My friend Sammie showed me the way to this cafe out near Sookmyung Women’s University. It’s a nice looking cafe, with a spacious and eclectic interior full of National Geographic style photography (the theme is Madagascar after all), photo gear, photo books, and random curios. I guess the owner is a photographer who visited Madagascar and kinda liked it. There’s lots of seating inside and it seems like a nice place to meet friends or study, with plenty of room to find a quiet corner to yourself, or a large table to accommodate a big group. (The photos below only show one side of the cafe).
They don’t offer any single origin coffees, or hand drip – though I saw a few drippers & servers behind the bar so maybe they did at some point or will in the future. They do offer the standard range of espresso drinks and flavored stuff, prepared on what looked like a Nuova Simonelli Appia (which, incidentally, must have good distribution here as it’s common in a lot of cafes).
The double espresso I tried looked nice, tasted pleasant, but the flavor wasn’t anything I’d go out of my way for. Just a solid enjoyable shot and a nice atmosphere. I tried a cappuccino as well and found it satisfying. In the photo if it looks a bit on the foamy side, it was. They make a rather “dry” style layered cappuccino with thick, fine foam on top, rather than the velvety, incorporated micro-foam that many specialty coffee people find preferable. But it wasn’t scalded and the foam had a nice, fine meringue texture. I had no complaints and enjoyed it.
Anyways, it’s solid coffee and a nice spot, check it out if you’re in that area. The space also apparently doubles as a photo studio or gallery and has lectures and classes. Check out their website for more information.
Lugo is a well appointed cafe in the huge Garden 5 shopping mall, complete with their own roaster in shop, La Cimbali and Ditting espresso set up, as well as kit for hand drip. Combining the two main Korean cafe trends, they offer all their coffees (around ~10 single origins) as either espresso shots or as pour over cups.
I’ve been keeping an eye out for good coffee on the northeast side of Seoul, but so far I’d only been able to find Star City’s Star Kitchen and Lotte Mall’s Cantata kiosk, which are above average, but nothing to go out of your way for. Then I came across a post at Jihye Chang’s blog about Choi Ga Cafe, a coffee shop and roaster around Konkuk University, and dropped by after work to check it out.
When I got that big box of Intelligentsia coffee, I also got several ounces of tea to try out. I didn’t have a tea pot, so I started looking for something nice. I like the Bee House ceramic tea pots a lot, but I wanted a clear design that lets you see the color of the tea brewing. I looked at a bunch of designs and eventually bought this Sama tea pot.
Now I usually look for simplicity in design, partly for aesthetics but also because minimalism means fewer breakable parts and easier cleaning. At first I thought the Sama tea pot was over-designed, but after using it I’m happy with it – it works easily and the self-contained brew chamber makes setting the tea aside for repeated brews fast and clean. It looks more fussy than it really is, the water release button is very simple in design and doesn’t feel like it will cause problems or gum up down the road. It is a bit more difficult to clean than a basic tea pot would be, though.
Dallmayr is a German coffee company that has several cafes in Seoul. I tried visiting their Gangnam location, but it’s either out of business or being renovated. Their Nambu Terminal location is open, however, and it’s unique and quirky, even by Korean standards.
With its operatic sound track, dark interior and antique accoutrements, it’s not exactly the type of place you purposefully seek out on a swelteringly humid, sunny summer afternoon. But nonetheless I went there on my tireless pursuit to bring you, dear readers, places to find good coffee in Seoul.
