Dunami's

I visited this cafe on a saturday afternoon and not surprisingly it was quite busy. This cafe can seat about 40 people and has a cosy feel to it due to it being a basement cafe. One of the interesting features of this cafe is that they have a seminar room which can seat about 9 people. It has a wall separating it from the rest of the cafe allowing for privacy. At the same time, the seminar room has one side open so it doesn't feel claustrophobic and so that the staff can get in easily to serve drinks and food.

Although I didn't have an opportunity to use it when I visited the cafe, the cafe has a printer and 2 laptops which belong to the cafe which customers can use. Sangdo-dong is a somewhat student area due to Soongsil University being located in Sangdo-dong so the printer and laptops could be of use to students who prefer to study in cafes rather than in the library.

Dunami's is a book cafe but I cannot really comment on what kinds of books they have as the majority of them are in Korean although they had a few Japanese and English books.

On the day that I visited, I was suffering from a sore throat so I ordered a honey lemon tea which I found to be a little bit TOO sweet but that's just my opinion. I stayed in the cafe for several hours and I also ordered an espresso frappuciono which came with some toast and jam which I thought was little bit odd but not at all unwelcome. However, I have a theory about this toast and jam and I have to stress here that this is just a theory. I have a feeling that the staff in the cafe thought I was a reporter of some kind as I got out my HUGE DSLR camera and starting snapping away and in order for the cafe to get a good review I think they put some toast and jam along with my coffee order as I noticed another customer who seemed to order the same thing as me minus the toast.

I don't want to write a bad review about Dunami's because I had an enjoyable afternoon there but I was a little bit disappointed that they didn't offer me a point card at point of purchase, especially as I purchased 2 drinks and I was in there several hours so they had the opportunity to offer me the point card. I don't know if it was because the staff were nervous about speaking to me in English or perhaps thought I wouldn't understand Korean or thought that it was unlikely that I would be visiting again so didn't offer me a card. Either way I wasn't offered one, which is a shame as I live fairly near this cafe and might have considered going regularly had I been offered a point card and if I wasn't on a mission to try as many independent cafes as possible. The only reason I know they even have a point card system is because they were on the counter by the cash register but those cards were alphabetized, meaning that they were the point cards used by regular customers who left their point cards at the cafe but it was not obvious to me where the new, unused cards were for new customers. If so, I would have helped myself.


Most of the drinks prices range from 4,300-5,500 won. They also serve some waffles, salad and sandwiches all at reasonable prices. Dunami's is a cute little cafe that makes you forget about the noisy traffic above you and allows you to relax. Despite the things I wrote above, I would definitely still recommend this cafe.

How to get there: Sangdo Station (Line 7), Come out of Exit 4 and Dunami's is immediately on the left, downstairs in the basement.