Mijin — Restaurant in Seoul

Oh wow, this place is pretty good. Definitely worthy of their Michelin bib gourmand. The only caveat I'll say is it's best to go early. I hit their doors at opening and was delighted there wasn't a queue. But it's cause everyone was already seated and thankfully I got the last seat. Which was actually a seat facing the wall on a shared table with a family of 4. (Not complaining, they were very pleasant). Going early probably also means the service staff are not as grumpy.

Don't expect service here! Especially when they're crowded and rushing around. Im pretty sure they're rude even to locals. There's an English menu with pictures but don't spend ages studying it. Figure out what you want before you reach, look at the menu, point at all the stuff you want and be done. One thing that annoys them is diners taking their own sweet time (and that's mostly us tourist). I was fortunate enough to randomly get this middle aged lady that spoke a tiny tiny bit of English. I pointed at what i wanted within 30 seconds and she offered to help me get half and half of two different dish dishes so I could try more. Thinking back, the only English words she used were, "one" and "half" as she pointed my main dish (one) and the 2 side dishes (half-half).

Now regarding the food! To eat the noodles you first pour yourself a bowl of the noodle sauce, add grated raddish, chopped spring onions, seaweed, and a few squirts of wasabi paste (shake the bottle first). Compared to Japanese soba noodles, their sauce is much sweeter. The noodles come in 2 trays, and they're quite filling. They are soft and slightly stretchy, not sure if this was a function of over cooking or it's designed that way. Japanese soba noodles are firmer. But nonetheless they were still great buckwheat noodles!! What you'll do is grab some noodles, dip it into the sauce, grab some of the stuff inside, and slurp it all up. Tasting the various ingredients as you chew.

My two half and half sides were the buckwheat meat pancake roll and the dumplings. Was gonna go for the rolls at first since they come in a pair but luckily the lady offered to do 1 roll and 2 dumplings (instead of 4) for me. I think the rolls were okay but the dumpling were great! Ate them with some of the banchan and also drizzled my noodle sauce over and I loved it.

All in, although service might potentially be bad. I'll definitely go back one more time before I...

An old Korean restaurant with history dating back to 1954 specializing in buckwheat noodles. Unfortunately, it totally failed to impress—very disappointing, especially given that this store has been awarded the Michelin Bib Gourmand since 2018, a whopping 7 years. There is always a waiting queue around the regular meal times. I arrived at 11 am on Sunday and I waited for 15 - 20 minutes to be seated but the food was served almost immediately after the order was placed. I guess the kitchen staff prepared a lot ahead to avoid long waiting times for seated customers. However, the presentation of the food was not enticing or satisfying, much less the taste and quality. It's just an average, run-of-the-mill-tasting buckwheat noodle dish that any other restaurant that has not been awarded a Michelin Bib Gourmand would be able to serve up. We also ordered the bossam, which came with spicy raddish kimchi, as well as an assortment of vegetables and dipping sauces. It was acceptable. The overall restaurant ambience is that of a typical old-style Korean restaurant—pretty crammed and very unkempt. My recommendation is to simply eat and leave. I will not revisit this store because I do not see the need to get into that long a wait for just...

Mijin is a Bib Gourmand on Michelin Guide that serves various Korean dishes, but is most known for their buckwheat noodles. The line was quite long when we arrived, but we were seated fairly quickly (~15 min wait during lunch time). We ordered the cold buckwheat noodles, spicy buckwheat noodle, bossam (braised pork belly), kimchi pancake (had oysters) and dumplings. The cold buckwheat noodles were a bit sweet but still delicious. The bossam tasted pretty traditional and kimchi pancake very crispy and well seasoned. The dumplings were pretty mediocre. Overall service was quick and prices decent. I’d recommend bringing a friend if you’d like to try different assortments of Korean food. Everything tasted great, but not so different from other restaurants that serve...