Gwanghwamun Mijin

I am familiar with Japanese cold soba and Korean naengmyeon, but cold soba from Korea, it is the first time I have seen or heard of it. So when stories and reels filled up my social media with Gwanghwamun Mijin, I was very interested in trying them out

A legendary 70-year-old culinary institution specialising in traditional Korean cold buckwheat noodles, the restaurant first opened its doors in Seoul’s historic Gwanghwamun district in 1954. Over the decades, it gained massive local popularity and even counted former South Korean President Park Chung-hee among its regular patrons

The restaurant famously operates its own production facility to make fresh buckwheat noodles and secret 14-ingredient dipping broths. The Seoul flagship has earned a prestigious MICHELIN Bib Gourmand for multiple consecutive years. Singapore is their first international outlet outside of South Korea, at Far East Square. The outlet is simple and fuss-free in terms of decor, with green tiles and wooden furnishings

We decided to go for the a la carte instead of the combo sets. First up was the bossam pork. We ordered the large which was SGD 30 and it was served with raw vegetables and spicy seasoned radish for customers to make their own ssam ( Korean lettuce wrap). The pork was tender and soft without any weird smell and was great as a wrap

We also ordered the fried pork cutlet at SGD 18 and it really tasted exactly like the King pork cutlet we had in Seoul. Served with a small mold of rice, coleslaw and curry sauce, the cutlet was extremely crispy on the outside and tender and juicy on the inside

The kimchi pancake was also crispy with a nice char on the top of the pancake and a nice chewy soft texture inside. The kimchi flavours was prominent but not overpowering so it was a nicely balanced pancake. Dipping the pancake with the given sauce gave it an additional tangy flavour which helped to cut away some grease

We also ordered the bossam which was served with fresh lettuce and spicy pickled dried radish which was perfect to be put into a vegetable wrap with the pork belly. You can taste the nice braised flavours of the pork with a good ratio of lean meat to fats which was great when eaten as a vegetable wrap

On top of the plain soba, we also ordered the cold soba with perilla powder and raw salmon. The flavour was nutty and refreshing as the salmon provided the nice melt in your mouth fats and seafood flavours. I love perilla leaves so the minty and nutty flavours were something I love but for others who doesn’t, they will not like the noodles at all

Last but not least, the highlight of the restaurant was the cold soba and since I ate cold soba in Japanese restaurants very often, I was having very high expectations. The cold sauce was in a metal kettle and was kept very cold so when you pour it into the noodles, it keep the noodles cold and refreshing. The noodles were chewy and bouncy and picked up the sauce extremely well. The sauce was savoury and sweet at the same time making each slurp extremely addictive. Before I knew it, I almost finished the whole tray of noodles. The noodles were so good that we ordered a top up of another tray of noodles and finished it in another 5 minutes

Overall, the dishes were authentic in flavours and very delicious but what stood up to me was the cold noodles and I will definately return just for the noodles itself. For noodles lovers, this is a must visit

Address: 47,48,49, Pekin St, #01-01, 048779

Opening hours: 11 am to 3 pm and 5.00 pm to 9.30 pm ( closed on Sunday)