KongDog Korean Restaurant / Kong Pocha 분식/포차 — Restaurant in Somerville

Kong Pocha is a new Korean snack food restaurant in the original Kong Dog restaurant space. The restaurant looks very different from before -- they definitely tried to bring the Korean pojangmacha experience with the red tarp, signs, metal tables, and cylindrical chairs. I heard that they opened on January 15, so they seem to still be figuring out some things -- when we came in around 12:50pm, half of the tables were empty but many people were waiting to be seated. I think they were understaffed. We ended up waiting ~30 minutes to get seated, with 2 parties ahead of us.

The staff are really nice and helpful, they were just overwhelmed by demand. It's nice that they have a call button on the table -- it's an efficient way to get service. We used it not only to order but to correct some of our orders. We tried a couple of classic Korean street food items.

Kimchi jjigae ($16) - It came without tofu or green onions, so we asked and got tofu and green onions added. Overall I really liked the flavor of the soup -- tasty savory kimchi pork flavors, and the pork and kimchi were tasty. The tofu didn't really have the flavor of the soup in it, probably because it was added late. For the price, the amount of food inside the soup was pretty lacking -- at that price, it should be a full meal, so I would want more tofu, kimchi, and pork.

Fish cake soup ($16) - doesn't look like much but tastes great. The fish cakes do taste like they have a bit more flour/starch than i would like (diluting the fish), but the soup has great flavor. Again, pretty overpriced -- I would want at least 2 skewers of fish cake for that price.

Ddukbokki ($25) - It's a very pretty dish. The fried dumplings and seaweed rolls that come with it are good, as are the noodles. The sauce is tasty but a little too salty, and the fish cakes ended up being really salty after absorbing the sauce. I liked the rice cakes, but I wish there were more. Given the amount of sauce, and the price, I would expect and want more rice cakes.

The haemul pajeon (seafood pancake, $23) was pretty good. I did find a shrimp shell/tail in it. I thought the texture was solid. But again, it's really expensive, even for a seafood pancake, and I don't think it has enough seafood to justify the price. I would pay $15-18 for it.

We didn't receive the chicken wings ($19) in time, but took them to-go and tried one piece each. These were quite good -- hot, fresh, and crispy. Comparable in texture to bbq chicken. I'm not sure what sauce they ended up giving us, but it was quite sweet, but at least they give it on the side!

Overall I think the flavors at Kong Pocha are great! I really enjoyed the flavors of the kimchi jjigae and fish cake soup, and the fry on the chicken wings was great. I just wish there was more food for the price. I know I shouldn't compare it to Korea, but seeing $16-$25 price tags on snack foods that are at most $10 in Korea gives me sticker shock. This is basically the only Korean restaurant on this side of Cambridge, so it's definitely nice to have! I can see myself coming here for comfort food in the future. They also seem to have some really fun cocktails that I'd like to...

Don’t eat here!!! Was excited to try the Korean dogs and they directed us to place an order at the kiosk. I ordered sausage and received a regular hot dog. They also messed up one of our drinks and gave attitude when we asked very politely for a correction and said under their breathe we were rude. We didn’t give them the satisfaction of an argument and just ignored that. While we waited for them to fix our drink we ate our corn dogs. Apparently this was a problem. Before even getting our corrected drink back they said we can’t eat the food in the restaurant since we ordered on the kiosk…they said only food with a server is allowed to sit and eat….Wild asf policy but we tried to comply since our other friend had just come to meet up with us and she wanted to sit and eat. We said well take a table then and He said we still can’t eat our food and we would have to leave our friend to eat alone and us eat outside. We would have purchased more food and tipped well had we been allowed to sit but their crazy policy and rude attitude got in the way of making them money. But clearly they like the restaurant to stay empty like it was when we went in. And that really is the Craziest part of it all was the restaurant being completely empty with all the restaurant tables available. The other reviews here show me that they consistently harass their customers about this. He had a very weird demeanor and had a smell to him that made it hard to even get through the conversation. Makes me concerned he was making meals in that poor hygienic condition. He took up so much of our time with a long drawn out bs explanation about the policy that by the time we got back to our food it was cold! Absolute rubbish way to run a business. I’ve never heard of running paying customers out the door and not letting customers who just purchased their meal in store eat it in the store.They also policed the amount of napkins we grabbed and said we took too many and have to put some back, we only grabbed 4. Which was 1 for each of us. And the icing on the cake was I got sick right after eating the food. Don’t risk your health by...

Kong Dog Somerville should be shut down.

On 7/31/2025 I came in with a friend for lunch. I paid $10 for a sweet potato corn dog and $7.99 for dumplings in a dining room that was filthy — the floor hadn’t been swept, and the straws weren’t wrapped. Our waitress, an Asian woman in her 20s, barely served us. She just stared from across the room, which was creepy and unprofessional. I still left a $1.50 tip, which I thought was fair considering how little she actually did. As I was leaving, she told me, “Next time you should use the kiosk, it doesn’t require a tip.” That is one of the rudest things I’ve ever heard from someone in customer service.

We came back on 9/8/2025 because my friend wanted to try again. The same waitress greeted us with, “Are you sure you want a table?” which immediately set the tone. We spent $55 this time and got instant Neoguri noodles passed off as ramen for $16, with an overboiled egg and fake calamari. She forgot the egg in the first place and then acted annoyed when I asked about it. She also made a strange comment to my friend like, “I’m glad you’re in a better mood than last time,” which is out of line for any server to say. And, once again, she stood across the room watching us, whispering with the cook — who I can only assume is her father — while both of them kept throwing glances our way.

I tried to leave a $7 tip this time, and the waitress wouldn’t even accept it. The way she refused it felt like a slap in the face, basically saying, “keep your money, you clearly need it.” That kind of attitude is disgusting in any business, let alone one that’s already cutting corners and serving garbage food in a dirty space.

This wasn’t just bad service, it was hostile. The food is cheap, the atmosphere is gross, and the staff goes out of their way to make you feel unwelcome. It’s no surprise the place was dead. Kong Dog Somerville isn’t a restaurant,...