Weekend lunch open-run for tuna rice bowl at Padong, Mapo, Seoul

Hapjeong and Mangwon get packed no matter where you go on a weekend lunch, so this time I timed it to arrive right at opening. I thought of Padong, a Mangwon spot I'd visited once before, and headed back — even with an open-run, people were already streaming in. Still, we just barely grabbed a table in time, so we got in without waiting this round.

I wanted to try something different from last time, but of course the steak and salmon dishes were both sold out that day. After some deliberating, we ordered futomaki (thick seaweed roll), mazesoba (brothless mixed noodles), and a tuna rice bowl, plus a bottle of Asahi since the price was decent. Splitting three dishes between us felt totally different from just eating one rice bowl, and this visit turned out to be pretty fun too.

Weekend lunch open-run — was there really no wait?

If you're visiting Padong Hapjeong for weekend lunch, I'd say it's worth heading over a bit early. We went right at opening and it still wasn't relaxed enough to pick any seat we liked — a little later and we probably would've been waiting outside. Thanks to the open-run, though, we started eating without any extra wait this time.

Padong is at 47 World Cup-ro 17-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, basement level, reachable from between Hapjeong and Mangwon stations. It's a decent spot to pair with a walk around Hapjeong or Mangwon before or after eating, and works well as an option for a weekend date meal. If you'd rather avoid the busiest hours, timing it to opening like I did makes things a bit more relaxed.

Inside the basement-level dining room

Padong is on the basement level, but once inside it felt less cramped than expected thanks to a half-basement layout with high ceilings. Wooden tables and chairs fill the space, and the lighting isn't too bright, so it felt calm even at lunchtime. I also liked that the interior mood didn't clash with the Japanese menu.

It seems like it'd suit an evening drink just as well, but coming for weekend lunch worked fine too. The vibe is a bit different from the bustling main Hapjeong street, so it'd come to mind if you want to avoid a chaotic restaurant during a Hapjeong date. Coming back after my last visit, the atmosphere still held up.

Steak and salmon sold out — three dishes instead

I'd planned to order something different from last time, but there was a curveball right from the start. Both the steak and salmon I wanted were sold out, so I ended up staring at the menu for a while. In the end we picked futomaki, mazesoba, and a tuna rice bowl, ordering to split between the two of us.

Ordering this way actually made for a much more interesting spread than sticking to one dish. With futomaki and mazesoba being so different in character, plus the tuna rice bowl, it was easy to eat back and forth, and the lineup barely overlapped with my last visit. It was a bit of a shame the dishes I wanted were sold out, but in the end I got to try other things at Padong.

Eating futomaki and mazesoba together

The futomaki caught my eye first. Unlike working through one bowl start to finish, it's easy to pick up piece by piece, which suited ordering three dishes together especially well. The pieces themselves came out large, so it had real presence on the table.

Mazesoba is eaten in a completely different way from a rice bowl or futomaki, so I was glad we ordered it too. There's a particular fun to mixing it yourself, and it suited a day when I wanted to eat a bit of everything rather than focus on one dish. Bite of futomaki, then mazesoba, then back to the tuna rice bowl — even with three dishes, nothing felt repetitive.

Tuna rice bowl, ordered again

I remembered enjoying the tuna rice bowl on my last visit, so I ordered it again this time. Thick slices of tuna sit on top of the rice with flying fish roe, and you can adjust the flavor with seaweed and wasabi as you go. Even with futomaki and mazesoba on the table, having a tuna rice bowl alongside made the meal feel more substantial.

What stood out most was how soft the tuna was, with the flying fish roe popping between bites to keep it from feeling flat. Piling rice and tuna onto a piece of seaweed with a touch of wasabi gave it another flavor entirely, so even a full bowl of tuna rice never got tiring. Reordering a dish I'd liked before still felt like a totally different meal once futomaki and mazesoba were added in.

A ₩6,000 bottle of Asahi

I hadn't planned on drinking, but the Asahi on the menu was ₩6,000, so we added a bottle. It was weekend lunch, so we had no intention of overdoing it, but it was just right alongside splitting three dishes. The bottle came out cold, nice for a sip here and there between futomaki, mazesoba, and the tuna rice bowl.

Between the open-run and the sold-out dishes, this visit went quite differently from last time, but it meant we got to try a bunch of Padong's other menu items in one go. If you're looking for Japanese food in Mangwon and want to split futomaki or mazesoba rather than just eat one rice bowl, this kind of order works well. Next time I'd like to try the steak or salmon, whenever they're still available.