Yongsan Korean restaurant for family dinners: Modam Itaewon

A calm Korean dining space inside the Mondrian Hotel

This time, I visited Modam Itaewon in Itaewon. Since it is located inside a hotel, it has a different atmosphere from a typical Korean restaurant. The entrance felt upscale and calm from the start, so it caught my eye as a place for a family gathering or an important meal.

The overall atmosphere was especially quiet and neat, so I think it would suit anyone looking for a Korean dining place for a gathering in Itaewon. Rather than serving one huge dish, the meal brought together dishes using seasonal ingredients in a course, which made it nice to dine slowly. ^^

Location and parking

It is on the first floor of the Mondrian Hotel, 23 Jangmun-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, 921 m from Exit 3 of Noksapyeong Station. Paid parking is available; the first 120 minutes are free, then it is ₩8,000 per additional 60 minutes. 🚗

It is inside the hotel~ This is the lobby you see as soon as you enter. Wow, this space is so pretty,, 💕 You can see the Modam logo right at the back. With the soft lighting, it felt luxurious from the entrance, and the floors and walls were neatly finished, as you would expect from a hotel location.

From my first visit, the whole atmosphere felt calm, so I think it would be a great place for people looking for a Korean restaurant for a gathering in Itaewon.

Further inside, there is a distinctive metal door engraved with floral patterns. Flower-shaped decorations that seem to connect with Modam's logo cover the door, making it a detail that is hard to simply pass by. The soft lighting and metal material give this Korean restaurant a modern feel.

Inside, there was an open space with a long bench and a screen playing videos. Fabric decorations ripple across the ceiling, giving it a stylish feel that differs from a typical hotel Korean restaurant.

Seating suited to family meals and gatherings

In the dining area, there are neat table seats. The gray-toned sofa-style seating and wood-look tables are generously spaced apart. It felt like a nice setting to visit with family or have a quiet meal while talking.

The seats themselves have a degree of privacy, so they looked suitable for an important gathering or a family meal.

The soft lighting also made the whole room feel upscale. If you are looking into a venue for an Itaewon Korean dining meeting between families, the seating atmosphere here may be helpful to note.

There are private rooms too~ They are decorated in deeper tones, centered on black and dark gray. The marble-look table and modern lighting create a hotel-dining atmosphere. It is a space that would suit not only family gatherings but also meals with elders.

This is a table suited to group gatherings. Its white tabletop and wooden chairs create a different mood from the darker space at the front. It looked good for a gathering with several people or a family event. Food matters, but the seating and space matter too, right?! ^^

Modam Korean set-menu choices and prices

Here is the menu.

The handmade tteokgalbi set meal and assorted marinated seafood set meal are both ₩49,000 per person. The meal starts with seasonal porridge and continues through assorted appetizers, side dishes, rice, and dessert, so it really feels like enjoying a full meal. Let me tell you about each dish that came out.

Appetizers beginning with seasonal porridge

Before the meal began, a soft soybean porridge arrived, easy to eat without feeling heavy. It had the mild, nutty flavor characteristic of soybeans and a smooth texture. Clean and without an overpowering taste, it felt soothing before starting the full Korean course!

Seasonal raw fish was served too. It was clean and mild, and felt like a dish that refreshed the palate within the flow of the course.

This dish paired grilled vegetables and seasonal fruit with black sesame dressing.

The mild grilled vegetables, refreshing fruit, and nutty black sesame flavor came through together, making it a nice palate refresher.

There was also a green salad topped with crispy tiny dried-shrimp chips. The texture was fun, and the fresh vegetables went well with the nutty crunch of the shrimp chips.

The bracken and perilla-oil buckwheat noodles were fragrant and nutty from the bracken and perilla oil. They have a mild charm distinctive to Korean food, rather than the feel of an ordinary noodle dish!

Modam gangjeong (crispy glazed bites) was fried crisp and easy to eat in bite-sized pieces. Its sweet, nutty taste made it nice to pick at like a snack between dishes. The meal then continued with the day's rice, the day's soup or stew, Cheongyang water kimchi, three side dishes, and perilla-leaf sorbet.

Here is the whole spread~ So plentiful, right?? >_< Let me introduce each dish~

Handmade tteokgalbi set meal

This set includes handmade tteokgalbi (Korean grilled minced-meat patties), made in-house after 24 hours of aging, and grilled deodeok root.

What first caught my eye was, of course, the tteokgalbi in the middle and its accompaniments. The tteokgalbi is made in-house after aging for 24 hours, and instead of feeling coarsely minced, it was gently formed with a comfortable texture.

The tteokgalbi had the mild taste of the meat itself with gently seasoned notes, and it felt moist in each bite. The grilled deodeok had a subtle aroma and chewy texture, making it nice to alternate with the tteokgalbi. The tteokgalbi went especially well with rice, while the water kimchi refreshed the palate along the way, so I could finish without feeling rich.

Assorted marinated seafood set meal mixed with gamtae butter

This is a set meal where you mix in-house gamtae (seaweed) butter with marinated seafood—red shrimp, abalone, octopus, arongsatae beef shank, mushrooms, and more!

The key point of this dish is mixing it with the in-house gamtae butter.

When you mix the nutty gamtae butter into rice, it adds gamtae's fragrant ocean aroma along with the butter's soft, nutty richness. Add the marinated seafood on top, and a savory salty depth comes through too.

Each seafood ingredient had a different texture. The red shrimp was bouncy and gently sweet—so delicious.. 🦐❤️

With so many ingredients, it was fun to pick through them one by one. This egg is such a rice thief too!!

Finishing with perilla-leaf sorbet

Perilla-leaf sorbet came at the end, and its cool, fragrant perilla-leaf flavor made it a lovely finish to the meal.

The space itself is neat and the seating is comfortably arranged, making it well suited to a family meal or a meal with elders. Rather than spotlighting one large dish, I liked how the food let you taste a variety in sequence: seasonal porridge, salad, seasonal raw fish, buckwheat noodles, gangjeong, the main course, rice, and dessert.

Above all, the dishes did not push overpowering flavors, but instead felt like they brought out the ingredients' own tastes, which made it nice to dine slowly while talking. It is a place worth remembering when you want Korean food in a neat, modern atmosphere for a special day, rather than somewhere that is only formal. 🤍

Hours

Open daily 11:00–21:30, with a break time from 15:00–17:00. Last orders are at 13:40 and 20:10.