Hongdae pocha
Much as I try to bury my head in the ground surrounding tv series, I have been exposed (or rather forced) to squid game. I don’t know much about what it is except that during my trips to the living room to check under the couch for food, through sidelong glances it involves some rather gory and gruesome scenes. Although it makes the cachet of being Korean a little bit more interesting, it is an interesting association to make with a place that you eat and drink in. Seems a bit counterproductive to associate some imagery which my turn your stomach with food.
Outside you see happy patrons waiting. Out of bordem I watched the two outside find out that they had turned up for a blind date without knowing what the other person would look like. The surprise when they found out they had been sitting next to each other for 5 minutes in silence was extreme. In their hurried introductions, punctuated with cries of “me too!”, they found out how much they had in common with each other.
I wish them all the best. However, I am not interested in the dating or squid games. I am here for the eating game.
Banchan – side dishes made of pickled vegetables. As a free appetiser, it was something to warm your jaw up on. Taste wise, it didn’t really tickle my pallet but then again I do not think it is designed to do that.
Dak gang jung, fried chicken with korean chilli paste. Fried chicken in sticky sauce. It was. Ok. It was fried, sticky and tasted of food. Not much more to add to that.
Jjigae, mixed seafood with silky tofu soup and rice. The seafood chunks were sadly pathetically small. The tofu was good though. The spice could have been ratcheted up a little more but then again for this price, I couldn’t really complain.
Jaeyuk rice, stir fried pork in spicy sauce with rice. The sauce was a bit heavy as I struggled to taste the actual pork. It was heavy, spicy and too salty for me. So much so that I had to stop as I felt my tongue starting to curdle up.
I like to play games as much as the next person. However, as many can attest, I get bored easily. If you are looking for somewhere to add a bit of spice to your life, don’t order what I did. Although, if you are looking for a quick cheap bite, especially in these inflationary days, you could do much worse than here.
A quiet eating 7/10.
Lunch (1 course) was GBP10 excluding drinks and service.