Weekend lunch near Children's Grand Park Station: Mentsuru motsu ramen

Lunch before a weekend walk at Children's Grand Park: Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch

I went for a walk at Children's Grand Park this weekend! The weather's gotten a bit milder lately so it's less hot, and I've been heading outdoors a lot on weekends~~ So I went back to Children's Grand Park after a long while, and decided to grab lunch near the station first before heading over.

Lunch was Mentsuru!! I know it's a chain so I'm aware there are other branches, but this was actually my first time at Mentsuru itself! I heard it's a good restaurant near Children's Grand Park Station.

Saturday 12:30 reservation — what were the seats like?

I made a reservation for 12:30 on Saturday. But there were already so many people eating that the table seats were full, and only these solo bar-style seats were open. It must be really popular haha ㅠㅠ There were even families with babies!! Maybe because they have baby chairs..?

These seats were actually all occupied earlier too, but once lunch hour had passed a bit and people started clearing out, I quickly snapped a photo🖤

I really, really love ramen. I love ramen, I love udon, I love yakisoba too — I'm a fan of Japanese noodle dishes in general. For takeout you order at the kiosk, and for dine-in there's a tablet at your seat!

The review event gets you free fried gyoza

Here's why you should do the review event at Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch! Honestly, if the review reward is a drink, I usually don't bother writing one haha... because I really don't drink soda, so getting a drink for writing a review isn't much of an incentive to me haha. But if it's a side dish instead of a drink, I'm doing it no matter what haha. Mentsuru Children's Grand Park Branch also gives fried gyoza as the side reward!! Definitely worth doing, right?

Mentsuru's menu

I know shoyu ramen is Mentsuru's most basic main menu item. There's shoyu, shio, tori paitan and more, and there's also motsu ramen, famous as Mentsuru's hangover-cure ramen haha. Naturally I ordered the hangover-cure motsu ramen!

Besides the basic sodas, they also sell oolong tea, Ramune, and melon soda. Those are the classic Japan-associated drinks, right haha.

They also had Asahi draft beer, Sapporo bottled beer, and highballs, but since it was lunch I held off on daytime drinking haha. But honestly, if I'd come for dinner? Straight to the beer go go go go.

What we ordered and the prices

• Abura soba - ₩12,000
• Extra chashu - ₩2,500
• Fried gyoza - ₩5,000
• Motsu ramen - ₩15,000

That was it. I added the fried gyoza without doing the review event, and I'm kind of regretting not doing the review event instead... realized it too late ㅠㅠㅠ Everyone else, please make sure to do the review event before you order🙂

It took maybe about 5 minutes for the food to come out? After waiting around 5 minutes it came right out. I mean, ramen isn't really a dish with a long cooking time anyway. Speed of arrival is everything!

Motsu ramen spice level 1 — how spicy is it really?

You can choose the spice level for the motsu ramen, and since I can't handle spicy food well, I ordered level 1, thinking it'd be about as spicy as Shin Ramyun — but it wasn't even that spicy. It's actually milder than Shin Ramyun, so I'd recommend going up a level haha.

There were chili peppers on top so I thought it'd be really spicy, but the peppers turned out to be totally not spicy at all — my first surprise. That doesn't mean it was bad though. If you're like me, can't handle spice but still want some heat, level 1 has basically zero spice, so I'd recommend the next level up ㅠㅠ Level 1 really is milder than Shin Ramyun...

Is the beef offal really that generous?

When I saw blog reviews before, they said the offal was piled in generously, and it's really true. The offal in Mentsuru's motsu ramen is insane. I thought I'd finished all the offal but there was more sitting at the bottom of the broth — the offal is seriously substantial and plentiful.

I piled the noodles and offal together and ate them, and even the cheongyang chili topping wasn't spicy so I piled that on too. This is officially a good restaurant near Children's Grand Park.. and honestly the motsu ramen is really delicious haha.

There's a lot of bean sprouts too, so the portion is generous. Honestly, even though it's called offal ramen, I figured there wouldn't be much offal, but there really is a lot, I have to admit it. The toppings are genuinely generous, no argument there.

Abura soba comes with kelp vinegar and rice too

My boyfriend ordered the abura soba. When you order abura soba, kelp vinegar comes with it so you can drizzle as much as you like to taste! According to my boyfriend, you have to add a lot of vinegar for it to taste good.

And when you order abura soba at Mentsuru, you get a free bowl of rice too, so you're supposed to leave some sauce and toppings behind, then ask for the rice and mix it in — only then have you truly finished the abura soba experience. Even if you're full, mixing in the rice is a must haha.

How was the fried gyoza?

The fried gyoza, which might have come free if we'd done the Naver review, tasted like fried mandu (dumplings). Six pieces came out, and the flavor was exactly that — fried mandu.

One line after eating

The portion at Mentsuru near Children's Grand Park is already generous, and once you finish the sides and add rice to mix in or dunk, it's seriously filling and hearty — a satisfying meal. We walked off the fullness strolling around Children's Grand Park afterward haha. Ramen lovers, this is a must check-in. Officially certifying this as a good restaurant near Children's Grand Park, bam bam lol. The portions are so generous, it was truly delicious.