+82 Pocha is a brand new Korean Street Tapas restaurant and hidden gem in Adelaide’s CBD that you simply need to go check out (just don’t let Google Maps show you the way or you’ll end up wandering around in circles like we did!). Situated in that nice little square just off Grenfell Street – you know, the paved one with the relaxing fountains and greenery – +82 Pocha is in prime location for lunch breaks in between work. The interior is bright and inviting, with artistic murals sprawled across the walls and the floor to add to the relaxed atmosphere. We can certainly picture ourselves coming here for regular catch ups with friends over dinner, or business meetings over a quick lunch!
Being invited in to sample the menu, we couldn’t wait indulge a little; and that we certainly did. The warm and welcoming staff piled us up with a selection of their best, bringing plate upon plate to our table until we’d completely run out of space! Tucking into our first dish, the Bulgogi Bibimbap, we were instantly impressed. This particular dish starts at just $10.50 and is seriously satisfying – you’ll find yourself struggling to finish it all.
The Bibimbap is a warm white rice bowl with fresh seasonal vegetables or home-made pickles and, at +82 Pocha, you can choose your fillings with options such as lettuce, tomato, baked beans, corn salsa, fried kimchi, red slaw, pickled jalapeno and meats such as Bulgogi (Korean sliced beef with sweet soy sauce), vege-balls for the vegos and Je-Yuk (Korean stir-fried spicy pork). There are loads of sauce options too; it is an all round customisable dish.
We also tried the Burrito which worked in the same manner, offering the same options for fillings and meats but this time with the choice of chips on the side, avocado and cheese. Both of these dishes are spicy, flavoursome and downright delectable, expertly balancing the fresh with the filling. For a quick and easy lunch, you can’t look past the Bibimbap or Burrito!
One of the dishes we were particularly excited about eating was the ‘KFC’. We admittedly excited because we saw ‘KFC’ on the menu and, well, we are secretly the biggest KFC fiends you’ll ever meet (yes, despite all the amazing restaurants and places we get to eat at). However, KFC in this context stood for ‘Korean Fried Chicken’, and was one step up from the 11 secret herbs and spices recipe (eep, sorry Colonel Sanders!). What made this dish great was – again – the customisable aspect, giving patrons the sauce option of; 1) house-made sweet chilli sauce, 2) snow cheese powder (!!!) and, 3) house-made garlic-honey sauce. We tried number 1 and 3, but are dying to go back to try number 2 after the success of our first visit. Snow cheese powder just sounds seriously ideal.
The signature +82 Fries came tossed with orean spiced powder, chives and topped with melted parmesan cheese. The way to make anything great is always cheese in our eyes, however, this time it was the Korean spiced powder that stole our hearts. This more-ish salty powder gave the chips a total kick.
The +82 Kim-Chi Jeon came out looking like a thin pizza bread, but was actually made of a vegetable base. This was a total surprise to us on first bite, with a texture similar to that of some kind of quiche. This Korean pancake dish offers just the perfect amount of crispiness, and the bacon, spring onion and aioli sauce topping creates a flavoursome finish.
Enjoying the wafting smells of cooking Asian spices and relaxing sounds of rushing fountains while we ate our lunch, there’s no denying the spot was a total sensory hit. +82 Pocha can be found at Shop 3/25 Grenfell street, Adelaide; follow through to the Facebook page here to find out more and suss the full menu.