City Hall Station ramen shop after work: abura soba & gyoza, Mentsuru

Mentsuru City Hall Branch (멘츠루 시청점) is a ramen shop near City Hall Station in Seoul where you can enjoy authentic Japanese ramen. It works for an office-worker dinner or a solo meal.

The menu runs from deep, rich broth ramen to light, clean shoyu ramen and the fiery motsu ramen (made with offal) that keeps people coming back, all true to Japanese ramen, so you can pick whatever suits your taste.

Where is Mentsuru City Hall Branch?

Mentsuru City Hall Branch is in the building right in front of Exit 10 of City Hall Station. It sits between Chungjeongno and City Hall Station, so a lot of office workers seem to stop by after work for a solo meal with a draft beer.

Inside Mentsuru City Hall Branch: ground floor and basement seating

The shop runs on two floors, and the ground floor is mostly counter tables with a few 2-person tables. This is what it looks like inside, and even though it was a fairly late weekday evening, it was packed.

And this is the basement! Both floors have a similar vibe, so you can just sit wherever you like.

Both floors were busy. There were couples on a date who came for ramen after work, and also foreign tourists visiting Korea.

Mentsuru City Hall Branch menu and kiosk ordering tips

You order at a kiosk, and not only is there a wide range of ramen, you can add toppings separately to each one, which is a plus. The menu looks like this.

+ There are quite a few kiosks inside, and each one can order one or two menu items that the others can't, so if the one you're at doesn't have what you want, just slide over to the next kiosk.

What does the tori paitan taste like?

Mentsuru's tori paitan (creamy chicken broth ramen) is a rich, hearty bowl made by simmering chicken bones for a long time. I loved the milky-white color of the broth right away.

The noodles were springy and good, and above all, one sip of the broth was so rich it felt like a restorative meal. I loved that.

The creamy white broth is the base, and my friend added the spicy option. Even that had no artificially harsh heat, just a savory depth, which I liked!

+ Rice refills are free at Mentsuru City Hall Branch, so even big eaters can finish the noodles, ask for a bowl of rice, mix it in, and wrap up a full, filling meal.

The signature abura soba, and how to eat it with an added egg

Abura soba (oil noodles) is Mentsuru's signature dish. Unlike regular broth ramen, it's an oil-based ramen seasoned with Mentsuru's own five oils, I'm told. It's what I ordered, and personally my favorite thing at Mentsuru!

The moment it came out, the colorful toppings piled on top made my appetite kick in.

Unlike the broth dishes, you just mix abura soba once, and fully mixed it looks like this. I added the spicy option and one egg (tamago). With abura soba, adding an egg, breaking the yolk and mixing it all through makes it even better.

Because it's seasoned with oil, the sauce clings to the noodles better, and it's such a well-made ramen with so much savory depth that whenever I come to Mentsuru, abura soba is what comes to mind.

With so many toppings, every way of eating them together tastes slightly different, and I liked that each of those different tastes feels like its own signature.

++ As with the other dishes, you absolutely have to ask for rice and mix it in at the end of the abura soba... It feels like mazesoba (brothless mixed noodles) evolved one step further.

Side dish chicken skin gyoza and after-work draft beer

I ordered the chicken skin gyoza (dumplings) as a side at Mentsuru City Hall Branch. It's one I always order when I see it.

I like gyoza, and I like chicken skin dishes too, so by my taste there's no way to dislike this. It's good on its own, and good dipped in the chili sauce that comes with it.

Since I was meeting a friend after work, we had a draft beer each too.

This is what I live for, honestly.

Is Mentsuru City Hall Branch worth going back to?

Even though Mentsuru City Hall Branch is a ramen shop in the authentic Japanese style, the prices are low, which is a real plus. The regular broth ramen is good, but the oil-based dishes like abura soba are distinctive and delicious, so I recommend it.