Yeongdeungpo brunch café for a post-gym, pre-movie date: Mela

The day before the holiday: why we picked Mela Times Square for post-workout brunch

Mela Times Square is a brunch café inside Times Square in Yeongdeungpo, so it was perfect to eat lunch right after a morning workout and then head straight into the mall for a movie. The day before Chuseok, our company announced a full company-wide day off, so the holiday suddenly became +1 day hahaha. Even accounting for using annual leave, the holiday stretched to five days, and I was just so happy to finally get an early morning workout in after a long while.

Since my partner was up in Seoul anyway, we worked out together and then wanted something light for lunch, so I searched around and found Mela Times Square, a brunch café right inside Times Square! We also happened to have movie plans at Times Square, so it lined up perfectly. Gym date > brunch > movie date — quite the accomplished course.

Where exactly is Mela Times Square?

Mela Times Square is on the 1st floor of Times Square, right across from the large H&M store. Coming up from the parking lot via the escalator toward the E-mart side (I think it was the orange zone), we spotted it right away.

Times Square is so huge that I wasn't sure where it'd be, but being across from H&M made it surprisingly easy to find. It was almost our reservation time and I was worried about being late, but since it didn't take long to find, we luckily weren't late.

Is it worth booking a table even for a weekday lunch?

Mela Times Square gets a lot of customers with reservations even on weekday lunches, so I was glad we'd booked ahead via Naver Reservations. It was a weekday lunch, the day before the holiday started, but since we're big fans of reserving ahead, we booked through Naver Reservations before heading over. They gave us a window seat, so once again I was glad we'd made a reservation.

Naver Reservations is love 💚 Sitting by the window meant we could see both the inside of Times Square and the outdoor area, so we could eat without feeling boxed in.

How varied is Mela's menu?

Mela Times Square's menu was more varied than I expected — toast-based brunch, plus pizza, pasta, and even risotto. So I ended up with decision paralysis ,,, thinking maybe I should get toast since it's brunch, but then the pasta was calling to me too ,,,

After a lot of deliberation, we decided each of us would pick the one dish we absolutely wanted! We ordered the pastry pepperoni pizza + carbonara. You could probably guess who picked what haha.

For drinks, my partner had iced tea and I had apple ade. Both sweet drinks, which seemed like they'd pair well with the salty, rich dishes.

Even though there were quite a few people since it was lunchtime, the food came out faster than expected, which I appreciated. We were hungry after working out, so that worked out well ,,,, Thinking back, we came to a brunch café planning to eat light since we'd be eating right after exercising, but we ended up with pizza and pasta lol. Whatever ~~~~ the holiday is starting ~~~~ time for a 5-day pig-out party ~~~~

Mela's carbonara: a rich, traditional-style dish with a yolk to pop

Mela's carbonara is a thick cream pasta where you pop the egg yolk on top and mix it in. I'd been craving a traditional-style carbonara, so eating it after a long time was so good. Saucier pastas are great, but sometimes you crave this kind of thick, rich one too, y'know ㅎ (whatever, ㅎ). Maybe because I was tired from working out, it tasted even better — it really hit the spot.

Mela's pepperoni pastry pizza: loaded with pepperoni, a salty post-workout recharge

The pepperoni pizza my partner wanted had a pastry dough, which I loved. Pastry-crust pizza seems to be trending everywhere lately, and since I really like pastry pizza in general, Mela's version was just as delicious. The dough was tasty, and it was loaded with tons of pepperoni, so it was nice and salty — the perfect post-workout recharge haha.

We cleaned our plates again ㅎ Let's just say we worked out hard enough to earn it ㅎ The carbonara and pepperoni pizza combo was pretty great together. Good menu choices, and it was quite filling ㅎ

What's the atmosphere like at Mela inside the busy Times Square?

Times Square itself is packed with people and pretty noisy overall, but the inside of Mela Times Square was quieter than expected, making it a nice spot for a relaxed conversation over a meal. A lot of people visit Times Square for shopping or movie dates with partners or friends, and this seems like a good place to stop by when you're craving brunch.

We meant to eat light right after working out, but there were so many appetizing menu items that we ended up eating properly on today's brunch date. Ate well and fully today too 🍕🍝