Seoul Accommodation: MORI Guesthouse

My favorite guesthouse! ❤

Because of this guesthouse honestly, i have no regrets or anger or sadness that my goshiwon cancelled on me. I’m thrilled now because i get to find this really affordable and amazing guesthouse! 😀 I didn’t book this one through booking.com or hostelworld as I usually do, so I felt it was so wasted if I didn’t write something on it somewhere on the net…

So without further ado!

I had lots of luggage so I was super relieved to find out that the nearest station Gwangheungchang had elevators all the way, and the guesthouse had no staircase! Phew. I’ve learned from previous experiences that guesthouses are usually not located on the first floor so yeah. But MORi was something more of an entire apartment building if I have to put it that way, so it was nice 🙂

The moment of entrance was a large carpark but it’s used as a space for bicycles and laundry.

Entering MORI~

 

Upon entering they would ask you to take off your shoes and provide really cute little bathroom slippers.

 

Waking up to smiley slippers everyday does help haha

My first reaction when I walked in was woah they’re spacey!! 😀

Very pretty design!

It’s a little bit complicated for me because i actually went through booking.com first and booked 8-bed room for 11 nights, then found their website and decided to email in to see if there is possible ways to make special arrangements because i wanted to stay in 6-bed room. The initial plan was 6-bed room for 7 nights, then 8-bed room for 4 because for two days in between there isn’t room in the 6-bed room. But they made a mistake in reserving so for my last 2 nights they had to move me to another 6-bed room. So I had to move twice and i stayed in 3 different rooms altogether in my 11 nights.

I was honestly just glad they didn’t suddenly tell me i needed to evacuate so it didn’t bother me, and they were very apologetic about it. It also allowed me to see the different rooms and compare. Actually there was a pretty big diference which i’ll point out later on~

Upon arrival James led me to the 6-bed room on the first floor. It was very pretty and i loved the colors! 😀 He told me about the guesthouse rules which were basic, and they had no curfew. They also provided locker keys and small towels.

Now this room’s bed was very comfortable, because they added a comforter on top of it. It was soft and i was so happy when i first sat down on the bed. 😀

I’m a sucker for curtains and now not only do I have my on personal curtain, i also have my personal bed light!! 😀 this was plus points for the guesthouse and it was one of the reasons i chose to book it over the others. The whole privacy thing makes it so convenient for you to change or stay up late without disturbing other guests.

I was also pleasantly surprised to find that it was bigger than expected. Most guesthouses have pictures that are extended so they are pretty much smaller than what we see on the internet, but MORI was pretty accurate with their pictures and i was comfortable with the space.

Personal lighting and curtains~ and pretty bed colors!

My fortress at night. All nice and cosy!

There was no window in this room so i wake up every day in some kind of inception thing like is it day or night?? And because it’s so nice and dark and cosy in my little fortress that i often end up like where’s the curtain?? and end up groping the wall on the wrong side trying to open the curtain lol.

He showed me around the guesthouse. There were three bathrooms on the first floor but if you wanna bathe after 12 you have to go the one upstairs. Probably because the three bathrooms on the first floor are really close to the rooms so it’s kinda noisy.

There was also a mini makeup area outside the rooms on the first floor.

 

He then showed me the second floor.

The second floor had more rooms and even more bathrooms!!

bathroooooooooms galore! no waiting for shower stalls! Yay!

Each bathroom looks similar to this:

 

Nice clean bathrooms! Bathrooms are very important to me in guesthouses and often determine whether a guesthouse is yay or nay for me. Haha. This one was one of the cleanest I’ve seen, despite there being so many of them. Everyday at about 11am ish a cleaning lady comes around to scrub every bathroom clean haha. I leave the guesthouse really late everyday which is why i kinda know that they come in around afternoon time LOL.

Cleaning ladies or the owners of the guesthouse also enter the room at around noon time-ish to quickly sweep and mop the floor, as well as change the sheets/blankets for the vacant beds. This is when the curtains are extra useful. Although technically you shouldn’t be expecting people still sleeping at noon but well they were prepared for guests like me.

They’re really diligent and efficient with their cleanliness which was really nice 🙂 They’re not by any means a tiny guesthouse so it was nice to see they had a system they stick diligently to.

