나무 Cafe

나무 Cafe is one of the many 2nd floor cafes that line Insadong's main shopping street. I had passed this cafe many times thinking "I'll go next time I'm in Insadong". I had the perfect opportunity as I had a few hours to kill before the Lotus Lantern Parade started so I decided to go and check it out. I had seen some photos of this cafe on my friends facebook page and the waffles looked great. Unfortunately I didn't order one as I was too full from lunch but maybe that was a good decision after all as the couple next to me ordered one and they had to send it back as it wasn't cooked all the way through which didn't leave me with a very good impression.

I ordered an espresso which was really good but a bit expensive at 3,800 won. This is not expensive by Insadong standards but it is compared to the coffee shops I usually frequent which are surrounding university areas.

Because I was there for a while I also ordered a mango smoothie which was 5,500 won. Anything less than 6,000 or 7,000 won usually means it's not made with real fruit but I risked it just to see what I got. I know I could have asked if it was made from real fruit but I keep forgetting the Korean word for fruit (Note to self: I must write it down) In Korea it's quiet common to have artificial fruit flavored syrup pumped into the drink and mixed with yogurt or ice, whatever else they are using to make the smoothie with. You can usually tell from the price whether it will be made from real fruit or fruit flavored syrup. I didn't see them making my drink as I sat down and it was brought over to me but it wasn't overly sweet so I'm going to assume it was real.

This cafe has approx. 30 seats. The best seats are by the windows where you can look down onto the busy Insadong street which is great for people watching. The only drawback of this is that it's extremely noisy inside the cafe because of the open windows overlooking the street. The tables and chairs are also extremely close together which also adds to the noise. I don't know what it is normally like in this cafe but it definitely wouldn't be place to go for some peace and quiet or to get any work done. To be fair, I was visiting the cafe on one of the busiest saturdays of the year. Lots of people were in Insadong for the Lotus Lantern Festival which had events going on all day.

Decor wise the cafe had a few cute decorations but nothing overly impressive. The atmosphere of this cafe was not that great. I can't quite put my finger on it but it felt a bit impersonal and not at all cosy.

How to get there:Jogno-3-ga station, Exit 5, walk under the Nakgwon Building and straight to the main Insadong street, turn right and keep walking. It is about half way down Insadong main street. It will be on your left hand side on the 2nd floor.

You can also get to this cafe by Anguk station, Exit 1. There is a zebra crossing near Starbucks, cross to the other side of the road and walk down the main Insadong street, it is about half way down and it will be on your right hand side on the 2nd floor.

Add: 179-2
Insadong
Jongno-gu
Seoul

Tel: 02-734-0740

Website: http://cafe.naver.com/namuwabinu

Tea Therapy

This place is an absolute gem. I cannot stress this enough. I visited this cafe on Children's Day after visiting a Hello Kitty exhibition. My friend and I were looking for a cafe that served food as we had not yet eaten lunch. I could see some people eating food from the doorway of the cafe so we decided to go in which was the best decision we could have made. Unfortunately their lunch time finishes at 2pm which is about the time that we entered the cafe. The exhibition was in a different part of town which is why we were searching for a place to eat lunch that late. The kind girls working behind the counter said that they could make some sandwiches as it was just only 2pm but that the time for serving hot food had finished. My friend asked if they had sandwiches without meat as I'm a vegetarian and they said that it wasn't on the menu but that they could make some. Whilst we were perusing the menu one of the girls mentioned there was in fact one portion of vegetable curry left so I ordered that and my friend suddenly decided she wanted something sweet so she ordered a papbingsoo. I also ordered a seasonal fruit tea and a pot of todays tea (which was date tea) came free with our food.


A photo of our table full of food and tea

The cafe sell jars of Yuja (citron) tea, Ginger tea, Jujube (date) tea to name just a few. They also sell packets of weightloss tea, tea to combat stress and so on.

The girls also brought us a basket to put our bags in so that we didn't have to put our bags on the floor. After we had finished our food and drinks we asked if we could put our bags behind the counter and we went to use the free foot baths outside the cafe. There are 3 basins where you can soak your feet in either hot or cold water. We were also allowed to bring our free pot of date tea that we hadn't finished yet outside by the foot baths. Lot's of passers by came to talk to us to see how they too could have a go at the foot baths so we told them just go in the cafe and buy a drink! Lots of curious children came to see what was going as well.

I didn't get any photographs of myself in the foot bath but I took some photographs of the actual foot baths after I got out.

The curry and the tea only came to 13,500 won which I thought was very reasonable by Samcheongdong standards and in general. The curry was a good size portion and came with miso soup as well. The service in this cafe was impeccable. The girls were so kind and nothing was too much for them. I can't speak highly enough of this place. I definitely want to visit this cafe again.

The girls enjoying a well deserved break

How to get there: Anguk Station, Exit 1, turn right out of Exit 1 and you will see a Starbucks. Between Starbucks and Amandier there is a little road (not the main road that everyone thinks of when they think of Samcheongdong but this also leads to Samcheongdong). Keep walking until the end of the road, there is a fork at the end of the road, go right and walk for another few minutes and Tea Therapy will be on your right.


Add: Tea Therapy
Haengrang
(Their business card didn't seem to have the full address. Sorry folks!)


(There is another branch in Gangnam. The add for that one is: Ago Building 1F, 616-6 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, 135-894. Tel: 02-518-7506 or 02-518-7507)

Tel: 02-730-7507

Opening hours: Monday-Sunday 10am-10pm
Lunch hours: 11am-2pm

Website: www.teatherapy.co.kr

커피별 녹색잔

커피별 녹색잔 is the name of the cafe and is pronounced Copi Byeol Noksekjan which translates to Coffee Star Green Cup in English. This cafe is located in Samcheongdong. I visited the cafe in the evening after work on friday between 9pm-11pm and there were only a few people in the cafe. On the weekends, most of the cafes in Samcheondong are packed so it was nice to be able to visit at a time when it was much less crowded.

커피별 녹색잔 doesn't have any kind of point card system. However, if you have an Alleh account then you can use an e-coupon type thing that you can get sent to your phone (as long as you have a phone that can access the internet) and then you can get 50% off the price of the drinks. I happened to be with a Korean friend who had an Alleh account which is the only reason I know about this offer and there is a poster outside the cafe with the Alleh logo to alert Korean customers to this offer.

커피별 녹색잔 is also book cafe of sorts. There was only a small selection of books in Korean of course. One of them was an Osaka cafe guide which was quite interesting. If I could read Korean it probably would have been more interesting.

Selection of books upstairs

Selection of books downstairs

What attracted us (my friend and I) to this cafe was that it had 2 floors, looked quite airy and spacious and it wasn't crowded which was an added bonus. There were just enough decoration inside to make it interesting to look at without it feeling cluttered or over crowded.

Here are some photos of the inside of the cafe:

Although I enjoyed the 커피별 녹색잔 experience, I have to say that there was nothing that special about it for me. I may visit this cafe again simply for the discount you can get with an Alleh membership. The cafe does have one thing going for it that the other cafes on this street seem to lack and that is space. Other than that, I wasn't really wowed by it.