[Cafe Hopping] 바늘 이야기 Knitting Cafe @ Edae

*envisions self knitting with 9 cats*

I googled and found out that Banul is actually a website that sells knitting stuff but it probably set up a cafe as an extension. Seems like an odd cafe for us to wander into, but it’s not really as old-lady-9-cats as it sounds. Haha. It’s actually filled with lots of students studying. Since it was a nice experience studying, i’m going to share about it anyway~ without further ado, introducing the knitting cafe: 바늘 이야기 (Knitting Story) @ Edae.

Exterior looks so attractive already!

 

Knitting shop inside the cafe, which explains its theme

Cute tiny muffins for only 500 won~

Blankets~ it was pretty cold upstairs

 

Power points everywhere! Good place to study! In the early afternoon a group of ahjummas were knitting at the corner though LOL so it was noisy. After they left it was just a whole bunch of us girls studying~ after seeing the ahjummas Jas & Daph were talking about envisioning themselves on the airplane knitting stuff when there’s no wifi OTL.

The owner of the cafe came up when i was leaving and asked if we were cold and turned up the temperature. Woman why did you not do so about 4 hours ago T_____T

How to get to 바늘 이야기Knitting cafe @ Edae: From Ewha Womans University exit 6 it’s a straight road down! Banul will be on your left and it’s very obvious~

[Cafe Hopping] Alice in Cupcake @ Edae

One of my most favorite cafes recommended to me by Jasmine!

Alice in Cupcake @ Edae

I first found out about Alice by chance, was just chatting with jasmine about cafes in Edae and she told me about a nice one called Alice in Cupcake. I didn’t really think much about it but on Tuesday when I was stoning and realized i had no where to go since the jjimjilbang plans w Zenn and Sheryl were cancelled, I headed over to check it out for myself.

The place is quite ulu so look out for the sign above on the second floor!

As soon as I entered, I was greeted by the most cheerful voice ever. The ahjumma that runs the cafe was so happy and bubbly that I instantly smiled. I put down my stuff at a corner table and went over to order. As soon as I was there she started chatting to me brightly in Korean. I made my order and she presented me with the stamp card so excitedly! Like ‘jjajang!!’ kind of happy. It seems like she remembers every person who has been in the cafe, so she knew who was new and who wasn’t. Her excitement was contagious and I found myself cheered up already.

English menu at the counter!

cute bear bear and three power points to a corner table like this!

After she served my drink at the table, she quickly pulled a chair next to me and told me to put my bag down there. She was such a nice person i could like the cafe just because of her alone. When other people started coming in, she also did the same for them and for the middle tables, she started pulling out rows of power points from hidden places and placed them next to their tables for them to charge their appliances HAHA.

Iced water and cute blankets! Also they have pieces of paper etc to write and pin on the board (i think). There is a bunch of keys in front of the mirror that you can take to open the toilet downstairs (which is really clean and smells nice!)

This is why I really love Korean cafes, although idk how they earn sometimes, they never fail to provide tons of powerpoints, sometimes a row of multiplugs per table, and they also have nice blankets for you to keep warm and free water. Also, really clean toilets most of the time. The cafe culture here is so comfortable i think i’ll find it so inconvenient when I return to Singapore. :c

Cafe frappe~

Cupcakes for 3500 won!!!!

earl grey tea cupcake~

How to get to Alice in Cupcake @ Edae: Head out from Ewha Womans University exit 2 and head straight. Walk past 1 main cross road and 3 left lanes and you will come to another main road. Turn left there and you’ll have to navigate into the little streets to find this cafe. I got lost a little myself but you should be safe following the map.

Full address: 서울특별시 서대문구 대현동 34-23

 

[Food] Albab (Fish-roe Mixed Rice) @ Alchon Edae Branch

Introducing a new kind of food in this post!!! It’s called Albab, i think it’s a local term because nothing comes out when you google it in English. It’s a fish-roe kind of bibimbap and it’s very very affordable! There were a couple of shops clustered together in Edae but I visited the one called Alchon.

I loved albab immediately when I tried it~ Alchon is considered one of those madjib places that sell cheap and good food.