Anyway, the second floor had this mega huge-ass makeup room, probably to accommodate the numebr of rooms on that floor.

 

Huge right?! Part of why i really appreciate the sincerity of this guesthouse is that they could have turned this area into like two more rooms and earn more monehhhh (makeup rooms aren’t that common in guesthouses), or they could also reduce the bathrooms if they wanted to. But they’re not stingy with the space and make sure the guesthouse is very comfortable for guests. Bordering on luxurious I’d have to say considering the price they charge their guests. Many guesthouses out there charge much higher and i doubt their service comes close to what MORi offers.

One area of the second floor of the guesthouse, also where i stayed at for the last 4 nights

Bins and water dispenser available on the second floor too!

We didn’t stay around at the second floor much. I got to know the second floor much better later on though when i shifted there after my first week on the first floor haha.

He showed me around the lounge area afterwards!

This is what I see when I first open the door to the lounge:

like woah! I’ve never seen such a huge lounge in a guesthouse seriously ❤

The tables and hangout areasssss

The kitchen area!

I watched the World Cup finals here!!

 

As per other guesthouses, they provide bread, eggs, coffee and juice. But just like Guesthouse 710, they also provide cereal!! Any guesthouse that provides cereal is like a bonus!!! woohoo

 

I end up ditching eggs because there’s always cereal. Glory. When they stock up on the chocolate ones it’s the most glorious thing ever.

After a week on the first floor, i had to move to the 8-bed room for two days. At first she was gonna move me to the one opposite the reception area since i had lots of luggage, but after finding out that eventually i have to go up to the second floor for the last 2 nights at another 6-bed room, i figured meh just move now. And she said the 8-bed room upstairs is bigger than the one downstairs.

So I agreed.

She was right, it was bigger! The pictures online looked quite cramped so i was worried.  But you can see in the picture below that you could fit large luggages comfortably in between the beds!

Luckily for me i had a nifty little corner to tuck my luggages in.

Nifty corner!

This room had sunlight streaming in haha, unlike the first one. No more waking up to a dark nice cosy cave 😦

The beds on this floor weren’t as comfortable as the one i slept in on the first floor. They didn’t add the comforter for these rooms but i wasn’t complaining because i really liked this place~~ i felt that they were already giving me much more than I paid for. Talk about utility man.

On the last 2 days, I moved next door to the 6-bed room one. Actually this was just an 8-bed room converted to a 6-bed room LOL, so the space where the last bed is becomes luggage space. Again I felt like they could have utilized the space to convert it to an 8-bed room but they didn’t and maybe that’s for a functional reason but nevertheless it was nice to have so much space in a guesthouse i didn’t pay much for. The others were always so cramped 😦

So much luggage space over there!!! woohooo! Perfect for when i packed on my last day~

Look at how our huge luggages looked dwarfed in that immense amount of space. glorious

Plenty of space for everyone! If you’re looking to move into this guesthouse you can always let the hosts know that you have lots of luggage, they’re more than happy to give you the room that has more spaces. Because some rooms are smaller than others despite them being the same type of rooms.

Fortress style~

I now understand why they have an almost perfect rating on all the booking sites. Seriously they deserve it for their dedication and attention to detail! So pretty, clean, spacey… and the hosts are so super nice! 😀

I think because of all the makeup rooms the hostel end up being mostly girls-dominated. LOL. They do have male dorms i think but i’ve seen only like 3 males out of all my 11 nights and they only appear during breakfast or at night at the lounge area.

The catch is that this guesthouse is extremely affordable! It’s actually cheaper if you contact them directly, plus they gave me a 10% discount for long term stay. You wouldn’t get the same price if you booked through an agent. But then again the benefit of an agent is that you can cancel without losing any deposit, whereas my direct booking at MORI required me to pay 50,000 won in advance to secure my booking. It didn’t matter to me though because i was pretty sure i wanted to stay there~

