Ichon-dong brunch for three in Seoul: tomato ragu pasta at Mellang

A brunch spot near Ichon Station and the National Museum of Korea Mellang

What kind of brunch café is Mellang, near the National Museum of Korea?

I stopped by Mellang, a brunch café near Ichon Station, after visiting the calm, quiet National Museum of Korea. My friend said it's already a pretty well-known brunch spot around Ichon Station and Ichon-dong. The interior looks just as clean and put-together as you'd expect from a brunch café, so let me introduce it.

It's a café with an open kitchen and generously spaced tables that don't crowd into each other haha. Best of all, there's a restroom inside the café, so you don't have to use the shared building restroom!!

The calm atmosphere matched the vibe of Ichon-dong well, I think. A lot of local residents in casual clothes were dropping by too!! Some were enjoying daytime wine along with their brunch.

We'd booked ahead through Catch Table, so they set us up at a table right by the big windows!! Summer greenery, quiet Ichon-dong, and delicious brunch~

What's on the menu at Mellang

Since it's a brunch café, I liked that they had a dedicated brunch menu — two kinds of salads. There was also the Mellang Platter, kind of an American-breakfast feel(?), with bacon, scrambled eggs, avocado, toasted bread and salad haha. We went with the French toast topped with fresh fruit. Nothing gets me more excited than French toast at a brunch café. Buttery French toast!!!

Besides the French toast, we also ordered the tomato ragu pasta and the aged kimchi cream risotto~~

How do the tomato ragu pasta and aged kimchi cream risotto taste?

Here's the tomato ragu pasta!! Tomato and beef simmered down into a ragu sauce, tossed with pasta and topped with grated cheese. There was a slight anchovy note and a salty edge — sweet-salty, sweet-salty — that paired perfectly with the other brunch dishes. And it had an oil-based feel too??

This is the aged kimchi cream risotto!! A loose, saucy cream risotto with finely chopped aged kimchi (mukeunji) mixed in.

The French toast that came out next was served with maple syrup and vanilla ice cream~~ plus banana and green grapes as a bonus!! haha

Personally, I thought the tomato ragu pasta was the tastiest~ Loaded with tomato and ragu sauce, plus plenty of onion and mushroom.

The portion of noodles was huge too lol. I don't think I can go back to skimpy brunch portions~~~

The aged kimchi risotto felt focused on the flavor of the cream — a bit mild but nutty~~? My friend who joined us lives in Yongsan and said she often orders from this brunch café's delivery menu. So yeah, this is a brunch spot Yongsan locals actually vouch for.

Mellang's French toast: fried in breadcrumbs

The French toast wasn't the egg-dipped kind — it was slices of white bread coated in breadcrumbs and fried crisp in butter.

Even the ice cream on the side looked so round and pretty I wondered if it was actually butter — nice touch haha. My friend kindly cut everything up for us, thanks~~

Dipping it in the ice cream, or eating it with the banana and green grapes — the combination was so good. I'm at the age where sweet things are just always welcome~~~~

The three of us completely cleaned our plates~~~~~~~ ha ha ha. Everyone agreed the food was clean-tasting and delicious~~

Where to go after lunch in Ichon-dong: Dongbinggo and Hangang Park

After the meal, there was no wait at Dongbinggo, the famous patbingsu (red bean shaved ice) spot in Ichon-dong, so we grabbed dessert as round two.

We also caught a beautiful sunset at Ichon Hangang Park. Ichon-dong is just so lovely 🖤 Close to the Han River and close to the National Museum of Korea, Mellang was perfect for brunch!! A good time with a brunch menu that's also my Yongsan-resident friend's go-to delivery order haha.