One of the best meals I’ve had in my life was in Seoul, South Korea. What’s even better
is that in Seoul, you can do progressive lunches at Michellin restaurants at a reasonable price. In this post, I’m
referring to Mingles Restaurant.
It’s a restaurant that’s positioned at number 11 in Asia’s 50 best restaurants
as of 2018. It has also been voted as Korea’s best restaurant for 3 consecutive
years.
Mingles is also located in the upmarket area of Apgujeong and is not far from another
Michelin star restaurant, Jungsik. The interior and vibe of the space is both
warm and hip without any pretention even in their service. The name Mingles
comes from the “mingling” or fusion
of cooking styles/flavours from European, Korean and Japanese cuisine. Head chef Mingoo Kang is said to have
worked at Nobu and also trained under renowned chef Martin Berasategui. The menu is seasonal and it changes every few
weeks so dishes in the post may not be available at the time of your visit. We
opted for their 7 course lunch (we ordered different dishes on some of the
courses), which was ₩85,000 per person at the time.
It was love at first taste for me with their Amuse bouche. It’s Mingle’s egg custard
with sansho pepper dish (still available). The beautiful silky custard had
garlic, smoky and peppery citrus notes.
Squid carpacio dressed with fish roe.
Fruits
appetiser with seasonal seafood and
pinenut sauce.
We also had a Korean Cabbage Seon which had abalone on cabbage, cabbage consomme
and rice cake (still available). It was delicate and simple but it had so much
umami.
The butterfish
from Jeju island with fried potato was delicate and perfectly cooked. The fish was velvety and juicy.
The braised Korean
short-rib with roasted onion was amazing! The meat was fatty, tender and
buttery as expected from a Korean short-rib. If your buttery umami from the
short-rib was not enough, you will get the same extra goodness from the beef tartare along with the crunchy
tile of battered nori.
High quality striploin with Jang (or Korean style sauce) consomme with seasonal
vegetables and beef tartare. This dish was umami packed with from the meat to
the veggies. The medium rare striploin was super tender, perfectly cooked and
seasoned well. The veggies also had some sour and sweet notes.
The Jang
trio is a “Doen-Jang” creme brulee, “Gan-jang” pecan, “Gochujang”
blackrice, vanilla ice cream and whisky foam dessert was more than just a great
treat. It was a party of well balanced flavours in my mouth!
The chestnut
Korean style mont blanc was also nothing short of excellent. It had jujube,
Korean citron, pear and mascarpone. It was almost like a hybrid of mont blanc
and cheesecake.
We ended our lunch with a long black coffee made
from Fritz coffee beans and specialty tea with sweet treats.
I was highly impressed from the space to the
service and food. So much attention to detail and creativity went into each
dish. I will definitely come back here next time I’m in Seoul. Another plus
side to this restaurant is that you can book ahead online too!
Mingles
757 Seolleung-ro, Nonhyeon 2(i)-dong,
Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Koreaa
Hours:
Tues-Fri 12 to 10:30pm
Sat-Sun 12 to 10:00pm
Monday - closed
Reservations: http://www.restaurant-mingles.com/v2/contact/
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