With one of the hosts, Jiae! They both speak fluent English 🙂

Name: Mori Guesthouse
Location: 12-8, Seogang-ro 1-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul 121-881, South Korea
Nearest station: Gwangheungchang Line 6, 2 min walk
Nearby: Sinchon (10-15 min walk), Hongdae (15 min walk), Sangsu  (7 min walk)
Price: (via website) 19,000 won / night for 6-bed room, 17,000 won / night for 8-bed room. Discount for long stays. My booking for 7 nights in 6-bed room and 4 nights in 8-bed room came up to 180,900 won which is a little below 17,000 won per night, because of the discount. I ended up with 9 nights in 6-bed room and 2 nights in 8-bed room for the same pice because of their little slip up though hehe. Free upgrade!
Website: http://www.housemori.com/main/index

Its location is probably its worst drawback which also probably explains the price. But i wouldn’t sweat it. I mean unless you’re staying for like exchange or smth tht requires you to keep coming back to the same area everyday (like for exapmle you wanna hang out in Hongdae 3 times a week), then it’ll benefit you to find a guesthouse closer to Hongdae. But if you’re a traveler honestly the subway is all you need and this guesthouse has a subway really close by. There’s a lack of food nearby though but i always walk to Sinchon cuz it’s a straightforward route down and isnt far. All the good food places are there.

Crashing at Amber’s place (4-days mass update~)

Personal mass update! Long story short, the goshiwon ditched me so i was forced to find accommodation elsewhere. 😦 That’s the thing bout Goshiwons, never be totally certain even when you’ve paid your deposit. Unless you book it really early and can claim priority over everyone else. For me, because i was supposed to take over a tenant, that tenant had priority. She extended her stay nad i was kicked out. UGH. Because I was kinda bitter that i have to spend more now on a guesthouse (the goshiwon was as cheap as about 11,000 won per night, less than $15), i ended up asking Amber if i could crash at her place for four days until i go busan, and then check into my new accommodation at MORI Guesthouse. She said okay thankfully! So for the next couple of days I crashed at Amber’s house. It was great fun although we weren’t together most of the time. It’s nice to stay in a proper Korean apartment for a while, be in a residential area and stay with a great friend who always has stories to tell about her life xD SHe lived in Bongcheon which is in between Gangnam and Sinchon, along the green line. Because Amber was out with her new 썸 ‘SOME’ (a korean term for a guy you’re seeing but not dating officially.. at least not yet), I met Sheryl for one last dinner before she goes back to Singapore. It was good to be back in Korea after being in Japan not understanding a single word 😦 Figured if i was going to crash at Amber’s place, i should get my own groceries right??

Milk and a bunch of bread for the next 4 days breakfast! Ultimate budget~~

At least i didn’t live on bread and water. Had a good loooooooong rest that night and woke up in the afternoon of Wednesday. Haha. Amber was busy with her work and i had nothing on till night time where i was due to meet Jinho oppa and Sooyoung unnie, two koreans i met while on language exchange. Crashed at Coffeenie nearby for a couple of hours before meeting the oppa/unnir. It was kinda in an ulu location near their uni haha. They brought Zenn and I to eat galguksu (soup noodles) with kimchi, pork and tofu. Haha. Together with makegeolli (rice wine)!! 😀 Sooo delicious!   Chatted for a bit in Korean and then we moved to another pub for more drinks. Well I can’t dirnk lots so we ended up ordering fruit soju! First time for me as well! 😀 Seriously i’m leaving Korea with no regrets about what i iddn’t try and stuff xD

Strawberry soju! Delicious`

Fruit Soju with… erm not sure what that was that they ordered, it was a chicken dish with rice balls. Super duper yummy!

