Korea is a nation of giant apartment blocs, and many of the nicer ones have large shopping complexes at the lower levels. The Star City development next to Konkuk University station (Gundae Ipgu) has an E-mart, Lotte mall, and a bunch of shops, complete with a weird Brian Eno-esque soundtrack piped in to the hallways and funky mood lights to round out the experience.
If you wind your way through the hall past the E-Mart you’ll find yourself at a large cafe surrounded by stacked firewood and decorated with antique electronics, quirky furniture, and plants. It’s actually a really cool place, and a bit of a surprise to find it hidden down a hallway.
The coffee at Star Kitchen is above average for a mall-type cafe. That might not be saying much, but it’s been passable for me almost every time I visited. It’s not gonna make your eyes pop like a double ristretto at a specialty shop but it is a satisfying, if unremarkable, roasty and chocolatey blend when they do a decent shot.
If you’re in the Konkuk area there aren’t really a whole lot of coffee options (atleast that I’ve found…but given the university next door there must be something else nearby, let me know if you’ve found anything!). So, if you’re at Konkuk station the Star Kitchen is a good choice if you want a cafe to meet at or hang out for while. During lunch hour they have a set deal where a coffee and a sandwich is 6000 KRW, not bad.
5 comments
Steve says:
Mar 11, 2010
Nice find! FYI, that E-Mart has a coffee roaster near the wine section and sells fresh roasted beans.
I don’t know if the person that does it really knows what they’re doing though. I tried the beans a couple times and they were decent.
admin says:
Mar 11, 2010
Yeah I saw that video of yours, I’d never noticed that before but I want to try it sometime. As long as the beans are decent and they don’t over roast it it should be alright; atleast you know it’s fresh. Was it pricey?
Steve says:
Mar 14, 2010
Was pretty reasonable. I wanna say maybe 6,000 for 100 grams, but don’t remember exactly.
admin says:
Mar 15, 2010
Not bad, I’ll have to try that out.
Choi Ga says:
Jul 11, 2010
[…] 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 […]