The Cafe Experience

In Europe, a popular style of travel/sightseeing is to hop between different churches, as most have different styles of architecture, decoration, or otherwise have some sort of defining quality that sets it apart and makes it special. In America, there’s a museum for everything - types of cheese, the biggest rubber band balls ever made, art of a million different styles and cultures, politics, etc. It’s easy to get lost all day in a museum bigger than the largest airport in the world. In Japan, ping-ponging between temples/shrines is a super fun way to see things. You can go to a beautiful temple in the middle of Tokyo that feels like it’s miles deep into a forest, or one that has a huge market selling all sorts of handcrafts, or one in the countryside that has a billion Torii.

In Korea, it’s cafes.

I’m convinced that you can search anything and find a cafe themed around it. Like the skateboarding cafe, or the Studio Ghibli cafe, or the cave cafe, or the cottagecore cafe. Harry Potter cafes, dark academia cafes, matcha cafes, traditional-style cafes. You name it. Search any noun and then tack “cafe” on at the end, and there will probably be something. Everyone I’ve talked to about South Korea has a different cafe recommendation or three, and tiktok trends love posting about the latest gorgeously decorated cafe with gorgeously decorated cakes, so when I got here, I had approximately 3,000 pins on my Naver map.

The vast majority of them are affordable, clean, and have a good menu selection. Beyond being pricey, I would challenge someone to find a dirty or restrictive cafe. It’s been explained to me that rent is no joke, and in order to keep being competitive, cafes must maintain a certain standard so that people will go and eat there. This makes sense, and people are very serious about it. Looking through reviews on Naver and Kakaomaps is one of my favorite pastimes - some people write poems praising their favorite menu item, or the aesthetic of the cafe.

I’ve never experienced this type of cafe culture anywhere else in the world. I’m really not sure why South Korea has developed this, and other places haven’t. It seems to me that Koreans love to be anywhere but their houses, so cafes are great places to spend their time doing basically anything - socializing, studying, working, hanging out, reading, sleeping, etc. How come America and Europe haven’t done the same? Cafes are so expensive and not reliably clean or diverse in other parts of the world. In America, if you go to a cafe, the coffee is ten bucks and so’s the cake - if you want to stay there, you have to suck it up and pay. And then the inside is so lame, too: a couple of plain chairs and tables, maybe a few posters on the wall. I’ve told my Korean friends that the fancier the cafe is, the more expensive it is - and it can get expensive. You’re basically paying for the decor, at that point.

In Korea, cafes maintain a standard of being fancy and cute while also being affordable. That’s just how it is. I’ve been to a couple cafes where I was truly expecting to be hit with a whopping bill, because they were THAT fancy. But then I wasn’t. And I’m surprised every time. I’ve been raised to pay for a certain standard, but here, it’s mostly implied - if it isn’t good, people won’t come, and then that sucks for you as a cafe owner.

Following that same thread, in America, you have to do a lot of research before going anywhere to eat. What if the prices are super crazy? What if the reviews say it’s dirty even though it looks clean? What if the place is lame but the food is super good, or the other way around? It’s so hit or miss that you really have to spend a good amount of time doing reconnaissance before you go anywhere. Here, when I hang out with my Korean friends, this is usually how the conversation goes:

Sophie (S): Hey, do you want to go to a cafe?

Korean Friend (KF): Yeah! That sounds great! Where do you want to go?

S: I don’t know. Let me pull out my list-

KF: How about here? Let’s do this one!

S: Have you ever been here before?

KR: No!

S: How do you know it’s good then?

KR: It wouldn’t be open if it sucked.

S: Aren’t you worried about it being expensive?

KR: It wouldn’t be open if it were too expensive.

S: What about it being clean?

KR: It’s clean.

S: Alright then. Let’s try it.

And then the cafe always ends up being good, if not anything super special or themed. It knocks my socks off every time. People can just see the word “cafe” and then go in totally blind without having to worry about anything, for the most part. I’m slowly getting used to this, and getting rid of my Chicago-based paranoia. I’m proud to say that this conversation has been happening less and less. Good for me.

Mentioned below are some of my favorite cafes - with the reasons why I liked them or found them interesting. Look them up on Google or Naver if you'd like to check them out!

RAFRE FRUIT: peach themed cafe in a medieval french style. The waiters there all knew some french. It was definitely more pricey, but not prohibitive, and the intricate and beautiful decorations made up for it.

1059-3 BAGEL AND COFFEE HOUSE: approximately six trillion types of bagels, all made fresh and then rewarmed, cut, and buttered with [insert jam/butter/frosting/other here]. Cute farmhouse theme with really nice bathrooms.

SLOT PIE: traditionally-themed indoor/patio places with tons of different types of mini pies to choose from. Had many different dessert pies, like tiramisu, apple, banana custard, etc, as well as savory pies like meat and veggie. 

THREE O’CLOCK: wonderful little hole-in-the wall refurbished bar, where the taps produce tea/coffee and everything is attractive dark wood. Really good fresh egg tarts and various scones.

DONGBAEK BAKERY: baroque antique themed souffle pancake place. A little pricey but the pancakes were worth it, as well as the gorgeous atmospheric furniture.

ALPACA CAFE: forest and alpaca-themed, this cafe had about every type of dessert you can possibly think of, and a wide selection of drinks. Really cute photo opportunities as well as a view of the lively street below.

943 KING’S CROSS: This Harry Potter themed cafe does NOT give any proceeds to JKR, never fear. It’s six floors of different themes - the bottom floor is Ollivander’s, with tons of wand boxes and a whole dragon statue. The second floor is themed like the great hall, with long tables and benches. The third floor is themed like Christmas, with trees, banners, and tapestries in bright colors hanging everywhere. There are costumes on the fourth floor if you want to really get into the cosplay spirit. There are trays of giant medieval-style turkey legs and cheese/crackers, stews, etc, as well as themed drinks (like Butter Beer, not butterbeer ™) and cakes (like the chocolate Mandrake pot). Tons of photo opportunities and a giant broom outside if you feel like having fun.