Menten — Restaurant in Seoul

Great value for money. For 11,000 won you can get delicious noodles. We lined up about 20 minutes before it opened and there were already 8 people ahead of us. The restaurant only seats 8. At around 11:30 (10 minutes before it opens) the machine at the front allows you to put yourself on the waiting list. Using Google translate we managed to put in our info, our phone number, and our order. We don’t have the KakaoTalk app but we received the text messages telling us we can be seated inside. We also clicked the wrong thing on the menu outside but that turned out to be okay. You only order once you’re inside at the machine terminal. You order what you want, pay with credit card, then take a seat. The machine has an English option which is easy to use. There are two options - the tantamen and the soup ramen. We got the latter but hopefully we will have time to go back to try the former. The chef is the only person running this place so it can feel a bit disorienting and chaotic if you don’t speak Korean until you are seated, but the other guests are...

For korea it's a good ramen but the average good quality in japan, so for food maybe 4 stars. But owning a restaurant it's not only about food but the most important thing it's hospitality, and in japan they know this. In korea it's polite to eat slowly and without making noise but in japan no, so they eat ramen in 5 min, but not there. Since they have 4 seats only (and could be great for the quality) if you start the line with 4 people in front of you and 4 already inside you have to wait more than 45 min if you're lucky. The owner than clean and reset the counter super slowly watching the people freezing in line outside. Icing on the cake the vending machine doesn't accept 50k bills (without any advice before entering) so if you don't have the change you can basically exit and find another...

The wait is long as expected, arrived 25 min before opening and after 1 hour it was my turn. The machine didn’t accept 50.000 bills, so the lady helped me by opening the machine and give me 10.000 bills five times out of the machine instead, and took my 50k note. However I had already put in one 10.000 note but I couldn’t make that clear to her (language barrier). So I lost that 10.000, let’s say it will be a tip for them. So it turned out a bit more expensive than planned but not entirely their fault either. The food was quite good, I had the shoyu ramen - could have been somewhat saltier in my opinion, and the amount of black pepper was distracting to my taste. But the taste was pure and honest. I’d recommend stopping by if the queue is okay, can’t speak for the tantanmen...