Gwanghwamun salad restaurant, broccoli topping solo lunch: Wystab Diet

Lately it's surprisingly hard to pick something to eat out for a meal... ㅜㅜ If I eat too light I get hungry again right away, but if I always eat something heavy I end up sleepy and sluggish in the afternoon...

So this time I was searching for a Gwanghwamun salad spot and found Wystab! It's a diet meal-prep restaurant located on the basement level of Lemeilleur Jongno Town, between Gwanghwamun and Jonggak stations.

What's on the menu at Wystab Diet Gwanghwamun: picking a main and a base

Wystab Gwanghwamun has so many protein box options that I actually hesitated a bit in front of the menu board haha. You can choose your main ingredient — chicken, beef, smoked duck and more — and pick a base to your taste like pasta, tofu noodles, or oats. Loved that!

The store was really clean, and it worked well both for eating alone and for eating with others! Gwanghwamun has a lot of office workers, so solo dining at lunch isn't always easy — you'll want to time your visit well!!

It wasn't awkward at all to eat alone here, which I really liked.

It's a diet meal specialty shop, but the posters were decorated so stylishly, which I really loved haha.

The interior had such pop colors, and the posters were bright and vivid too, which put me in a good mood haha.

They also had tomato soup and Greek yogurt, which seems great for anyone on a diet plan!

Beef tofu noodle protein box: why it beats a plain salad for lunch

What I ordered was the Beef Tofu Noodle Protein Box! Apparently it's Wystab's signature menu, with sous vide beef steak plus tofu noodles and vegetables. It was a good choice for a day when just a salad wouldn't be enough but I still wanted to cut back a little on carbs haha.

For drinks, there was soda and sparkling water too, but I went with an americano — I wasn't expecting much since it's not really a café, but it was actually really good! It went great alongside the salad haha. Being able to handle a meal and coffee in one place made it convenient for a busy office worker's lunch too haha. No need to go find another café afterward, which saved time! And the coffee was tasty too haha.

I worried that tofu noodles might be too light or leave me feeling empty afterward, but with the beef included it felt like a proper meal, and I got to enjoy the tofu noodles' signature chewy texture on top of that. Compared to a salad with just vegetables, having more variety of things to chew made it feel more filling!

How do you add toppings? The broccoli combination

What I liked most of all was being able to add toppings. You can order the base composition as is, but you can also add whatever ingredients you're craving to build your own combination haha. Great for when you want to add a favorite topping or get a bit more protein — you can adjust it to your taste. I wanted a bit more broccoli, so I added broccoli haha.

With most diet menus you often have to eat a fixed set composition as is, but here you can choose the main, base, sauce, and even extra toppings, so it seems like you wouldn't get tired of it!

The broccoli I added was genuinely delicious hehe. Another great thing about Wystab Gwanghwamun was being able to adjust the composition depending on how hungry you are that day.

Is Wystab Diet Gwanghwamun good for eating alone?

The store also has seats set up that are comfortable for eating alone, so it looked like a solid solo dining spot in Gwanghwamun.

If you're looking for a lunch in Gwanghwamun that isn't too heavy but still lets you get your protein in, the Wystab beef tofu noodle protein box seems like a good choice!

The meat was delicious, and the salad and overall composition were so substantial that I ate really well and felt full haha.

The composition was great, but the vegetables were also really fresh, which I loved!

And I'd been curious about the tofu noodles — they were chewy and delicious haha. Wystab also has a mala-flavored salad, which seems like it'd be great as a substitute whenever you're craving mala xiang guo! I think I'll be visiting often for solo lunches in Gwanghwamun. It's much more filling than gukbap (soup with rice), and with such a satisfying composition, it was a really satisfying lunch.