Paranhodu, Korean Restaurant, Lewisham Way, New Cross

Vegetarian dumplings

Just before Christmas I was alerted to the opening of a new Korean restaurant on Lewisham Way. The restaurant has been looking quite busy as I've cycled past on my way home from work this week and the online reviews are all really positive talking of authentic Korean food and generous portions.

We decided to brave the cold weather on Saturday night to go and check it out.

It's hard to say this about a small independent business who are obviously trying hard, but neither of us were that wowed by Paranhodu. It didn't have the big servings to make it an excellent value proposition, in fact I thought the amount of squid in our spicy stir fry was a little meagre. And although I'm not that familiar with Korean food (hopefully that will change later in the year when we visit) but the flavours didn't amaze us either.

However, it might just be us that are out of kilter with the restaurant. The small restaurant had more or less filled up by the time we left and a couple of people had popped into collect takeaway orders, so they are clearly doing something right.

Spicy stir fried squid and beef bulgogi

Paranhodu
125 Lewisham Way
London
SE14 6QJ
UK

Restaurant Review: Po Cha Korean, Tottenham Court Road

Bulgogi Bibimbap

On Tuesday night I had dinner with my good friend Ed to celebrate the end of his exams. "I fancy Korean" came the text and why not when you work close to London's own K-Town, a small strip of Korean restaurants located just behind Centre Point?

Ed arrived first and chose Po Cha on the basis that it looked the busiest restaurant, filled with young Koreans eating dinner. As we stepped into the restaurant we feared we'd be turned away, but luckily they had plenty of space in their basement dining room.

Pickled raddish

Sadly the cheap and cheerful Po Cha doesn't give away selection of pickled dishes to snack on while you look at the menu so we had to order a couple of our own. I found the picked raddish / daikon (£2) addictive. The daikon still retained some crunch and was enhanced by a quick dunk in the chilli sauce which accompanied the bibimbap.

We also ordered the classic kimchi (£2) a generous plate of fermented cabbage. It wasn't as spicy as I expecting from the large pieces of chilli I could see in the kimchi.

Kimchi

The health and safety police seem to prevent the serving of raw eggs, as our Bulgogi Bibimbap (£8.50) came served with a fried egg rather than the traditional raw yolk. We should have been braver with the amount of the smokey chilli sauce that we stirred through the bibimbap, but it was still pretty good.

Spicy pork and tofu

The fearsome looking spicy pork and tofu (£9) came served on a sizzling hot plate. Despite it's bright red glow the dish wasn't as hot as I expected, a recurring theme of the evening. (A quick search tells me Korean chilli is actually a milder kind.) The tender pork and soft tofu wasn't quite as exciting as I expected it to be. Perhaps it did need to be a little hotter?

Washed down by a Korean beer Po Cha was fun, cheap and fast. Definitely worth remembering if you are in the Tottenham Court area and need a quick feed.

Po-Chun Ma-Cha
56 Saint Giles High Street
London
WC2H 8LH