I become really oblivious when I go out with Koreans haha. Because usually with Singaporeans I feel obliged to be the one ordering, the one talking to the staff etc, the one who should know more. Maybe because i’m more familiar with the language, so i always feel that obligation/responsibility even when nobody actually held me responsible haha. But with Koreans i’m like yay locals i can sit back and not have to worry about communicating effectively. Haha. Thus it also makes me kinda oblivious to the stuff that they order which is bad because i hate not remembering what i ate or drank 😦 Thank you unnie and oppa for the great food and company and helping us with our Korean all the time! 🙂 Thank you for not speaking any slower or treating us as any less competent than another local Korean. We don’t always get what you say 100% of the time, but we catch most of it and we’re grateful that even though we may not be able to reply as fluently, we feel like we’re truly locals when we’re with you guys!! ❤ And thanks for always taking care of us and treating us like real dongsaengs hahaha. Thursday was another late-waking up day. What’s new haha! Had dinner plans with the rest for a final farewell to Sheryl, but had nothing to do. Ended up contacting Sheryl and Zenn beforehand to see if they wanna go Hyehwa with me! Went with Zenn in the end and settled down at Waffle Lui. We met the rest for dinner at a BBQ place that sheryl recommended, called 구이미소 which I THINK literally translates to ‘grill smile’ hahahaha. I admire Sheryl honestly because of the entire group, she has the least knowledge of Korean, not being able to read or understand anything except the basic ‘thank you’ and her favorite foods. But she’s always the most adventurous and the one who ends up discovering the most places and eating the best things, because she’s always ready to get out there against her comfort zone 🙂

Tsk these kids

Love how they provide this space to put our bags!

Sheryl doesn’t like pork so for our table we ordered beef!

Yumz 😀

The bean paste stew was only 1000 won and was VERY DELICIOUS D: i don’t know why i don’t have a picture of it tbh. After that of course because it’s summer, it’s Patbingsoo time!!!! Usually our favorite hangout place is at Homilbat, but because Sheryl prefers the nut based patbingsoo (err i forgot what it’s called rn but if i recall i’ll update), we went to 팥미옥 (Pat Mi Ok) 100% Red Bean Handmade. Hahahahaha. Homilbat sells only fruit bingsoo, milk, coffee and green tea.

haha these kids so cute

Mango based and nut based!

Chatted for a very long time and selfied a lot too. Awesome last time spent for Sheryl 🙂 On Friday i had nothing much to do again so went to Express bus terminal to buy our tickets to Busan, and then went back to that same cafe! Did some work for my dad and nua-ed around fo a bit and then went back to pack and rest because it was busan the next day! Random but i wanna post a picture of the ramyun i ate at Express Bus Terminal. The ramyuns they sell at restaurants over here are freaking amazing. Can’t compare to the packet Korean ramyuns we eat. I need to know the brand D: And then on to Busan 😀 Can’t wait to blog about Busan!!

[Food] Gamjatang (Pork Ribs Soup with Potatoes) @ Chamimat Gamjatang

THIS DISH IS NO JOKE. IT’S ONE OF THE BEST SHIT I’VE TASTED IN SEOUL.

Ahem.

So… to start off this post, an introduction about this Korean dish called Gamjatang, that is probably less well known compared to other local delights. Good ole Wikipedia is pretty reliable for food stuff at least.

Gamjatang (감자탕) is a spicy Korean soup made with pork spine or ribs, potatoes, vegetables, green onion, hot peppers and ground wild sesame seeds. It is a matter of contention whether the name of the soup comes from the word for potato (감자; gamja) or not, because the soup is frequently served without potatoes.

The soup base is a deep red colour from the red hot peppers.

Now that we’re all clear about what Gamjatang is, without further ado, presenting one of the tastiest dishes I’ve tasted in Korea (idk if it’s the restaurant or the dish itself that’s just amazing but idc it was glorious!!!!)

Gamjatang (Pork Ribs Soup with Potatoes) @ Chamimat Gamjatang 참이맛 감자탕 

I ate Gamjatang @ Chamimat on the last day of my last week of school with Zenn after hunting for a Goshiwon, choosing to eat this on Zenn’s recommendation instead of chicken+beer that the rest were having. Never regretted that decision.

The menu serves small medium large, but because it was only Zenn and I, we asked the staff for individual servings. It was really cheap! Only 6000 won for one person with rice included 😀

While waiting for the soupppp

gamjatang!!!!

Omg there are so many things i wanna talk about this dish and my mouth’s watering thinking about it. The meat was super soft and fell off the bones easily, I was probably in tears when i had my first taste of the meat because of how tender it was. T____T The soup was delicious because it wasn’t too spicy and the pork taste went so well with the pepper and chili seasoning.

Ok i’m sorry i suck at describing food, i can’t be like those writers with really good descriptive skills oRZ SORREH.

