The cooking at Mingles is founded on the principles of traditional Korean cuisine. However, the latest tasting menu at Mingles takes a new and distinctive approach to Korean cuisine by mingling the old with new techniques and sensibilities. The menu leans heavily on traditional Korean fermented products like Doenjang (soybean paste) and Gochujang (chilli paste) as well as seasonal produce found throughout the country.
The craft at Mingles has helped the restaurant gain 2 Michelin stars and the title of Best Restaurant in Korea 2022 after reaching No. 16 in Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Table of Contents
Dinner Tasting Menu Review
At Mingles you can either have the lunch or dinner tasting menu. What’s interesting about the menu is that you actually have to pick two of the courses from two different options. So, for the main dish, you could either have Hanwoo Steak with Abalone or Lamb and for dessert you could either go with Jang Trio or Mugwort. As the Hanwoo and Jang Trio are signature dishes on the tasting menu at Mingles, I knew I had to pick those. In addition to this, there are also 3 optional courses that you can add; black truffle & chestnut puree, guksu (noodles) and caviar. I really liked the sound of chestnut puree, so I decided to add that on too.
The tasting menu was ok. I found that each of the dishes looked great and very unique, however, often I found the flavour to be lacking and one-dimensional. For the price, I expected a bit more. Despite this, there were some great dishes; mainly both desserts which took usually savoury ingredients and showcased them in a new light, the Hanwoo steak and the king crab dish.
1 – Seasonal Bites
First Bite: Assorted Croaker Fish
We started off Mingles’ tasting menu with four seasonal bites. The first was all about croaker – sashimi that melted in your mouth, shreds of skin that tasted like sesame and a roll stuffed with rice, croaker and soybean paste.
Second Bite: Seasonal Clam, Caviar
Two pieces of fresh clam served with water parsley, drizzled in a green plum chilli sauce and garnished with cilantro and a dollop of caviar.
Third Bite: Fried Hairtail Fish & Seaweed
This fried hairtail fish was surprisingly hot as I bit into it. A crispy seaweed wafer enveloped the fish and the parcel sat upon a complex seaweed gel.
Fourth Bite: Hanwoo Beef & Small Octopus Tart
Initially, you get a hit of sweetness and chilli from the octopus, before the beefiness of the Hanwoo comes through, melting in your mouth.
2 – Black Truffle & Chestnut Puree
This was an optional extra to the tasting menu and to be honest it wasn’t really worth it. Maybe I’m not a truffle person, but whilst the shaved truffle had a great aroma, they really didn’t have much flavour – it was a little hard to justify the price.
Underneath the shaved truffles was a smooth and slightly tangy chestnut puree with a sweet potato crisp. A deliciously homely and earthy dish that was a bit too expensive for my taste.
3 – Super Sweet Corn Soup
Summer Vegetables & Fruits
Jeju super sweet corn is a variety of corn famous throughout Korea for its high sugar content. It features on many restaurant menus like at 7th Door where I had it in a dessert!
This soup was slightly sweet and almost nutty. In the centre was a crispy parcel filled with a warm corn puree. Each piece of vegetable and fruit was treated with care so they individually shone. Plum, asparagus, cucumber and corn were just some of the many ingredients.
4 – Ssam
Morrel, Cabbage & Doenjang
I really liked the simple aesthetic of this dish and how funky the morel mushroom looks. Ssam are types of dumplings where a filling is usually wrapped in cabbage leaves. Mingles presented two styles of ssam here. First, you’re classic cabbage ssam filled with a rich and beefy filling with little cubes of fat that would coat your mouth. Then, slightly unusual was the morel ssam filled with a sausage on the left. All of the dumplings sat in a kelp and doenjang broth, full of umami.
5 – Jeju Fish
Perilla Oil, Bottarga
A deceptively moist piece of fish from Jeju island dusted in chilli powder and foam. Next to the fish was its bladder – so soft and fishy and probably the best part of the dish. Under the fish were pieces of pickled vegetables to cut through the fish, as well as a bright perilla oil which gave a slight aniseed flavour.
6 – King Crab & Yakbap
Slow-Cooked Seasonal Seafood
We were told to eat this dish in two parts. We started on the left with the glutinous rice and cauliflower puree which bordered between sweet and savoury with a taste of vanilla – this was the Yakbap part of the dish. Next were two variations of King crab, a type of pate which had a bright lemoniness and the soft leg of the crab, both covered in a rich, shellfish-flavoured foam. On the side was a more concentrated sauce, filled with shellfish flavour.
