Yeouido IFC Mall Korean restaurant with kids' tableware: Modam Urban

I use Yeouido's IFC Mall pretty often, so naturally I pass by the dining floor all the time too — but I'd always just walked past Modam Urban until we finally had a family meal there right before Chuseok. It's a clean, polished restaurant, and it seemed like the kind of place people use for all sorts of gatherings, even meetings between families before a wedding.

Where Modam Urban is in IFC Mall, and how the seating works

It's on the L3 dining floor of IFC Mall, right on the main walkway, so as you're walking through you'll spot Modam Urban's modern-looking storefront.

The restaurant has both hall seating and private rooms — hall seating starts from 2 people, rooms from 4 people and up. We'd booked ahead and were seated at our reserved table, B2.

Maybe because we'd reserved in advance, the table was already perfectly set when we arrived.

The six appetizers that come with every main course

The biggest strength of Modam Urban is the six appetizers that come out automatically when you order a main dish.

The mains might seem pricey at first glance, but that's because of the incredible spread of appetizers that comes with them — mung bean porridge, salad, mushroom terrine with truffle chamnamul (a wild herb) salad, spicy mushroom gangjeong, cold platters and more. Honestly, these appetizers alone are reason enough to come to Modam Urban.

First off, they had kids' tableware ready for us, of course~

The appetizers were set out the moment we ordered — pure neatness itself. Our family's been really into salads lately, and I found myself wondering: how do they make something this clean-looking taste this good? We started with the napa cabbage salad.

The perilla oil cappellini was so nutty that even my 4-year-old daughter ate it up happily.

The cold platter with smoked duck settles your stomach nicely before a Korean meal that can otherwise feel heavy, and it helps keep blood sugar spikes in check.

The spicy mushroom gangjeong was genuinely spicy, and the mushroom texture was made amazingly well.

My personal favorite was the mushroom terrine with truffle chamnamul salad. As a total mushroom addict, this was my first time trying mushroom terrine — the fun, gelatinous texture combined with the nutty chamnamul made for amazing synergy. It seems like a lot of modern Korean restaurants are using chamnamul these days, and when it's done well, it's genuinely delicious.

The nutty mung bean porridge topped with black sesame was served separately as a starter.

Handmade tteokgalbi with abalone and crab-broth octopus pasta

We ordered the handmade tteokgalbi with grilled abalone so we'd have something to share with the toddler! It comes with live abalone from Wando, gim-bugak (fried seaweed snack), and two beautifully grilled tteokgalbi patties.

The most important thing with tteokgalbi is grilling it without burning it, and this one wasn't overly sweet — the seasoning was spot on. My daughter clearly loved it too, since she kept asking for more rice to go with it.

The crab-broth octopus pasta: the octopus itself was so tender, and the umami of the handmade crab sauce was incredible.

How do I put it... it's pasta, but with Korean flavors woven in — think of it as high-end pasta. For reference, the noodles are linguine, on the thicker side.

The standard rice comes as barley rice with napa cabbage soup — genuinely healthy, tidy Korean food.

Why Modam Urban works for parents and a 4-year-old at once

They also serve braised kimchi and baek-kimchi (white kimchi) alongside everything else, and my parents were so satisfied with how clean and refined the food was that I felt like we'd made the right call for a family meal. Even my daughter, who'd already had dinner at daycare, cleaned her plate — proof that Modam Urban satisfies everyone from young to old. It's probably full of Yeouido office workers at lunch, and families out for dinner or weekend meals, but between the menu composition, the atmosphere, and the taste plus the healthiness of it all, I'd strongly recommend it as a top Korean restaurant in Yeouido.

Finally, they finish things off with milk pudding. It was a clean way to end the meal, and my daughter enjoyed it too. If you're looking for a polished restaurant with fusion Korean food in Yeouido's IFC, Modam Urban is the only answer.