Bay Pocha [San Francisco, Lakeside]

Bay Pocha is a Korean restaurant in Lakeside, conveniently located close to two Muni Metro stops and also close to the Stonestown Galleria. I’ve been to Bay Pocha a few times over the last few months, most recently this Sunday night, and here’s a report of some of the dishes I’ve tried.

A pocha - short for pojangmacha - is typically an outdoor stall in Korea that serves Korean street food and anju - drinking food. Bay Pocha is an indoor pocha that has a long communal table in the middle and opens quite late for SF, closing around midnight Sunday - Thursday, and at 1 AM on Fridays and Saturdays.

Menus - theres a large selection of Korean beer, soju, and makgeolli, and a little bit of everything food-wise - KBBQ, soups / stews, pancakes, tteokbokki, KFC, etc. They also have some larger format dishes like budae jjigae / “Army Stew” and gamjatang.




SEAWEED NOODLE TEMPURA (5 Pcs) 김말이튀김 ($9.95)
Vermicelli wrapped with seaweed
On my first visit I had some fried rolls that had battered seaweed as the skin and glass noodles within. Addictive!

ROSE RICE CAKE 로제떡볶이 ($21.95 + $4 to add ramen)
Rice cake, fishcake and sausage in spicy and creamy sauce
I also had some tteokbokki. This one was in a “rose” sauce that was a bit like a spicy sweet sauce that was tamed a bit by some cream I think, like a mix of the typical tteokbokki sauce and “carbonara” sauce. I added ramen to it :pig: There were fish cakes and small hot dogs that were like Lit’l Smokies, and carrots and other vegetables. This was good for the first few bites, but got a bit cloying and boring after awhile. It might be better shared as part of a bunch of different dishes, but as a sole dish I probably wouldn’t order it again.


FRIED POTSTICKERS 만두 ($9.95)
BEEF (6 Pcs), KIMCHI(5Pcs) or VEGE (8pcs)
On my next visit, I started with some deep fried beef potstickers / mandu, which I didn’t write anything about.

PORK BELLY 삼겹살구미 ($31.95)
Salt and pepper pork belly with onion and garlic
Ssam 쌈추가 ($3.95)
Lettuces to wrap wour BBQ with housemade sauces
I had some KBBQ this time, the pork belly. This was quite good. It was cooked in the kitchen and brought out on a sizzle plate with onions. I don’t think it is grilled over charcoal, but it was tasty nonetheless. The slices of pork belly were medium thick, maybe a quarter inch. I added the lettuce to make wraps with along with sauces, raw garlic and jalapeños.

Ssam with banchan.

Pork belly.


KIMCHI PORK PANCAKE 김치고기전 ($21.95)

On another visit I had the kimchi pork pancake / kimchi jeon. This was a good rendition. It was a huge pancake, with lots of slices of pork within. It was crispy and stayed crispy while eating.

Banchan - mushrooms, gim, danmuji, fish cake in a spicy sauce.

Kimchi jeon.

I also had a bottle of makgeolli.


SOFT TOFU SOUP 순두부찌개 ($18.95)
Spicy soft tofu stew with beef and seafood
On my most recent visit on Sunday, I pigged out a bit. I had the soondubu jjigae, which was quite good and had a lot of beef - which was ground I believe - and seafood, which included medium sized tail-on shrimp and lots of clams.

Banchan - mushrooms, danmuji, bean sprouts, broccoli.

CHICKEN WINGS (10pcs) 닭날개튀김 ($21.95)
Korean style deep fried chicken wings
And also a platter of Korean fried chicken, which came with a small salad on the side and the requisite pickled white daikon cubes. This was good but not great - it didn’t have the thin crackling crisp skin that great KFC has. Maybe I should have tried the sauced one.

In summary - pretty solid Korean pocha fare in large portions at Bay Pocha, with a big plus of being open late.

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