Hanam Misa ramen set with a takoyaki ball and mini yakitori don: Menji

Menji, the ramen restaurant in the Hanam Misa food alley

Menji MENJI, a Hanam Misa ramen restaurant. Maybe it's the chilly weather, but I've been craving hot soup dishes lately — not sure if it's just me, but on weekdays I only cook dinner, so cooking lunch on weekends is such a hassle 🥲 So I went out haha. This food alley behind Mangwol Elementary is one I've basically been to every spot in — but I had no idea there was a ramen place here. Looked pretty new 'ㅅ'

Why Menji sits inside a bakery in Hanam Misa

From the outside, you can see they also sell bread — Menji Ramen is set up inside the Ezy White bakery. So when I first walked in, I was like — huh, is this the right place? Then someone who looked like the owner told me if I'm looking for the ramen place, this is it, come on in. Even though it was past the weekend lunch rush, there were still a lot of people and even a wait.

Overall the interior was narrow and cozy, feeling like a real Japanese izakaya. Various anime characters and goods — Crayon Shin-chan, Ghibli, One Piece — decorated every corner of the place. All the tables were full so I sat at the counter and looked over the menu haha.

What we ordered at Menji and what it cost

Ordered two handmade ramen + mini pork loin tonkatsu sets! The ramen type in the set could be changed to your liking.

• ❤️ Tori paitan ramen
• 💙 Spicy tori paitan ramen

Also added one mini yakitori don on top of that.

Tori paitan ramen + pork loin tonkatsu set, 16,500 won

Tori paitan ramen + pork loin tonkatsu 1 set, priced at ₩16,500. It came out fast after ordering. Whoa — it looked so good visually, and especially that pale, rich chicken broth had me wanting to dig in right away.

The bowl had two slices of char siu on top, along with a soft-boiled egg and sliced chicken. It came with mini rice, kkakdugi, and one taco-yaki ball. Such a precious little taco-yaki haha.

Once I tasted it, I got why people were lining up. It tasted different from typical ramen. Most ramen broths are tonkotsu made from pork bones, but Menji's ramen is made entirely from chicken, so the broth felt rich yet clean and delicious.

Spicy tori paitan ramen set, 17,000 won: how hot is it?

Spicy tori paitan ramen + pork loin tonkatsu 1 set, priced at ₩17,000. Since I swapped the ramen type, it was +₩500 over the base price. My friend wanted something spicy so we ordered this, and honestly it looked even more delicious than mine.

Piled high with cheongyang chili and chili seasoning on top of the base tori paitan ramen, it looked spicy just from looking at it.

Menji's house-made fresh noodles, menma and soft-boiled tamago

Maybe because they're house-made aged fresh noodles, when I lifted the strands with my chopsticks they didn't break at all — such a nice bouncy, chewy texture. The long brown ingredient next to the noodles was menma, pickled bamboo shoots, which was crunchy and chewy and paired really well with the ramen :3

The soft-boiled tamago was mal-mo-mal-mo (perfectly jiggly) ✨ I was eating away but the amount just wasn't going down.. eating the egg made me even fuller!

How good is the mini pork loin tonkatsu in the Menji set?

The pork loin tonkatsu that came along >_< the breading was super crispy, so the moment I bit in it was crunch! Crispy outside, juicy inside — good to eat alongside the ramen haha.

I also dipped it in the tonkatsu sauce that came with it — the sweet sauce paired really well with the crispy loin, and it went great alongside the tori paitan ramen.

Mini yakitori don, 4,500 won: worth adding to the ramen

Mini yakitori don, priced at ₩4,500. Menji has both a chicken karaage don and a yakitori don, but the full sizes were too much to finish, so since they had a mini size I ordered one to share alongside everything hehe 😋

Grilling the chicken over open flame gives it a full smoky char and a sweet-and-savory flavor that felt very Japanese. Adding a bit of wasabi and green onion on top made it even better 👍🏻

Overall the portions were good and the price felt reasonable, and the food was excellent on its own — I want to come back again! On days like these with big temperature swings, hot soup dishes are the best, so give it a try.

Menji Hanam Misa Branch: parking, waiting time and hours

Parking space is on the limited side, so if you find parking nearby, grab it. There may be a wait, but turnover is fast, and since there's also a bakery in the store, it's easy to wait comfortably.

• Weekdays 11:00 - 20:30 / Break time 15:00 - 17:00 / Last order 20:00
• Weekends 11:00 - 20:30 / Last order 20:00