Yeongdeungpo mall restaurant with burrata arrabbiata pasta: Mela

When I've got a date or a meetup with friends in Yeongdeungpo, I always end up looking for a place where I can do a meal and a café in one go. Yeongdeungpo Times Square is unbeatable for that — shopping, good food, and cafés all in one spot, so it's an easy meeting place to pick 👍

This time I visited Mela Times Square, a brunch café inside Times Square. They have everything from brunch to pasta, pizza, and gnocchi, so it's great for a light meal, and the atmosphere is nice too — it'd suit anyone looking for a date spot near Yeongdeungpo Station 👍

Where is Mela Times Square, and what are its hours?

Mela Times Square is on the 1st floor, unit 103-9, of Times Square Yeongdeungpo, at 15 Yeongjung-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. It's open 10:30–22:00, and both parking and corkage are available.

• 📍 Location: 1st floor, 103-9, 15 Yeongjung-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• 🕖 Hours: 10:30–22:00
• ✔️ Parking available / corkage available

Since brunch café Mela is right on the 1st floor of Times Square, it wasn't hard to find even on my first visit~

What I liked most was being able to walk straight there from inside Times Square — even on a bad-weather day, there's no need to step outside, you can just drop in for a meal while shopping 🥳

Inside Mela Times Square: seating, high chairs and group tables

Walking into Mela Times Square, the space was bigger and more pleasant than I expected. Tables have decent spacing and everything is neatly arranged, making it comfortable to sit and eat.

The vibe isn't overly casual either — it has a soft, understated mood that would suit anyone looking for a Yeongdeungpo brunch café.

They also have high chairs ready and group seating set up, so it looked good not just for dates but for family visits or gatherings with a bigger crowd.

Mela's menu, from French toast to pasta, pizza and gnocchi

Even though Mela calls itself a brunch café, it's definitely not just drinks and dessert. Looking through the menu, they had a wide range of Western dishes — French toast, vongole pasta, pizza, gnocchi — plus several kinds of coffee and drinks, making it a great spot to combine a meal and a café visit.

Coming for brunch but being able to order pasta or pizza too means you can mix and match depending on your mood 🤍 This time, out of all the options, I ordered the burrata cheese arrabbiata pasta and the pepperoni pizza!

How does the burrata cheese arrabbiata pasta taste?

First up was the burrata cheese arrabbiata pasta. It's tomato-based arrabbiata sauce topped with burrata cheese, and it looked pretty appetizing just from the plating. I really love burrata cheese 🥰

The arrabbiata sauce's signature tangy, spicy tomato flavor was soaked well into the noodles, giving it a mouth-watering kick, and mixing in the burrata added a soft, creamy richness on top.

What I liked especially was that at first you taste the tomato sauce's bright acidity, and the more you eat it with the burrata, the smoother and rounder the flavor becomes.

There's a nice contrast between the spicy sauce and the mild cheese (though honestly it wasn't actually that spicy, haha — just spicy enough to be delicious), so it never tasted one-note and I enjoyed it all the way to the end.

If you like pasta, or tomato-based Western food in general, this is an easy dish to order without any hesitation.

Mela's pepperoni pizza and its pastry-style dough

The second dish was the pepperoni pizza! It came with a thin, crisply baked crust piled generously with pepperoni and cheese — it felt like a solid, no-frills classic. And instead of regular dough, it was made with a slightly pastry-style crust, which gave it an even crispier texture.

When you lift up a slice, the cheese stretches softly, and the pepperoni's salty, savory flavor made it go really well alongside the pasta.

The crust wasn't too thick either, so it didn't feel heavy eating it alongside pasta, and the pepperoni's salty savoriness made it a great match for a drink too 👍

Final verdict on Mela Times Square

Café Mela was a great brunch café for when you want to handle both a meal and a café visit inside Yeongdeungpo Times Square 👍 Being on the 1st floor made it easy to find, and the spacious, pleasant interior made for a comfortable meal — plus with high chairs and group seating available, it's flexible depending on why you're visiting!

The menu is also varied, from French toast to vongole pasta, pizza, and gnocchi, so it seemed like a good spot not just for brunch but for lunch or dinner too.

The burrata cheese arrabbiata pasta I tried had a great combination of tangy-spicy tomato sauce and soft burrata cheese, and the pepperoni pizza brought together a crisp crust with salty, gently spicy pepperoni — flavors that anyone could easily enjoy.

If you're looking for somewhere to eat after shopping in Yeongdeungpo, or searching for a Yeongdeungpo Times Square restaurant, a Yeongdeungpo Station brunch café, or a Yeongdeungpo date spot, it might be worth checking out Mela, a brunch café with a nice atmosphere and solid Western dishes.