Prior to tonight's incident, it was my favorite Korean restaurant on El Camino. The four of us arrived after 10 PM and were seated in a corner. If the owner were to review the security footage, it should be clear that we were all seated at the same table. The dining experience began pleasantly — the atmosphere was enjoyable and the food was excellent. However, the entire evening was marred by the behavior of a Korean woman, who had short hair and was wearing a black YSL T-shirt. When she brought us the bill, she began asking each of us our ages and persistently questioned one of my friends about whether he was single, commenting that he looked very young. She then leaned her body against another friend and touched the other friend’s head with her hand. I am not certain whether such behavior is considered culturally appropriate, but it made us all feel extremely uncomfortable. I asked the woman if she was the owner, to which she replied that the owner is her cousin. I would like to respectfully suggest to the owner of this establishment that allowing relatives to behave inappropriately toward male customers is unacceptable. This used to be a restaurant I held in high regard, but after tonight, I will no longer be returning, nor will I be recommending it to others. Unfortunately, my positive impression of this place was completely ruined by the actions of this Korean woman in the...

This was honestly one of the worst dining experiences we’ve ever had. We were a group of four, but the receipt falsely listed us as six guests. I even have a Boomerang video showing there were only four of us. On top of that, they added a 20% service charge ( just for 4 customers) without any warning—no mention of it on the menu, and the staff never informed us. It felt dishonest and sneaky.

What really ruined the night was the service. The Korean waitress with short hair completely ignored us. We tried multiple times to politely get her attention just to ask for a spoon, but she looked right at us and went back to scrolling on her phone. The restaurant wasn’t even busy—only a few other tables were occupied—so there was no excuse. When she brought our food, she spilled water all over the table, didn’t apologize, and didn’t even try to clean it up. It genuinely felt like we weren’t welcome there.

We came to celebrate a friend’s big achievement, and instead left feeling frustrated and disrespected. The food didn’t help either. The seafood pancake was overloaded with onions and barely had any seafood. The corn cheese was watery—the worst I’ve ever had—and the rice cakes were limp and overcooked. Worst of all, I ended up with diarrhea later that night.

This place is overpriced, overrated, and seriously disappointing. We will not be...