South Korea – Instagrammable cafes have been popping up all over the world, some with minimalistic interior designs, some have every corner decked with flowers. No doubt, there are pretty looking cafes everywhere, even in Singapore, but don’t we all agree that Korea puts themselves way ahead of many of us?
Here, we’ve put together 5 cafes around Hongdae for you to visit when you’re in Seoul!
#1. TTUL
TTUL, short for Talk To You Later, is a cute and pinkish café located in Yeonnam-dong, a 10 to 15 minutes’ walk away from Hongik University Station. The exterior might look slightly unappealing, but its interior screams pink and gives off a summer holiday vibe.
Just like any other café, TTUL serves coffee, tea, and other beverages ranging from SGD $5 to SGD $14. A Hazelnut latte costs 5000 won (SGD $6.10) and they’ve also got Cherry coke at 4500 won (SGD $5.50). Apart from drinks, TTUL offers an array of desserts for you to choose from such as a Salted Caramel Blondie, Strawberry Cake and Pumpkin Pie.
Address: 6 Donggyo-ro 34-gil, Yeonnam-dong (서울특별시 마포구 동교로34길 6)
Operating Hours:
Sunday to Thursday – 2pm to 9pm
Friday to Saturday – 1pm to 10pm
Tel.: +82 2-306-5245
#2. Coffee Nap Roasters
Coffee Nap Roasters boasts a minimalistic interior design that gives off a very calm vibe. If you’re a coffee person and are always looking for good coffee to drink, then Coffee Nap Roasters is the café for you. There are very few seats provided within the café, however they do have a stair-like space for you to sit down to enjoy your cup of coffee.
They do not have an extensive menu, serving only the usual few types of coffee – Latte at 5000 won (SGD $6.10), Espresso at 4500 won (SGD $5.50) etc., a few other non-coffee drinks – Apple Tea at 6000 won (SGD $7.30) and a handful of desserts with prices ranging from SGD $6 to SGD $8.
Address: 453-32 Yeonnam-dong(서울시 마포구 연남동 453-32)
Operating Hours: 11am to 10pm
#3. Dessert Lab
A 10 minutes’ walk away from Hongik University Station, is Dessert Lab (디저트연구소), a floral themed café that is still rather minimalistic, there are even neon lights both in and outside the café that enhances its entire look.
Dessert Lab serves a variety of cute looking desserts, such as cakes in the form of a cactus and a sunflower. An Iced Caramel Latte costs 5800 won (SGD $7), a regular Iced latte will cost 5100 won (SGD $6.20). Apart from coffee drinks, Dessert Lab also serve smoothies at 5900 won (SGD $7.20) each, yogurt smoothies at 6800 won (SGD $8.30) each and teas at either 5000 won (SGD $6.10) for hot teas or 5200 won (SGD $6.30) for iced ones.
Address: 332-32 Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea (서울 마포구 와우산로29마길 22)
Operating Hours: 11am to 11pm
Tel.: +82 2-335-6081
#4. Arriate
If you’re a fan of floral themed cafes, then you’ll have to visit this café. Arriate is a fresh herb tea house located at about a 5 minutes’ walk away from Hongik University Station Exit 9. This café’s interior is decked in plants and flowers such as baby breaths, roses and daisies and even on the outside, there are red roses everywhere.
Arriate serves a variety of teas, their dry herb teas such as Peppermint tea and Rosemary tea are at 7000 won (SGD $8.45) per cup (hot) and 7500 won (SGD$ 9.05) per cup (iced). They also serve the usual selection of coffees ranging from 4500 won (SGD $5.50) to 5500 won (SGD $6.65), Ades, Fresh juice and even Mojito. Cakes such as Double Cheese Cake and Oreo Milk Cake are priced at 6000 won (SGD $7.30) each.
Address: 164-30 Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul (서울특별시 마포구 동교동 164-30)
Operating Hours: 8am to 10pm
Tel.: +82 2-552-0076
#5. Florté Flower café
Located near Hongik University Station Exit 6, Florté is another floral themed café with both an outdoor and indoor seating area. It isn’t as heavily decked in flowers compared to Arriate but both its interior and exterior are pretty for photo taking. They’ve also put in quite a bit of effort to make sure that even the food they serve fits the theme of their café.
Florté serves Flower teas at 6000 won (SGD$7.30) per cup (hot) and 6500 won (SGD $7.85) per cup (iced), they have got a wide selection of coffees to choose from, such as Iced Caramel Macchiato at 6600won (SGD $8) and Vanilla Latte at 5300won (SGD $6.40). For non-coffee drinkers, there are also Smoothies and Ades to choose from. Florté also serves Bingsu, cakes and sandwiches so there is something for everybody.
Address: 22 Sinchon-ro 6-gil, Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea (서울특별시 마포구 서교동 신촌로6길 22)
Operating Hours: 10.30am to 11pm
Tel.: +82 2-322-0122
There are more than just these 5 cafes in and around Hongdae, explore around and stay tuned for the next location!
Article by Zan @ KAvenyou.com
