Which DOPI London Menu Made Them THE Korean Bar

There’s a Korean pocha in East London called DOPI, and what makes it interesting is how it stayed completely off the radar for so long. No influencer push, no ads, no campaigns. Just a quiet crowd of Korean models, creatives, and locals who preferred a calmer spot over the louder Korean bars in Soho.

In Korea, a pocha is a casual drinking place where the food is just as important as the drinks, and DOPI leans into that. It’s relaxed, simple, and feels made for people who want to switch off without any noise.

I first came across DOPI when I was craving Korean fried chicken and saw it on Uber Eats. When I tried it, I wasn’t expecting it to be that good.

So I reached out to them a few times to ask if they’d ever want to do something together. They weren’t sure at first, which makes sense. Who am I to them, really? But I kept trying. And after few month of going back and forth, they were opened up working with an influencer.

DOPI London

DOPI is technically spelled like 도피, the Korean word for “escaping.” But the funny part is that their front sign isn’t actually based on 도피소. It’s a play on 대피소, which means “shelter” or “emergency refuge” in Korea. The logo on their door looks almost exactly like the signs you see in Korean subway stations showing you where to go during an emergency.

They took that familiar symbol and turned it into their shopfront. So instead of a literal shelter, this becomes a kind of “food-and-soju shelter," a place you duck into when you need a break from London, from noise, from chaos, from everything outside.

The retro TV with the little camera, the bright plastic chairs, the quiet tables with tablets, and the posters that look like they were pulled from a 90s magazine (but in a modern way). It all feels like a space built for a small escape. A place where you can drink, eat, and not think too hard.

Why I Wanted to Cover DOPI

So after I tried it, I realized a lot my Korean friends knew about this place. They have been raving about this one dish.

But what pulled me in was their Obong set where you get several side dishes with two mains, and it makes the menu feel closer to a Korean home meal than a standard bar menu.

The sides dishes are egg roll, japchae, korean pancake, radishes, lettuce and six different sauces.

The Fried Chicken and The Sauces

Their chicken comes with sauces that actually have their own flavour. There is lemon may which is lemony in a fresh way with a creamy kick. There is sweet and spicy which we all very well know. And there is gochu mayo which is a creamy sauce with jalapeno in it. FYI, none of it is really spicy, although some say spicy.

And together they work well with drinks. It’s simple, steady food that makes sense when you think about how pochas work in Korea.

Kimchi Jjim Worth Talking About

The one dish that made me want to write about DOPI properly is their kimchi jjim. It’s aged kimchi slowly braised with pork belly and pork ribs, and everything blends into one steady flavour.

It’s not trying to be a showpiece. It just tastes like something someone took their time with. For me, this is the dish that shows what the restaurant is trying to do: keep things grounded and focus on flavour.

DOPI London Menu

Although almost all of my friends go for their kimchi jjim, there is also other variety of dishes as well. I want to say that their jeon was not the best though.

I also heard their jaeyook is really good as well.