But point of this post is, try this dish and restaurant!!! It’s a really good meal in my opinion especially if you like spicy soup and pork ribs. I love both so this was one of the best meals for me. Let’s not forget the potatoes as well!! They weren’t the main part of the meal (and are often omitted from the soup) but by rights ‘Gamja’ originated from potato so they deserve a proper mention.

How to get to Chamimat 

Around Seoul, there are plenty of Chamimat branches. I went to the one at Hongdae. You can refer to the site to search for stores, but it’s in Korean T___T

Hongdae Branch: 서울특별시 마포구 서교동 364-16 2층 | 364-16 (2nd floor) Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul

Accessible via:
1) Hapjeong Exit 3

 

2) Accessible via Hongdae exit 9

Official web page with map
Other branches in Seoul

On a side note, I realized they have a branch at Sinchon along my favorite food street :’)

Second last week of Sogang University :(

The second-final week of school… 😥 It just suddenly hit us how soon our exchange was gonna end T__T It felt like yesterday that I was walking into Sogang wide-eyed and apprehensive, finding every little detail fascinating only because it had been my dream for so so so long.

Just as we had stepped into the convention hall for a welcome ceremony, we walked in for our goodbyes. They even served us the same mediocre bibimbap that they served us on the first day haha.

the side dishes deserved a pictuer more than Mediocre Bibimbap

There were a couple of girls who did an amazing performance but there were also a couple of awkward performances and speeches in between. It felt like they didn’t QC the performers who volunteered which was why there were awkward moments here and there, but props to them for speaking up bravely!

After the farewell it felt a bit wasted to say goodbye so quickly so the bunch of us Singaporeans together with Robert an american, went to Baskin Robbins the huggeeeeeee 3-storeys branch at Sinchon~

It was kind of cheaper to get ice cream in Korea’s BR than other places

 

We were talking about stuff and then suddenly Liz started talking to me about SNSD so like the entire night became a KPOP topic lol.

We retired early because the next day had to chiong for freaking report -_-

fast forward to the next day aka report chionging day haha. I offered to read through the entire report because english wasn’t their native language, but i kinda regretted halfway omg there was so much to edit. While jas and i were chilling at Ediya opposite our school, suddenly a Korean friend I know walked in looking kinda dazed. He bought a drink and came over and started babbling about random shit. He was kinda still drunk from the previous night and was desperately trying to recover from his hangover because he had tons of work to do. He didn’t seem lke he was well on his way though. Fortunately he left after a while, i mean i really don’t mind meeting him, but i really had a report to rush…

on Thursday, i had a sudden revelation that i had very very very little days left in Korea and that if i wanted to do all i wanted to do, i had to start immediately. So after a bit of research, i decided i should get out of the house to visit Samcheongdong because it’s cafe street and if i left Korea without visting cafe street i’d never forgive myself. Thought for a while of going alone but then decided to ask Sheryl and Zenn anyway, and Zenn wanted to come out too, but Sheryl was already in Hongdae haha. So after lazing around a bit i finally went out and met Zenn. We had a good loooong walk at Samcheongdong before settling down haha.

Post on Samcheongdong here~

On Friday, we decided to all meet up one last time for chicken and beer, and also because Jasmine has NEVER JOINED US BEFORE NOT EVEN ONCE PRIOR TO THIS, so we dragged her out and ting yu also brought his friends alone. His friends were really hilarious and it was a good night 🙂

Saturday and Sunday was dedicated strictly to STUDYING. We studied at Knitting Cafe and a Study Cafe separately on these two days. i’m kinda proud of our ability to find these little treasures in sinchon and edae alone. haha. Since i’ll be living in Hongdae for my remaining days, i have plenty of time then to explore the cafes there~~~~ finally maybe after then, i can make a proper cafe recommendation post ^^ I’m typing this when i’ve found a goshiwon in Hongdae, i’ve got a story to tell for that one heh, will make a separate rant post on goshiwons.

Oh yes wanna make a special mention to the food we ate on Sunday!!

This is a branch chain place and kinda like convenient fast food, with a concept that perfectly suited Korea – rice burger!

blurred sorreh

The food was realy really cheap, most of them were below $3! And the original one was under $2~ the options were also simple.

