Gwangjin ramen: kombu vinegar abura soba and leftover rice, Mentsuru

Today I went to Mentsuru, a ramen restaurant near Children's Grand Park Station! I love ramen and abura soba anyway, and I found this place while looking for dinner near Sejong University, so I gave it a try haha.

It's within a 5-minute walk of Children's Grand Park Station Exit 4! Being so close to the station made it super easy to find haha. It's also close to Sejong University, so it's great for students to grab a meal, and it's a good spot for dinner after hanging out at Children's Grand Park or Konkuk University too!

Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch from the street, and the late-night Asahi deal

You can already tell it's a Japanese-style ramen restaurant just from the exterior haha.

And what caught my eye right at the entrance... a late-night event where Asahi draft beer is ₩4,000!!!🍺 I'm definitely keeping this in mind for next time I have dinner after 9pm lol. ₩4,000 Asahi draft, I can't resist that,,,

Open kitchen and side-by-side bar seats at Mentsuru

This is what the inside of Mentsuru looks like! Overall it's clean but still has that distinctive Japanese ramen shop atmosphere haha.

There were more tables than I expected, so it looked good both for solo diners and for groups. The kitchen is set up as an open kitchen! There's a bar table right in front of the kitchen, plus several 4-person tables inside. Interestingly, even the tables near the entrance aren't the face-to-face type — they're side-by-side bar seating? I personally prefer sitting side by side with my boyfriend rather than facing each other, so I loved this setup lol. It looked great for eating alone too, or for a simple date meal for two!

Ordering at the Mentsuru kiosk — aprons are self-serve too

You can order at the kiosk near the entrance, or from your table!

I thought it would be a ramen-only menu, but it turned out to be more varied than expected. They also had a good range of drinks — highball, draft beer, bottled beer, sodas! There was a review event running too. Something to keep in mind if you visit haha.

Next to the kiosk there were aprons ready too, so if you need one, just grab one for yourself! Ramen broth can splash a bit while you eat, so I'd especially recommend grabbing one if you're wearing white lol.

The free yuzu pickled radish is the sleeper hit

On the table there's water, pepper, kombu vinegar and other essentials all set up. And here... the yuzu pickled radish is seriously delicious. Japanese ramen broth is rich and tasty, but sometimes it gets a bit heavy while you're eating, right? That's when a piece of yuzu pickled radish gives you that refreshing hit and resets your palate lol. It has a subtle yuzu aroma so it suited my taste way more than regular pickled radish haha. I normally eat a lot of pickled radish anyway, and I loved that I could just help myself to as much as I wanted instead of asking staff for refills over and over haha.

After some deliberation, we ordered three things: tori paitan ramen, hormone-don, and abura soba!

Tori paitan ramen: why to add cheongyang chili

First, tori paitan ramen! It's made with chicken broth, and even from the photo you can tell the broth is milky and rich, right? I tried the broth first and it was savory and deep, so tasty haha.

The rich broth clung nicely to the noodles too, so eating them together was even better! If you love a rich chicken broth, this one will really suit you haha. I like spicy food so I added cheongyang chili peppers too. With that savory, rich broth, the cheongyang chili added a spicy kick every few bites, and honestly it tasted even better to me! If you like spicy food, I highly recommend adding cheongyang chili!!

Hormone-don, a grilled beef intestine rice bowl worth the rice

And the dish I was most looking forward to, hormone-don! I love offal, so once I spotted hormone-don on the menu, there was no way I could pass it up... I know I came here for ramen, but... I'm so glad I ordered this lol.

It's beef short rib and beef intestine in a sweet-savory, salty sauce, and the surfaces were grilled nice and crispy — genuinely delicious! The savory flavor unique to beef intestine paired so well with the salty sauce. The sauce itself is the kind that goes perfectly with rice, so one bite naturally leads to another bite of rice... total rice thief lol. If you like beef intestine or offal, don't just order ramen — get the hormone-don too!

Abura soba with kombu vinegar, then leftover rice mixed into the sauce

Last up, abura soba! At first I didn't add anything and just mixed the noodles and sauce together thoroughly.

Salty, savory, and the sauce clung to the noodles so you keep wanting more haha. After eating about half, I added the kombu vinegar that came with the abura soba!

Everyone... you have to add the kombu vinegar!! That slight tangy addition cuts through any heaviness and really brings out the savory flavor haha. Personally, I'd recommend eating about half plain first, then adding the vinegar to the rest so you get two different flavors!

And at the very end... I mixed the leftover rice from the hormone-don into the abura soba sauce, you know? This was seriously so good lol. Personally I think the abura soba sauce actually goes even better with rice than with noodles lol. I scraped up every bit of leftover sauce... If rice refills are available, definitely mix some rice in after finishing your noodles!

Is Mentsuru worth it near Children's Grand Park Station?

With a clean open kitchen and a menu ranging from ramen to rice bowls to abura soba, Mentsuru was great for a group where everyone can pick what suits their taste! We tried three dishes and each had such a different style that it was fun sharing them one by one haha.

• If you like rich, savory broth, go for the tori paitan ramen
• If you like beef intestine or offal, go for the hormone-don
• If you like noodles with no soup, go for the abura soba

What stuck with me most was mixing rice into the hormone-don and abura soba lol. If you're looking for somewhere to eat near Children's Grand Park or Sejong University, or looking for a ramen restaurant near Children's Grand Park Station, I'd recommend Mentsuru haha. Next time I want to visit late and go for that ₩4,000 Asahi draft beer deal. Can't pass up ₩4,000 Asahi,,, lol.