 

The Alchon menu! Credits to the owner of the pic. This menu seems to be an older version though, when I went the curry one was only 3500 won and they added things like cheese octopus 🙂

 

 

The curry albab! So tasty although a little too spicy Zenn ordered the garlic one and it was super tasty!! The next time I go I’m definitely ordering the garlic one… at first i was suspicious because garlic bibimbap? But it was so delicious!!

Recommended for sure if you’re in Edae area shopping and want something tasty and cheap.

How to get to Alchon (Edae branch): Head out from exit 2 of Ewha Womans University station and walk down the main street, past one main street lane and two side street lanes. Turn left on the third one and look out for Alchon on your right~ Sometimes I feel like the map is a lot better than my written explanation haha so i might quit writing so much and just leave the map xD

[Food] Korean Dessert Cafe @ Edae

Nope. Not recommending this.

I heard this was a popular place amongst Koreans for patbingsoo, but just… #no for me. I guess it’s more of a personal preference? So I’m still going to write about it haha.

We ordered their patbingsoo (the first one on the menu) and well kinda regretted it. It did come out nicely and the first few bites were super delicious. However at the end it was just shaved ice, and the ice didn’t have any milk or were shaved as nicely as the ones in Homilbat. I think it was our mistake though, the ice cream one looked delicious. I wouldn’t recommend the original patbingsoo.

The mochis hidden in there though, were super super delicious! It was a nice bowl of patbingsoo but it got tasteless at the end because the topping was insufficient and the ice had no or little milk.

 

It was however a good place to relax and just talk. It’s also pretty huge, two storeys, compared to Homilbat.

How to get to Korean Dessert Cafe: Head straight from Ewha Womans University station exit 3. After passing the first right street lane, you’ll see the store on the second floor. The banner isn’t obvious so you gotta watch out.

 

 

[Cafe Hopping] Cafe Comma (Book Cafe) @ Hongdae, Cafe the Puzzle @ Edae

Yayyyyy posting about a book cafe I wanted to visit for a long time!!!!

Cafe Comma @ Hongdae

I had been seeing reviews of this for a while but was lazy to venture out to Hongdae. By chance, while trying to find our hostel, the BF and I walked past this cafe and I fell in love.

I’m usually not for totally open concepts because it makes me feel like the world is watching, I usually like little corners of a cafe, but this was really an exception!

They also have an area that looks a lot like a library! Actually the whole place resembles a huge library and that’s what makes it so charming~

I just realized they placed ladders against the bookshelves for people to retrieve books. It’s so tall though I’m not sure I can see the books at all, much less go up there to fetch it… I also love that shelf/door concept they did there ❤

The cafe was deathly quiet when I entered the extended area of the cafe. It’s pretty conducive because the noise level is extremely low, but it is pretty crowded as well so it might be easy to get distracted. Not to mention the sheer amount of books!

Super love the ladder although it kinda fell smack in the center of this area haha. I suspect that I’l be visiting this more than once~ the coffee is a bit more pricey than usual (5300won for a cafe latte), but it’s a book cafe so i’d go if i plan to stay a long time. Also I have this desire to go there when I’m done with studying, just to grab a nice book off those shelves and read the entire day. Been having the desire to do something like this for a long time so I hope I’ll get the chance to do it soon!

How to get to Cafe Comma: Hongik Univ. Station Exit 3 – the cafe is right outside the subway!

Cafe the Puzzle @ Edae

As soon as the BF left i had a group meeting which left me very sian. Luckily Jas suggested going cafe after that to do some work so we decided to go to a cafe in Edae that we saw quite some time ago. It’s called Cafe the Puzzle, on the second floor of a building. It was cosy upon entry and we were the only ones in the cafe on a chilly rainy Sunday night~ ^^

 

 

Love the decor of the cafes. Everything feels so personalized with the charming, rather uncoordinated manner of decoration.

Of course, the theme of this cafe was a puzzle cafe so they have plenty of puzzles you can take from the counter or shelves, with all kinds of difficulty. A couple that came in a while after us were doing this puzzle on a patterned canvas and we were like lmfao omg every piece looked the same.

while waiting for coffee, I picked up a cute set to cheer myself up from the sianness.

