Gwangjin rice-bowl restaurant: egg-yolk hormone-don at Mentsuru

The day I went to see 10CM's 2026 Olhaedo Geullasschu concert! I slipped out a bit before the show ended and headed to dinner with my partner at Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch, a ramen restaurant right by Children's Grand Park Station. We ordered spicy shoyu ramen and hormone-don — let me share the vibe of the place and how the food actually tasted.

Where is Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch, and the basics

• 📍 Location: 394 Gwangnaru-ro, 1st floor, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• ⏰ Hours: Daily 11:00–23:00, last order 22:30
• 🚗 Parking: Not available
• 💳 Reservations: Available via Naver Reservations

We booked ahead through Naver before heading over. Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch is about a 1-minute walk from Exit 4 of Children's Grand Park Station, so it's easy to reach by subway. It also looked like a solid stop if you're already around Children's Grand Park or Sejong University.

We arrived around 6:50pm on a Sunday. We'd just watched 10CM's Olhaedo Geullasschu concert and left a little early to head straight to Mentsuru.

Mentsuru at 6:50pm on a Sunday: the room and the seats

Walking in, the place was packed — must have been the Sunday evening crowd. Around 6:50pm it was hard to spot an empty table, practically full. But a table was just being cleared as we arrived, so we got lucky and sat down with zero wait. There's a mix of bar seats and regular tables, so it looked comfortable whether you're dining solo or with company.

The kitchen is open, so you can watch the cooking from your seat. Sit at the bar and you get a front-row view of the ramen being made — fun to watch while you wait for your food~

The Mentsuru logo and posters on the wall gave it a bit of that distinct Japanese-ramen-shop feel. It was busy, but the space itself stayed clean and organized, never chaotic.

When I visited, a Naver photo review event was running too — leave a photo review and get a drink or fried gyoza, worth knowing if you're planning a visit.

How to order at Mentsuru and what's on the menu

When we walked in there wasn't an open seat yet, so staff asked us to order first at the kiosk by the entrance. Right after we finished ordering, we were shown to a table that had just been cleared.

The menu was bigger than I expected. On the ramen side there was shoyu ramen, spicy shoyu ramen, shio ramen, tori paitan, motsu ramen, and abura soba — quite a range. There were also rice bowls like hormone-don and gyudon, plus sides like karaage (Japanese fried chicken) and chicken skin gyoza.

We went with spicy shoyu ramen at ₩11,000 and hormone-don at ₩15,000. We also added extra seaweed and egg to the spicy shoyu ramen.

We ordered one hormone-don and one spicy shoyu ramen and shared them between us. Laid out side by side, it made for a pretty generous spread haha.

Hormone-don, 15,000 won: beef intestine and beef belly with an egg yolk

Hormone-don is a rice bowl of beef intestine and beef belly finished with Mentsuru's own sauce. It came stacked generously with meat over rice, with an egg yolk sitting right in the center.

As soon as it arrived, I popped the yolk and mixed it through the rice and meat.

Bite into the beef intestine and the rich fat bursts in your mouth, and paired with the sweet-salty sauce and the smooth egg yolk — ★ so good ˶ › Ⱉ ‹ ˶ As someone who's already partial to beef intestine rice bowls, for me it was hormone-don >>> ramen. If I come back, I'm definitely getting the hormone-don again~!!

Spicy shoyu ramen, 11,000 won: how spicy is it, and how salty is the broth?

Spicy shoyu ramen has a punchy broth built on a clam and chicken stock base. It looks pretty spicy just by sight, but to my palate it was milder than Shin Ramyun.

Whenever I eat Japanese ramen, the broth's often so salty I struggle to finish it — but Mentsuru's spicy shoyu ramen wasn't nearly as seasoned as I expected, which I appreciated. The egg and chashu (braised pork slices) were tender and tasty too! Though it did have a faintly familiar instant-noodle-ish taste. The broth felt closer to Korean-style ramyeon than to Japanese ramen, if that makes sense...?

A line at Mentsuru by the time we finished dinner

We finished up and stepped outside around 7:30pm on Sunday. The place was already nearly full when we walked in, but by the time we left there was quite a crowd waiting out front.

※ That said, this was right around when 10CM's Olhaedo Geullasschu concert let out, so the crowd may have been heavier than usual. We got lucky with no wait, but there could well be a line on Sunday evenings, so keep that in mind.

Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch, our dinner stop with my partner after the 10CM concert! The spicy shoyu ramen was good, but for me the hormone-don — plump beef intestine with that sweet-salty sauce — stuck with me the most! If you're near Children's Grand Park Station or Sejong University looking for a good ramen or rice-bowl spot, I'd say give it a try♥︎