The Dining Divas & Dudes ventured out again to high-rise land near the Purdue campus to sample Po-Cha, a Korean restaurant nestled between Sakinaya Purdue and Cube Market, a trio of Asian destinations at the base of the Verve luxury student apartment building at 150 S Chauncey. These three are part of the SJ Ventures group which also owns Sakinaya Izikawa and other establishments.
According to AI, “Pocha is short for the Korean term for covered wagon referring to the iconic street stalls or tent bars serving affordable Korean street food and drinks. It’s a quintessential Korean experience, a kind to street food truck meets pub, serving comfort food and alcohol, lively, communal, and a social hub for friends and workers.” Po-Cha is bright, cheery, clean, and modern inside with a friendly staff. The menu is a simple one consisting of Starters, Bibimbap, Spicy Stew, Korean BBQ, and Beverages, each with several choices. There’s also Korean Fried Chicken. Service is at the counter and the food is brought to your table. We had 7 diners, including a friend of Jo’s, Paula, who is visiting from a nursing stint in Nome, Alaska, and we were able to sample a large portion of the menu.
We had a 6-piece order of Korean Fried Chicken to start. Everyone except Jo had a piece and all agreed it was excellent. There were 6 little pouches in the chicken box we assumed were hand wipes, but after we’d eaten the chicken and needed to wipe our hands, we found out that they were gloves—too late for us.
Ken was the only one who tried Bibimbap, Korean for ‘mixed rice’. Served in a hot stone bowl, the rice gets crispy and caramelized. It’s topped with assorted vegetables, kim chee, and in Ken’s case, Bulgogi Beef, and a fried egg. The bowl was VERY hot and Ken had to fill his water cup 3 times. It was only mildly hot spice-wise though, and he enjoyed the mix of flavors.
Tetia ordered Seafood Stew, also served in a hot stone bowl. It included shrimp with their heads on (not Linda’s favorite!), mussels, calamari, tofu, onions, in a very spicy broth, and an egg on top, that cooked in the hot broth. Rice and 3 sides (kimchi, pickled cucumbers, tofu noodles) accompanied the stew. Tetia really enjoyed it and declared the Po-cha kimchi yummy.
Kay ordered off the Starter menu, the Seafood Pancake. She has often been to Asian restaurants which offer scallion or seafood or kimchi pancakes and though they are meant to be shared, they’re enough to make a meal. This one was huge—enough to make several meals, so be warned. She was able to get a couple of people at the table to share with her, but their portions were already more than some could eat. The pancake was lusciously crispy around the edges and packed with chewy squid, imitation crab, onions, maybe some shrimp, very tasty and very big.
The others all had meals from the Korean BBQ Menu, which comes either as a Bento box with the protein you pick, rice, glass noodles, a side, 3 dumplings, lettuce and Korean dipping sauce, or a set, which replaces the dumplings with 3 sides. The lettuce is for wrapping everything up in, and Jo’s came very elegantly standing up in a shiny dish. This may be the presentation when you order the set.
Jo’s protein was Grilled Crispy Tofu. No dumplings, no rice, no noodles, but plenty of other goodies to tuck into her lettuce wraps. Her grilled tofu was delicious and stayed crispy and hot because of the hot plate. There was also a ton of it. The flavorful hot sauce was perfect. Jo is always appreciative of restaurants who are helpful and gracious in letting her pick out something she can eat and the Po-cha staff was great.
Paula picked Spicy Pork and Squid for her protein and declared it 5 stars and said she would recommend it to all her friends in Alaska. She commented on the presentation, which was very pretty, and how well-seasoned her meal was.
Iseral chose Pork Belly. He was suffering from a sinus infection and shared the pork belly was not as spicy as he would have liked to help with his sinus issues, but he did love the noodles and the other goodies in the Bento box.
Linda ordered Salt-grilled Chicken, and shared it wasn’t as moist as she might like but she was happy it wasn’t spicy, unlike Iseral. Like Iseral she greatly enjoyed her sides in her Bento box. She did not go away hungry. The dumplings were crispy and she really liked the glass noodles, a classic Korean noodle made from sweet potato starch, semi-transparent and chewy.
Overall, the DDD’s recommend Po-Cha and believe it should do well in its near campus location, with its bright cheery atmosphere, good food, and helpful staff. The DDDs had so much food we could not eat it all and Tetia is always willing to take the leftovers back to her staff to share. We believe the quantity of food will also have great appeal to the students on campus. It certainly seemed to be popular when we were there. They have a selection of Korean beverages—Soju, distilled spirits in assorted flavors, beer, Milkis—completing the idea of street food/pub.
Some of the DDD’s visited Cube Market next door—another bright, cheery, modern place, a sort of Korean/Japanese Village Pantry. It’s well worth a visit, especially to see the Wall of Ramen!