Didn’t even manage to complete the external perimeter of the jigsaw before our drinks were served~

I got Jasmine to move out of the way for this shot lmao. Feat. Totoro at the back omg so adorbs ❤

The drinks were slightly less pricey than usual, this ice blended drink was 5000 won. Iced cafe latte is about 4000 won if i’m not mistaken, while a warm one is 3,500 won. I use lattes as the benchmark because it’s what I always drink LOL. As a general rule of thumb, typically an Americano would be 300-500won cheaper than a latte, flavored drinks would be 500-1000won more expensive, and ice blended drinks would be 1200-2000won more expensive. Very general range haha but when I state the latte price you can more or less guess the other drinks on the menu~ Standard price for a latte for most cafes is 4500 won.

How to get to Cafe the Puzzle: From Ewha Womans University station exit 5, walk straight and keep a lookout on your right.

 

[Cafe Hopping] Seven Bricks Coffee @ Edae, Jeons Coffee @ Sinchon

Seven Bricks Coffee @ Edae

I found one of my favorite cafes again! Haha i love discovering cafes i know i will love from first sight, and a cafe i mark into my list of cafes that i will visit more than once, given the opportunity.

I went to Seven Bricks mainly because Sheryl mentioned it off-handedly saying she liked it because of the open smoking corner, when we were on the way to the waffle place at night to celebrate the end of High Tech MKTG project. Then Lineatte, Karin and I decided to go the next day to study since i also needed to chiong for my Korean exam~~

Although it’s fairly smaller than most other cafes of its type, since it only has one floor, it was nice and comfortable, with ample power points, wifi and a clean toilet. Most cafes in Korea are actually this way, made to be so comfortable you can stay the entire day~ i’m going to miss this a lot because the cafes in Singapore don’t always have wifi, rarely has power points and never really have clean toilets within the cafes themselves. I mean Coffee Bean where i usually go to to do work only has two power points in the entire cafe! 😦 and the wifi breaks a lot.

Not a good picture of the menu because it was back-lit haha, but anyways my point of showing the menu is not so much to show what drinks they have on the menu, but more of the price and the refill. Their prices are slightly more affordable on average with a latte costing 4000 won (most other cafes range 4500-5500 won) and I noticed the little refill sectino at the bottom for only 1000 won!!!! O.O I didn’t get the chance to try or ask what the refill was for because i ordered a smoothie that day, but if my assumption is right that they allow refills of the drinks in that entire section, i’ll be damned!!!! add 1000 won for a refill of cafe latte??? YES. YES. Since this cafe closes at 12am, i might visit real soon again to study and discover what the refill is for xD Although I doubt it’s that amazing, it’s probably a refill for their regular coffee or americano~ Not the first cafe i’ve seen with a refill option but the first cafe that didn’t say it’s just for americano! Well I’ll find out soon, hopefully, if I return!

When we were studying halfway this bunch of people walked in and looked like they were filming something. I peered at the main ‘artist’ and concluded she isn’t a celebrity or anything, i think they’re shooting some fashion show or blog interview or smth. Regardless, it was a professional setup so I sneaked a pic despite the glares the manager/editor/assistant/director/etc was shooting at me.

They got chased out after 2 hours or so lmao because i believe for shoots like this you should book the place. I’ve encountered a photoshoot before at some cafe and they were turning customers away because the place was booked. But the team here just filmed to their hearts’ content without booking and only bought a drink so after a while the staff came over and asked if they were almost done. Haha. I think it’s nice enough of him to let them shoot at all and for a decent period of time too.

That’s about it for 7 bricks! Love this cafe! ❤

How to get to Seven Bricks Coffee: Seven Bricks is just outside Ewha Womans University station! Walk out of the station via Exit 1 and you’ll see Watsons and Cafe 7 Gram just a little away from the station. Seven Bricks is next door on the second floor.

