Mingles

In Seoul’s polished Cheongdam district, Mingles delivers Korean fine dining with the confidence of a place that knows exactly what it wants to say. Chef Mingoo Kang opened the restaurant in 2014 and has built its reputation on a highly refined contemporary Korean kitchen shaped by seasonal produce, local seafood, meat, vegetables, and the deep, savoury intelligence of fermented sauces and vinegars. Signature dishes have included the richly named Mingling Pot, where abalone, beef tendon, morels and cabbage meet in one composed, deeply Korean idea of luxury. 

The setting helps the whole thing land. Since moving to its current home in 2019, Mingles has paired its ambitious cooking with an elegant minimalist dining room of warm wood, pale ceramics, fresh flowers and a quiet, controlled sense of calm. It sits on the second floor on Dosan daero 67 gil, which only adds to the pleasure: a discreet address, then a dining room with real presence. Kang trained under Martín Berasategui in San Sebastián before working at Nobu in Miami and the Bahamas, and that cosmopolitan background shows up here as discipline rather than showmanship.