Cafe Comma

March 27, 2015 by greysuitcase in Cafe

Cafe Comma (카페 꼼마) is probably one of the most popular cafes in Hongdae (홍대) area, amongst tourists anyway. Where else can you find a high-ceiling cafe with an entire wall dedicated for shelves filled with books? I believe there are 2 locations of Cafe Comma in Hongdae, one near Hongdae Subway Station and the other one is near the parking lot street. This location is the latter one and a little smaller than the other location. Also, good to know, since cafes and restaurants in Hongdae seem to open their doors at a more later time during the day, this is a good place to go to for an early coffee fix.

I actually came here with two fellow instagrammers that I met for the first time on that day, @noahskim & @hannahmuhh. We spent a whole day hopping from one place to another so you'll probably be seeing them again on my future posts (as well as the previous one if you haven't already :p).

Les Ephemeres

February 23, 2015 by greysuitcase in Cafe

Les Ephemeres (레제페메르) is hidden in a small alley in Hapjeong (합정). My friend and I was walking around the neighborhood and decided to picked a random place we never been to take a break from all the walking around the neighborhood we did earlier. We actually found the place when we turned to an alley to look at murals on the white wall on the side of the alley but to our surprised there's a cafe entrance at the end of it. Nobody was inside when we walked in, so the place's really quite. Picked a table and started to browse through the menu. They have coffee, tea, wine and beer on their drinks menu so you'll never run out of choices. There're also a good selections of cakes if you feel like having something sweet to go with you drinks. Since both my friend and I are not a coffee drinker, we opted for their tea selections. Can't remember the name of the teas we ordered, but they both were good. When I was taking pictures of the place, I noticed a 'Reserved' sign on the long table at the back of the cafe. Later on, I found out that this place do cater to private/small dinner party as well. Last thing, they have these architectural sketches up on the wall, which I totally adore.

Mo' Better Blues Cafe

January 21, 2015 by greysuitcase in Cafe

What do you do to unwind? For me, reading and listening to music is one way to do it. Jazz in particular can give me that relieve of tension when I needed one. Of all the cafes I've visited so far here in Seoul, Mo' Better Blues Cafe probably has one of the better jazz playlists playing in their cafe. It's not necessarily new musics, lots of them are from the times I grew up or even way before that—the classic jazz songs—but nevertheless, it gave me a nice sense of familiarity in this city that's still fairly unfamiliar to me.

A little about the place, the whole cafe is actually bigger than what I imagined. They have 4 floors, but I think they only open all floors during busier times. They have good selection of drinks and snacks. And the place is good for a study place as well, unless you run into a bunch of noisy high school girls which I did. Even so, you can escape that by trying to go to another floor if that happens to you. The cafe also has a patio area on the first floor which can be used even during winter (they turned up the heater pretty high in there).

With that said, now I'm going to make myself a cup of hot cocoa, listen to some jazz, and unwind. Hope everybody is having a great week so far :)

Furs & Paws

January 17, 2015 by greysuitcase in Cafe

All of the many things I'm fascinated with living in South Korea, one of them is cafe with animals. As some of you might know, cat or dog cafe is pretty popular around here. It's certainly a new thing for me when I first read about it and I'm a little curious on what the experience of going to a cat or dog cafe would be like. And so, when one of my friend was in town visiting, he had the same curiosity. Only probably his curiosity's bigger than mine because that's how we ended up (actually) going to a cat cafe in Hongdae area.

We went to Cheong Chun Cat Cafe (청춘 고양이) that's located on the 3rd floor of a building on an alley in Hongdae (홍대). We took off our shoes, put on some slippers, and sanitized our hand before coming into the cafe. Then right away, when we entered the waiter instructed us to pay our entrance fee (W9,000) which gave us a free drink as well. After paying, we were given a locker where we can put our coats and bags into, you know, to avoid the cat furs I guess and assigned us a table. From then onwards, we pretty much free to play with the cats in the cafe.

Funny thing, although we decided to went to a cat cafe, both me and my friend actually have an allergy to animal furs. So we stayed as long as we can until one of us started to have teary eyes and sneezing continuously. And of course not long after that, the other one followed. So after that, we concluded our cat cafe adventure and left. It was definitely and a fun interesting experience.

Lasim Cafe

January 11, 2015 by greysuitcase in Cafe, Food

A small quite cafe tucked in Ehwa University's area. The most memorable thing for me about this place is probably that they served Lucky Charms cereal with your ordered drinks. I mean, how great is that? (I'm a sucker for Lucky Charms :P) Haven't had that cereal for a while so it was a lovely surprise :) They also give you lollipop with your order. According to their menu, they have brunch available too during the day. Pancakes and everything. Maybe I'll try that for my next visit.

And oh, I'm back in Seoul from my vacation. Will post more stuff soon (hopefully). Happy New Year 2015! :)