전광수 Coffee House (Jeons Coffee) @ Edae

On Saturday, I went with Jasmine for an ‘intense’ Korean language learning session because the BF was going to arrive the morning after so I needed to finish as much of my revision as possible. We decided to head over to a cafe we spotted the other time on the way to Table A~ It’s called Jeons Coffee in English!

‘The best coffee in Sinchon’ is debatable though lol

Typically people pay their bills after they bought the coffee though, we didn’t know so the staff were quite paiseh also haha

little private corners!

Wouldn’t say it’s my most favorite cafe because it’s a little smaller and it doesn’t feel like a study cafe kinda thing, more of a nice place to hangout and chill! Also the whole service thing with the staff coming in to take your orders from the table and you paying the bill afterwards has always been less comfortable for me because i feel burdened to leave. I like cafes wherei can get a drink, go upstairs and sit in a corner and take my time to do my work/relax and just you know, blend in, and not draw any attention or whatever.

How to get to Jeons Coffee: I went Jeons Coffee via Edae so i had this impression it was in Edae but it’s actually Sinchon branch haha. Anyway you can walk out from either exit 4 of Sinchon or exit 1 of Edae and walk along the main road towards Jeons Coffee. Map below.

[Food] Bongchu Jjimdak @ Sinchon, Waffle It Up @ Edae

I’m gonna make a map of the area in Sinchon really soon because of all the amazing food places located in that area!! Soondubu, jjimdak, jjambboong, patbingsoo, budae jjigae, churros, bbq… this area is probably my most favorite and most frequented area throughout Seoul! xD Will do up the map and circle the places that i’d recommend, real soon as soon as I have time!! So anyway, the new discovery that I made near that area was a jjimdak place called Bongchu Chicken, but written in chinese and Korean characters.

Bongchu Chicken (봉추찜닭) @ Sinchon

They have many branches everywhere so it’s not a problem finding one of these!

 

We ordered half chicken! Typically for 4 people it would be one chicken but we don’t eat that much and the portion of half chicken was really just nice for us~ and it makes it super affordable!

 

This was soooo yummy!! 😀 After we were done we ordered two portions of baked rice (for 4 of us) and they cooked the rice in the kitchen and served it on our plate. She told us to press down the rice on the sauce before eating it.

Sigh i feel so hungry looking at this 😦

How to get to 봉추찜딹: Walk out from Sinchon Station Uplex exit and head straight, keeping on the left side of the street. Turn in to the third lane and you’ll see the store almost immediately.

I keep saying Uplex exit i guess it’s abit confusing when you look at the map. It’s easier to refer to the map so I’m gonna be leaving maps more often:

 

Waffle It Up @ Edae

 

❤

These waffles tasted really good! Ours cost 12,000won ish which is decent considering how much we each pay after splitting~~

I don’t see a lot of waffles places around the area, so this was a treasure!

How to get to Waffle It Up @ Edae: Walk out from exit 2 of Ewha Womans University station along the main road and turn left at the T-junction, Waffle It Up will be on your left. Look out for the small signboard stand outside the eyewear shop.

[Cafe Hopping] Table A (Cat Cafe) @ Sinchon/Edae

I’m doing a proper re-review of Table A because I think it truly deserves it!

On my second time there I finally could stay a lot longer so I got to play with the cats and stuff!! So without further ado, let’s take a look at this mini cat cafe~

Forgot to take a picture and this was the only accurate pic. Seems like it went through renovation so the pictures on the website aren’t accurate. This pic is credited to blog.naver.com/orjinol

Cosy areas upstairs, ‘pens’ are linked by cat bridges for the cats to roam freely

 

cat bridges. study downstairs if you don’t want no cat

And now introducing my favorite cat with no name cuz i didn’t find out!

 

Saw him (i assume it’s him for now) crouched at the staircase staring intensely so i went over to this little one to say hi and he meowed a lot and suddenly reached out to try to climb onto me. So I let him claw his way to my shoulder and carried him back to our table downstairs and he walked all over my laptop because that’s what cats do i guess.

Looking almost like the logo on the cup lol

the drinks!