7 – Surf & Turf
Shrimp, Oyster, Silkie
On the skewer was a cube of silkie (fluffy, black chicken) sausage and an oyster filling, coated in a crispy wrapper and smothered in a sticky and tangy glaze. Below was a crunchy, breaded pepper with flavours of perilla and shrimp and finally a rosemary-tasting aioli to bring the dish together.
8 – Hanwoo
Hanwoo Steak & Grilled Abalone
After seeing glimpses of Hanwoo throughout the menu we finally got the main event. Zooweemama, it was a great piece of steak – unbelievably flavorful, only enhanced further with that hearty beef jus. It was a piece of fatty tenderloin that almost flaked as you cut into it. The fatty juices coated your mouth and were almost sweet. Unfortunately, the piece of abalone was a bit disappointing, it had a slight lemon flavour but didn’t really taste of a ton.
9 – Korean Melon & Seaweed
Melon Carpaccio & Dashima
Next, onto the desserts and Mingles definitely knocked it out of the park with these. A dashima (seaweed) ice cream, wrapped with slithers of melon sat on a bed of slightly vinegary granita with little cubes of melon that tasted of perilla. It was so refreshing and a perfect balance of sweet, savoury and acidic, I loved it.
10 – Jang Trio
Doenjang, Ganjang & Gochujang
The signature dessert on Mingles’ Tasting Menu. I loved how it used common Korean ingredients like doenjang (soybean paste), ganjang (soy sauce) and gochujang (chilli paste), typically used in savoury dishes in a mouth-watering dessert.
It was a masterclass on textures and flavours, with soft ice cream, airy foam, silky doenjang creme brulee, crunchy toasted grains and ganjang pecans. There was an underlying soybean flavour throughout the dessert, giving the dish a funky sweetness and fruitiness and a warmth that came from the dusting of chilli powder.
11 – Tea, Coffee & Beautiful Korean Sweets
The final course – petit fours to go with a cup of tea. Going clockwise and starting at the top was a beautiful green doughnut with a sweetness and herbal flavour coming from seaweed. Next, an airy macaron that pretty much dissolved in your mouth. This was followed by a peanut biscuit and a rice crispy that perfumed your mouth with yuzu. Finally, a piece of dried fruit that was mainly just chewy without much flavour.
12 – Leaving Present
And with that, our tasting menu at Mingles was over – but they wouldn’t let us leave without a parting gift! And, I’m super excited to try this one at home. It’s an anchovy seasoning packet which you can use to make a delicious broth.
The Drinks
At Mingles, there are lots of different alcohol pairings available for their tasting menu. Unfortunately, there aren’t any non-alcoholic pairings. Instead, if you don’t want any alcohol they offer an alcohol-free sparkling which I opted for. To be honest, it just tasted like a sweet sparkling grape juice, nothing too out there – it’s pretty much like Shloer that you can get in your local supermarket.
For the alcoholic pairings you can choose from pairings consisting of 4 glasses, traditional alcohol or their “signature” pairing.
The Experience
Mingles had a very chilled-out ambience with Scandinavian-style architecture furnishings. The entrance to Mingles didn’t feel magical in the same way that other top restaurants like Noma or Central did, instead it was quite modest.
The service itself was very punctual, which is what you’d expect from a restaurant of this calibre. However, I was a little disappointed by the waiters’ English levels as I felt at times I really couldn’t understand what they were saying when they were describing the dishes. This contrasts with literally every other top restaurant that I’ve been to around the world. I’m sure if I spoke Korean then the experience would have been fantastic, but it’s kind of sad when you can’t understand what you’re eating, particularly as the menus at these sorts of restaurants are often quite cryptic, so you have to mainly rely on the description from the waiters.
Pricing and Booking Details
Lunch: KRW 180,000 | £112 | $130
Dinner: KRW 280,000 | £175 | $202
Optional Extras:
- Black Truffle & Chestnut Puree: KRW 50,000 | £31 | $36
- Guksu: KRW 18,000 | £11 | $13
- Caviar: 20,000 | £12.50 | $14
Drinks Pairings: KRW 130,000 – 220,000 | £81 – 138 | $94 – 159
Book Here: http://www.restaurant-mingles.com/v3/
Thanks for reading about Mingles’ Tasting Menu!
If you have any questions, let me know!