 

My order was tuna something i forgot what it was called on the menu, but it was served with tuna, kimchi and spam. IT TASTED AWESOME. really salty though, i’m almost sure it’s all made of MSG but anyway, it made for a very good, relatively feeling and very cheap meal. So yes, recommended esp for students haha. You could easily take it away too.

And that was it for this week. It’s bittersweet because it’s almost over but it made me cherish every moment so much more.

[Cafe Hopping] 여행자 Study Cafe @ Sinchon

One last cafe for this week’s update i promise!! Haha. I’m blogging almost a week later, so the time I went to this cafe was the crunch time when i had exams the whole of the next week. Thus Jas and I decided not to venture too far away and stay near Sinchon, specifically picking out a book cafe we’ve been seeing from outside.

We went up and the place was almost like the olden times kind of decor, and kinda like a library.

It was empty when we walked in but later on it filled up so much we were genuinely surprised because we didn’t think this cafe was popular with the Sogang kids. They seem to treat it as a library though which explains why it’s popular. It’s almost like SMU, once you go in and pick a seat you’ll probably stay there forever, so those walking in the cafe in the afternoon stand no chance.

 

This is such a short post LOL but anyway yeah just wanted to write about this because I think it’s a good place to study. There’s powerpoints everywhere in the form of extensions, the lighting is good and they provide individual lighting for some tables, and the drinks are moderately cheap (4000won for a latte). The best thing about study cafes in Korea is because they are built to be study cafes, so you don’t feel guilty or what staying.

The books aren’t for reading though? They’re selling the books after all. That’s why i titled this ‘study cafe’ and not ‘book cafe’ hahaha.

The toilet was really clean too but i made the mistake thinking the toilet downstairs was the toilet and it was gross and guys use the toilet without closing the door LOL i found out later on that WAS THE GUY’S TOILET. And to think that i was glaring at the guy who didn’t lock. Aigooooo. Later on the owner told me girls can use the toilet in the cafe (i thought it was for staff) and the stark contrast was actually unfair LOL. The girls get such a pretty clean toilet and the guys use the public one downstairs?

Well, not complaining.

How to get to 여행자 Study Cafe @ Sinchon: From Sogang, you just have to walk out of the school campus via front gate and turn right. From Sinchon, head out via Exit 6 and follow the road down.

[Food] Grilled Fish Mackerel 고삼이 @ Sinchon

Apologies for all the foodie posts this week!! Haha. I have like one more cafe and one more food place coming up so yep, i’ve become a food blogger at this point LOL. Anyways, this place was recommended on Sogang’s little guide book, and seems to be very popular with the queues. The rest of the Sogang kids actually ate before a couple of times i’m prolly the only one clueless and all haha.

After the knitting cafe, Sheryl invited everyone to eat grilled fish so that’s how we ended up at this famous place that everyone has eaten before except for me haha.

Straightforward menu.

The squid was awesome! It reminded me so much of Singapore and BBQ squids T_____T Amazing taste.

The fish was heavenly as well. Crispy skin, soft meat, delicious taste. Everything you can ask for in a grilled fish. These two together made for a very satisfying meal that had me cleaning the fish to the bones~ we didn’t pay a lot too! About 6000won per person, because we ordered two portions of grilled fish and two portions of squid for five of us~

The sauce to eat the fish with was also amazing! And they serve the tea in a bowl hahahaha. Fun fact.

How to get to 고삼이 @ Sinchon: Walk from Exit 2!

TRY IT. IT’S WORTH IT.

[Cafe Hopping] Coffee Break @ Sinchon

Not a new cafe at all but I’ve finally captured enough photos to talk about it! I really like this place because it’s a really nice place to study or do work or just blog or watch dramas wtv. Haha. The coffee is really cheap, 2800 won for a latte, and it has sufficient power points and toilets. It’s also really huge with plenty of space. Even on crowded days you’re bound to find a decent spot. It also closes at midnight which is beneficial to me! Finally, it has 7 wifis i’m not kidding i have photo proof. Haha.

Above photo not mine. Kept forgettng to take a photo of the store front so I took it from naver~ credit on the pic!