After walking all over our table he jumped down and went out and sat outside pondering over life. The staff quickly fetched him and up him back up. Feeling sad for the kitty I went up to join him and Jasmine joined us soon after. The cat stood around looking outside sadly before going over to me, presumably for some human comfort or really just somewhere to sleep or lie down on.

sorry for my unglam face and shot angle

At this point the kitty was finding a comfortable spot to lie on my lap. My legs kept going numb so i kept holding him as i switched position and he kept meowing and protesting like the king he thinks he is. And he kept kneading his paws and kept digging his claws into my jeans, I read that this too could be a sign of affection for cats to leave their marks, but yknow it kinda pricked. So at one point i just held both his paws up and i think he got the point afterwards. Gotta discipline the kitty and let him know who’s the real king/queen.

A white kitty came over and they hissed at each other and got hostile. I noticed my cat was kind of a troublemaker, always trying to escape and not being friendly with other cats lol. He jumped away and the white kitty came over to me curiously and then left. Then after sulking for a while my kitty returned back to me.

And then the final time he returned to my lap he got really comfortable and was purring and closing his eyes when I scratched him. Then he kept turning to lick my hand, and started grooming my thumb thoroughly, from base to nail. It’s not that hard to guess that it was a sign of affection and ‘social bonding’ because he was purring while grooming me. I guess I’m kind of a cat to him.

After that i decided it was time to finally study. I spent like an hour+ just paying attention to him, so I settled into a comfortable position and hoped he would sleep.

eyes look a little scary LOL

He didn’t though. Every time i stopped paying attention he would paw me and look up at me and meow in protest. From the position as you can see above, it’s easy for him to climb up my body to get my attention. Self-proclaimed king of the world tsk.

He got bored eventually and jumped off and found some people who had food. He never returned again LOLOL, typical of cats lmao.

I found out though that I was the only lucky one that day. It seemed to be really hard to get them to really like you. They will approach you and you can pet them for a while but usually they don’t stay around, or want to cuddle around with you. I realized that none of the other people around managed to get a cat on their lap willingly lol, and since then my kitty didn’t return to me again as well 😦 So i guess the magical moment had an expiry time LOL, i was already pretty fortunate in terms of winning attention.

After a while of studying it was finally time to go! I went to my kitty who had just woken up for a nap and gave him a bit more love and then climbed down. When i reached downstairs and looked up I saw that he had walked over to the staircase and he meowed like kind of in farewell, awww at least you have the heart to remember me ❤

So that’s it for Table A! I really like this cafe because of power points, wifi and CATSSSSSS, and nice environment.

How to get to Table A (Branch 1): Refer to the map below. I’m not giving exact directions because we got a bit lost, so it’s better to refer to the map 🙂 The station featured is Ewha Womans University!

 

 

 

[Cafe Hopping] Book Cafe: 후마니타스책다방 @ Hapjeong, Cafe Noriter @ Edae

Two cafes this week! Visited my first book cafe in Korea with Jasmine~ it’s a korean name and not really obvious, so i took a picture of how it looks at the exterior for reference.

후마니타스책다방 @ Hapjeong:

Once in, you’d notice it’s reallllllly quiet haha, clearly a book cafe for a reason. It’s rather small and actually not the main book cafe i wanted to go to the most, the other one i wanted to go to was in Hongdae and is huge like a library, Cafe Comma if I’m not wrong? but anyway!!

  

Shot from the entrance with Jasmine unglamming

The drinks were a little on the pricey side. A cup of latte costs 5500 won~

You could get free refills for Americanos i think, that’s what i read anyways. We sat near the printing room so it was a little noisy – i think they have an office in the cafe so people were printing stuff. But aside from that it was almost deathly quiet and one lady even walked in to ask the staff if they can have meetings in the place, and the staff said they can only speak quietly. Haha.

THey have everything there, wifi, power plug etc. They also have some useful books like Finance etc if you’re interested haha. The toilets are also behind the counter which I found fascinating for some reason lmao.

How to get to 후마니타스책다방: From Hapjeong Station exit 6, keep going straight and keep a lookout on your left. You’ll see the cafe pretty soon.

 

Cafe Noriter @ Edae:

One of the few branch cafes in Korea that I adore!! This was a really beautiful place and I liked it.

