I love Korean Barbeque like I love Tapas and Fondue (for those of you old enough to remember fondue restaurants). All of these are a slow, social meal.
A full Korean barbeque meal (where you cook your food at the table) at Don Pocha involve several hours of sitting around the grill, cooking, tasting, eating, laughing, drinking, asking for more of the delicious pickled radishes, and generally having a leisurely, great time with your family or friends.
The quality of food at Don Pocha is excellent. The restaurant interior has been redone, and is lovely. The servers are friendly, albeit they have a huge HELP WANTED sign because they need more help (like every business these days). On this crazy-busy Saturday night they were running like crazy and did their best, and their best was good enough for us.
The owner was nice to work us in. We arrived without a reservation on a crazy busy Saturday night. Every table was full, people with reservations were pouring in, other people without reservations came in after us. He was nice and we were patient, and he found us a table within 45 minutes. It was our fault - we should have gotten a reservation. Next time we WILL get a reservation.
Korean Barbeque is not a cheap meal, nor a fast meal. It's high-quality ingredients and you tie up one of their cooking tables for several hours.
4 of us ate, drank, talked and laughed for 2 solid hours. We over-ordered, and the bill was $250 with tax and a good tip. That included 2 large Sapporo beers, 2 bottles of Korean black raspberry wine (delicious) and a glass of Riesling.
If we were going back, I would order for 4 of us:
* Beef Combo $74 (thinly sliced beef brisket, delicious + marinated beef short rib, incredibly delicious + ribeye steak, delicious).
* Vegetable BBQ $13
* Dumpling soups $5 each
* the same drinks as above
This would have been closer to $160 for 4 of us, which is, frankly, cheap for the quality of food and enjoyment of the experience.
You also get (included) rice for each person, and probably 8 sides like Kimche, pickled radishes, green onions, potato salad, lettuce salad, etc. You can ask for more of any of the sides.
We also ordered the Pork Shoulder $19. It was fine, but without salt or seasoning the grilled pork wasn't very flavorful. I'd probably stick to the beef next time.
Toward the end of the night we ordered another thinly sliced Beef Brisket $25. We were all full when it arrived, so all rolled our eyes and said "what did we do?!?". Then we all 4 pounced and devoured every bite.
Great meal. Great restaurant. Definitely worth the price, though I'd order less next time because of the included sides and rice...
Get a reservation, bring people you love spending time with, and allow 2 hours for a great, social meal.
Don Pocha is an absolute gem, and northwest Columbus is really lucky to have it. read more