First floor~

See I wasn’t kidding about the 7 wifis

Affordable glory~

Second floor. Photo from the staircase~

Left side of the second floor haha

Right side of the second floor with smoking corner~ toilet is at the far right

Their muffins are also tasty and crispy on the outside!

Overall an amazing place to study or hang out for students! 😀 Especially if you’re in Sogang!!

How to get to Coffee Break: If you’re coming from Sinchon, go via Exit 6 and follow the path down towards Sogang University. Coffee Break is right before Sogang! If you’re in Sogang, well, get out of the school and turn right haha.

 

[Food] 홍콩 반점 0410 (Hongkong Banjum) – Jjambbong & Jjajangmyeon

Giving this shop its own feature because of how much I liked it! 😀

We stumbled upon this shop by pure accident as we were walking along Bukchon Hanok Village. I think this shop has several branches everywhere and I even spotted it in Sinchon, so if you’re looking to visit, it shouldn’t be hard to find~

We were attracted by the jjajangmyeon 4000 won sign haha it stood out amongst all the expensive bukchon hanok village restaurants. We went in and the menu was on the wall. It’s in Korean though, so it might be a bit of a problem if you can’t read. It’s a chain eatery so they might have english menus, no harm asking them~ nevertheless this store specializes in a few things so it’s not really hard to order even without any menu at all.

 

We ordered our food and in around 5 minutes it was already served! Love the fast service!

 

Just FYI since I didn’t really know what was Jjambbong until that day, it’s a spicy seafood soup dish served with noodles. Usually they have rice variance of this dish too, Jjambboong-bab, in which they serve the soup with rice in or out of the soup. Jjajangmyeon is a noodle dish served with thick black soybean paste and chopped pork and vegetables, but you all probably know this already haha. Gunmandu is just panfried mandu.

When I was eating this food I kept thinking my parents would have loved to visit this store because they get so happy when they find such Chinese-inspired dishes in Korea xD

 

We ordered one 짜장면 Jjajangmyun (4000 won), 짬뿡밥 Jjambboong-bab (4500 won) and half serving of 군만두 (4 pieces, 2,000 won).

 

Special shoutout to the Jjambbong. At first we thought it was a Jjajangmyun specialized store because of the advertisement at the store front, but we realized afterwards based on the store decor and its website that it’s specializing in its Jjambbong. And truly it deserves to! The soup was super tasty ❤ I have to admit it might have some ramyun seasoning or msg in there to make it that tasty, but heck it was cheap and tasted so goood! Usually you don’t get Jjambbong that cheap so I was just appreciating every bite. The seafood was fresh, the soup not too spicy and has the right amount of savory, and I absolutely love rice in soup so that dish was basically made for me ❤

I’d recommend this place for sure, if you want something cheap for 4000 won that isn’t those typical Korean branch eateries. I’ve never made a post about those Korean eateries but basically they are eateries that provide almost every type of common Korean food all under one roof, and they are literally everywhere throughout Korea. Haha. Those are cheap and good but if you want something with more quality and taste, definitely Hongkong Banjum 0410 is where you can try to go.

Hongkong Banjum website: http://www.zzambbong.com/zzambbong/index.asp

They have plenty of branches but since we’re at it, I’ll list down the more common branches for easier viewing for those who don’t read Korean.

Sinchon Branch 2: (along what I term as ‘ sinchon madjib street’ with all my favorite food places~) via exit 3 or Uplex exit of Sinchon Station

Hongdae Branch: Via Exit 9 of Hongik Univ. Station

 

 

Myeongdong Branch 2: Via Exit 6 of Myeongdong Station. They have another branch further in Myeongdong and closer to Euljiro, but thought to leave this one here instead since the directions are simpler.

 

Gangnam Branch: Via Gangnam Station exit 11.

 

They have so many chains it’s impossible to list them all haha, if you can read Korean it’s gonna be a lot easier. If you can’t, well, if you’re really that keen to find one near your area, you can always contact me to ask and I can check for ya~

That’s all for this lovely 맛집! Do try it if you have the chance to 😀 The red/orange signboard is easy to spot so you might just spot one walking down some road. Haha.

 

[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.

[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!