Second floor~

Third floor~

some of their pretty decos

Individual booths on the second floor~

individual booths on the third floor~

It was a really nice cafe! Each booth has power points for you to charge all your devices, and two open cafes. Drinks cost 4500won for a hot latte, 5000 for an iced one.

It was a cosy place and we studied quiet a bit until the cafe closed ❤

How to get to Cafe Noriter @ Edae: Head out from Ewha Womans University Exit 1 and walk straight until you see the road forking right. Turn right and walk into Edae area, you would see Cafe Noriter. You can also walk via Exit 2. Check the map below for a clearer reference~

[Food] Budae Jjigae @ Sinchon & Edae | Bossam!! (boiled pork)

Figured out a lot of people may not be able to read Korean so instead of focusing on the review of these Korean-named places, I’m putting the food names as the main title so people looking for such food can find this post 🙂

18 번지 부대찌개(18 Beonji Budae Jjigae) @ Sinchon

I mentioned one that budae jjigae is one of my favorite jjigaes out there, but i’ve been eating mostly the ‘cheap’ ones. (FYI: Budae Jjigae is kinda like army stew Korean style. Ingredients include SPAM, sausage, noodles, ramyun, ddeok – chopped rice cakes, tofu, vegetables, and in the restaurants we went to, macaronis… served with rice and side dishes). Finally we went to a restaurant that weekend after a study session!! It’s called 18 번지 부대찌개 and is very convenienly located in Sinchon. A quick google search showed that it’s a pretty popular place amongst Koreans and seemingly among celebrities too seeing the many signatures framed up. We went there by Lineatte’s recommendation!

Upon reaching the place there was this table that looked at us constnatly and we realized they were Singaporeans too LOl. But didn’t talk to them, just ate our food diligently.

For 7000won per person, we got a huge pot of Budae Jjigae goodness and unlimited refills of RAMYUN AND RICE. It’s heavenly. Although I didn’t refill cuz the portion they gave were wayyyyy more than enough. The owner (i think?) was really kind and told us to take as much as we can.

Multiple celebrity autographs!

<33333333

I didn’t make a fuss taking all sorts of pictures of the side dishes and all because i was REALLY REALLY HUNGRY, forgive meh LOL. I’m sure i’d return there though so i’ll just come back to add more pictures, but i do think the picture above should be convincing enough. It was sooooo delicious! Only bad part of it: the SPAM was very thinly chopped :< give us more SPAMMMMMMM

Adding a picture from another blogger, credits on the pic~

How to get to 18 번지 부대찌개: Walk out from Uplex exit in Sinchon station and cross the main street. Head straight in and keep a look out on your right, you’ll see the restaurant really soon. OR, head out from Exit 3 and walk in until you see the main street fork and turn right. It’s the same street you head down to go to my favorite soondubu and also Homilbat patbingsoo. Haha.

놀부 부대찌개 (Nolbu Budae Jjigae) @ Edae

shop interior

BUDAEEEEEE

This seems to be a pretty popular branch place too, the owner was really nice as well. I liked 18 better because of the taste and ddeok, as well as the unlimited rice/ramyun refills, but this one had better SPAM! It cost us 8,250won per person because we ordered the set that included orange juice and i THINK more stuff inside. But it’s not really necessary, the normal set is 7500won per person if I remember correctly.

How to get to 놀부 부대찌개: Head out from Ewha Womans University station from exit 3, walk straight down and head right at the first corner. This restaurant will be right around the corner.

Bossam!!

The next recommendation i’m going to make is for a Bossam place. I’m not stating the name in the title for now because it’s the ONLY Bossam i’ve tried LOL, but just wanna introduce this food to everyone since it’s kinda less heard of. It’s basically pork belly boiled in spices, and eaten the same way we eat all those unhealthy but delicious pork BBQ (Samgyeopsal). Wrap with vegetable, eat with garlic, seasoning and the other banchans. It’s super nice and a healthier alternative!!

Bossam~~~~~

It was super tasty and a much healthier alternative, and only for 6000won per person! ;D This place was at the back of our school , just across the road~ hidden gem i didn’t realize about~