Second-round ramen in Gwangjin: motsu and tori paitan at Mentsuru

30 seconds on foot from Children's Grand Park Station, a friendly and delicious authentic Japanese ramen restaurant in Konkuk: Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch. 📍394 Gwangnaru-ro, 1st floor, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul

I met up with my boyfriend in Gunja after work. We had sashimi and beer at a nice-vibe izakaya, but since we're both huge eaters, we weren't quite full haha. Feeling like something was missing, we looked around for more food nearby and decided — let's go Japanese tonight — and found a ramen place. We ended up at Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch, a Konkuk-area favorite! It's a Japanese ramen restaurant unusually centered on chicken broth, with quite a few chain locations around — I've been to the City Hall Station branch before.

Where is Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch, and what does it look like?

Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch is about 50m from Exit 4 of Children's Grand Park Station on subway line 7. You can find it quickly right after coming out of the exit. It's actually closer to Sejong University and Gwangjin Plaza than to the main gate of Children's Grand Park. The restaurant sits on the first floor of a building right on the main road, so it wasn't hard to find. For a ramen shop, the exterior looked pretty upscale, more like an izakaya.

Inside Mentsuru: bar seats with phone stands and tables

The interior kept that distinctive Japanese ramen shop feel without being too dark or cramped. There are both bar-style seats and regular tables, so it works fine for solo diners, groups of two or three, and even family visits. Wood tones and dark colors gave the place a calm yet warm feeling. The soft lighting also gave it a bit of a late-night-eatery mood.

There were bar seats in front of the kitchen as well as tables, and we took a table further inside.

Seating was fairly generous for a ramen restaurant, so it seemed like a good spot even for a bigger group!

The solo-dining seats even had phone stands — nice touch!

Mentsuru menu and how to order

Ordering was done via table order. Mentsuru's signature menu items are shoyu ramen, shio ramen, tori paitan, motsu ramen, and abura soba. Besides ramen, there are rice bowl dishes like hormone-don (offal rice bowl) and gyudon (beef rice bowl), plus sides like fried gyoza and karaage. The wide menu range was a real plus.

If you like a clear, light broth, shio ramen is a good pick; if you want a classic Japanese ramen with soy sauce flavor, go for shoyu ramen. For a rich, smooth broth, tori paitan; for something spicy and fatty with gopchang (beef intestine), motsu ramen fits well. If you like noodles without broth, there's abura soba, and if you'd rather have rice than noodles, there's hormone-don or gyudon.

There's regular ramen too, but the motsu ramen (beef intestine ramen) caught my eye right away, so that's what I ordered. My boyfriend went looking for tonkotsu ramen, couldn't find it, and ended up ordering the tori paitan with its pale, similar-looking broth instead. Since he's a protein lover, he added extra chashu too.

We ordered via table order, but there was also a kiosk at the entrance, so it looks like you can order that way too.

• Motsu ramen (beef intestine ramen) ₩15,000
• Tori paitan ₩12,000 (+extra chashu ₩2,500)
• Total ₩29,500 (for two)

How does the motsu ramen taste at Mentsuru?

Basic side dish: pickled radish.

And here comes the food.

My order, the motsu ramen, has a spicy broth topped with torch-grilled beef intestine, and it's Mentsuru's signature dish. It came piled with green onions.

There was a generous amount of beef intestine on top of the broth. Chewy and tender — so good.

Because of the intestine, the broth was red and oily, and since I ordered it spicy, it had a good kick.

It felt more like a gopchang hot pot or a spicy hangover soup than typical ramen. Recommended for anyone who loves gopchang!

Tori paitan: a rich broth close to Korean chicken soup

My boyfriend's order, tori paitan, is made by simmering chicken deeply until the broth turns pale and thick.

Anyone who likes tonkotsu ramen or is expecting classic Japanese ramen will probably enjoy the tori paitan even more.

It's rich and definitely tastes like chicken broth — kind of like a Korean chicken soup? I asked out of curiosity, and it turns out the meat topping is actually pork.

Is Mentsuru worth it for a second round in Gwangjin?

Cleaned both bowls again today!

It was a great place to drop by casually. The food was tasty, there was no lingering smell from the intestine or meat, they'll give you rice if you want it, the restaurant is spacious and comfortable, and the staff were incredibly kind — a Konkuk favorite for all these reasons. It would make a nice date spot between Sejong University and Konkuk, and also a great solo-dining option for students from either school.