Ichon-dong café for a pre-museum lunch: garlic scape pasta at Mellang

Hi, it's Syongsyong! :) I hadn't had a proper culture day in a while, so I went to the National Museum of Korea to relax and enjoy some time out. I wanted lunch before going in, so I looked up places near the museum and found Mellang (카페멜랑), an Ichon-dong brunch spot that's been hot on social media lately. And the brunch was really good :)

Where is Mellang in Ichon-dong? Hours and parking

Mellang Address: 248 Ichon-ro, Unit 103, Building 21, Yongsan-gu, Seoul Hours: closed every Monday Tue–Sun 10:00–20:30 Takeout, reservations, Wi-Fi, delivery, high chairs, parking

Mellang is about a 5-minute walk from Ichon Station, so it's easy to reach. There's a bus stop nearby too, so public transport works well. It's in the Hangang Mansion apartment shopping arcade, so if you drive, park at the apartments and get a parking pass for 2 hours of parking, haha.

You can feel the good vibe from the outside! There's a menu posted beside the entrance door, so you can check prices and dishes before you go in~

Inside Mellang and ordering by table QR code

Inside, big windows let in natural light, so it feels bright and warm~ The white-and-wood interior and soft lighting make it comfortable to stay a while :)

You order by scanning the QR code on the table. We ordered three dishes: Mellang's signature Mellang Platter, the garlic scape pasta and the bisque shrimp rosé pasta!

After a short wait, out came the Mellang Platter, garlic scape pasta and bisque shrimp rosé pasta, haha.

What's on the signature Mellang Platter?

The Mellang Platter comes with a fresh vegetable salad, ricotta cheese, scrambled eggs, roasted cherry tomatoes, jamón, bacon, avocado and bread. It feels like a textbook brunch :)

The salad is dressed with just olive oil and lemon juice, so it was fresh and light, which I liked~ The cherry tomatoes roasted in oil were so good too!

The ricotta was thick and rich, with a slight sweetness that made it even better, and the scrambled eggs were moist and soft, the best, haha.

The bacon was nicely cooked and not salty, which I liked. I usually don't eat jamón because it's too salty, but Mellang's wasn't salty at all :)

Don't eat the bread on its own! Top it with jamón, ricotta and avocado, or stack bacon, scrambled eggs, ricotta and avocado on it like a sandwich. So good!!

How does Mellang's bisque shrimp rosé pasta taste?

The bisque shrimp rosé pasta is a rosé pasta on a house-made bisque base flavored with Ecuadorian shrimp~ It has big shrimp, and it uses the flat pasta noodles I love, so I was even more excited, haha.

Eating it, it wasn't just an ordinary rosé pasta. The sauce itself was deeply infused with rich shrimp savoriness. The first bite has that soft, creamy rosé taste, then the nuttiness of the bisque and seafood flavor follow, so it tastes much more layered :)

Mellang's spicy garlic scape pasta

The garlic scape pasta was a spicy oil pasta with shrimp, garlic scapes (the long green stems of garlic) and arugula!

It was stir-fried with plump, bouncy shrimp for great savoriness, and the crunch of the garlic scapes brought out the charm of an oil pasta, you know? Haha. A little spiciness meant I could eat it cleanly without it feeling heavy, and the arugula added flavor for a nicely balanced pasta~

Mellang is an Ichon-dong brunch spot with great brunch near the National Museum of Korea! If you're coming to the area, do stop by :)