Basement-seat ramen date near City Hall, Seoul: Mentsuru mazesoba

Had a date with my boyfriend at Deoksugung Palace haha! Checked out the City Hall observatory too and then went for a late lunch at Mentsuru, an office workers' favorite near City Hall Station — second visit! Still so delicious, Mentsuru City Hall Branch ♥︎

Mentsuru City Hall Branch: a ramen stop before or after Deoksugung's night opening

A ramen spot right near City Hall Station that's perfect around Deoksugung's night opening — Mentsuru! I visited in winter and came back after a while. The weather's getting cooler these days and Deoksugung is doing its night opening, so I really recommend having a delicious dinner at a City Hall restaurant and then a Deoksugung date — you'll make such great memories! ^-^*

Even on a Saturday late lunch, Mentsuru City Hall Branch was really packed with customers. A City Hall office workers' favorite where solo dining is totally fine too!

Kiosk ordering and the basement seats at Mentsuru

There's a kiosk when you walk in haha. You order, they call your number, and then you get seated! Both this time and last time we went down to the basement haha. The basement was cozy and had a nice atmosphere too.

A ramen restaurant that's great around Deoksugung's night opening, and also a City Hall spot that's good for solo dining! They give you kimchi, water, chopsticks, and tissues haha.

Since it's such a busy place, they had a sign phrased nicely so you wouldn't feel bad about it, basically asking you to focus on eating rather than chatting — which actually let us focus on the food and enjoy it more! There are lots of pretty cafés nearby too haha.

Lots of solo diners at this City Hall restaurant, and it was really busy, but the food comes out fast! It arrived in under 10 minutes after ordering haha. My boyfriend ordered the cold tsukemen and I ordered the mazesoba haha.

Cold tsukemen, 12,000 won: how does the summer menu taste?

Cold tsukemen is a summer menu item — think of it as a chilled ramen where you dip the noodles into a tangy, refreshing sauce!

The noodles come topped like this with the red sauce served separately, and it's ₩12,000! If you like refreshing cold dishes, I think it's definitely worth ordering before summer ends haha.

I think you really have to taste it to understand the spicy-tangy flavor! It's a sauce that feels kind of special and hard to describe, so eat it thinking you're on a trip to Japan haha.

It was my boyfriend's first time trying it too, and even though it was unfamiliar, he said he kept reaching for more, praising the meat topping and egg, and finished every bit of it haha.

Mazesoba: a thick mixed noodle dish like Tuscan-style pasta

I ordered the mazesoba! It was super popular for a while haha, but this was my first time actually trying it haha.

A mixed noodle dish with toppings piled on top! Sautéed meat, seaweed, green onion, and plenty of chives — the sauce was so thick and delicious haha.

Once you mix it well, this is what it looks like! It has that thick, rich texture like Tuscan pasta — rich, nutty, and delicious haha.

Depending on your taste, they say drizzling a bit of kelp vinegar gives it a different flavor, but I don't like tangy stuff so I passed!

The side dish: handmade gara-age for 7,000 won

I also ordered a side menu item — handmade gara-age for ₩7,000 haha. It came with about 5–6 big pieces of fried chicken! I tried the gyoza and chicken skin last time, so this time I ordered this — totally delicious haha.

Fried chicken can't really go wrong, but maybe because the chicken was really fresh, there was no smell at all, and even the skin part was super crispy. Really great as a side dish haha.

Mayonnaise sauce and chili sauce came alongside it too, so dipping it in was rich and delicious — such tasty gara-age! The pieces were really big and plump haha.

Verdict for two, and where to go next around Deoksugung

Both my boyfriend and I were trying these dishes for the first time, and even though they were unfamiliar, they were so delicious we didn't leave anything haha. The portions were big too, so even though the rice was free, we couldn't finish it haha.

Because there was a lot of green onion and chives, it had a slightly spicy edge, but the sauce was so good we scraped the bowl clean without leaving anything~ I think mixing in rice would've made it even better, but we were too full to try haha. When you're craving ramen around Deoksugung's night opening, definitely visit Mentsuru City Hall Branch!