fav cafés in korea

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onto today’s topic: fav cafés in korea ☕️ 

i’m such a café girly. the #1 thing i was looking forward to on my trip to korea was exploring all of the unique cafés, hopping from one to the other.

i ended up going to so many great ones, here are some of my favs (in no particular order)! pics are always on my instagram in real-time. ;)

1) seoul angmusae 🦜 

this was the first café i hit up and i immediately fell in love. the interior was vibrant with its parrot-theme and the walls were full of writing by different customers. i was genuinely tweaking over how good the strawberry milk cinnamon roll was. i’m so glad i decided to venture up to the 2nd floor seating because that’s where the decoration shined.

2) vinyl seongsu 📀 

after sachi sent me a reel about this café, i immediately added it to my list. for $12, i had access to a huge selection of vinyls and my own record player to listen to music for as long as i wished. the fee also included any drink of my choice from the menu. i was impressed with the vinyl collection ranging from the greatest showman soundtrack to krnb albums from artists with only 30k monthly listeners on spotify.

3) art x shift 🎨 

i wish i could have spent longer at this café, but i was unfortunately in a rush to make it to a lunch reservation. 💔 art x shift doubled as an art gallery and sweet café run by a little family of 3. i ordered the teddy cream spa latte and apple cinnamon ice cream croffle which were phenomenal. the latte was too bitter for my taste but the presentation made up for it. the croffle on the other hand, was absolutely delicious — i’m a sucker for apple cinnamon flavours and this was perfectly crispy but still soft. not to mention the decoration was so calming, with the owners’ artwork covering the walls and green tones enveloping the space.

4) thanks nature café 🐏 

sheep café !!!!!! the food/drinks weren’t anything particularly note-worthy but all customers were able to hang out with the 2 sheep (a mama and baby) they took care of. they were so cute and surprisingly clean because the staff are very particular about handwashing. i thoroughly enjoyed petting the sheep and was just amused by the absurdity of a sheep café.

5) cafe neul, sejong 🍓 

i can’t find the exact location or social media of this café anywhere online, but it’s right across sinsegae tteokbokki in sejong. as caroline and i were exploring sejong on my day-trip and looking for somewhere to take cover from the rain, we stumbled upon a quaint little café with a cozy and neutral design. we ordered 2 croffles to share: strawberry cream & ice cream caramel. i wasn’t expecting them to be as good as they were. our plates were literally wiped clean .. not a single crumb was left. 😭 

6) celeb paparazzi 📸 

this café by far had the most unique concept of all the spots i visited. essentially, it was set up with 3 whole floors with photo sets. each of these sets had fixed cameras positioned as if it were paparazzi taking photos of a celebrity. 📹️ once you scan a qr code, the camera starts taking photos at 10 second intervals and the photos are then automatically uploaded to an account you make with the café. i had such a fun time messing around with the props and forcing candid shots. the earl grey iced latte i ordered was also delicious.

i had great experiences with the staff at each of these cafés and language barriers weren’t a problem at all. i ended up spending anywhere between 10,000-20,000 krw ($7-$14) at each café, a refreshing change from the mid $9 drinks i found at cafés in san francisco.

i 💌 cafés in korea.

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