Mingles Restaurant - Apgujeong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, Korea

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/