When you step into Cafe Yeonnam-dong 239-20 (카페 연남동 239-20), you’ll feel as if you’re stepping into a world of comic books where everything around you is defined by black flat line drawings. I accidentally found out about this cafe when I was scrolling through my explore page on Instagram. My curiosity was piqued as I saw the monochrome thumbnail of the cafe’s interior and decided to tap on it. After seeing a couple of pictures of the cafe, I thought it’d be interesting to check the place out. So one day, I went with my friends in search for this cafe in the middle of a residential area. Honestly, when we reached the location, I missed the entrance and if not for my friend who pointed me to the door of the cafe, I probably just continue to walked pass through.

Nestled in the middle of a quiet residential apartments, Cafe Yeonnam-dong 239-20 opened its door last year. The interior design of the cafe was supposedly inspired by Korea’s hit TV series, W, where the real world clashed with the webtoon fantasy world. So I guess this is the webtoon concept of a cafe. Pretty neat.

The cafe itself isn’t that big. I bet nowadays, since the place has gone viral on the internet these past few weeks, it’ll be packed with more people who wanna take a snap at this place for their Instagram feed. It is a pretty Instagrammable place after all. When we were there, it was pretty quiet. There were only 2 other people there with us who were sitting inside, so we opted for the patio area and took our seats. I ended up chatting with the owner for a little bit and she was very nice. She told me they opened last year and asked me how I found out about her cafe. I told her I found a photo on Instagram and she told me that I wasn’t the first. Apparently, lot of the visitors who came also knew from Instagram. She was surprised how Instagram could bring so many people here since she never really did any marketing for the cafe.

I ordered Ice Oat Latte (고귀한 라떼) and a tiramisu for us to share. Their ice oat latte was actually pretty nice if you like milk, oat, grains or the combination of the three. If you are curious to see what the place look like or just want a snap in this place for your instagram feed, definitely check out this cafe ;)

Greysuitcase Seoul Cafe Series: Cafe Yeonnam-dong 239-20 (카페 연남동 239-20), Yeonnam-dong (연남동), Seoul, South Korea.

Cafe Yeonnam-dong 239-20 • 카페 연남동 239-20

Address: 서울특별시 마포구 연남동 239-20
Telephone: 010-7252-8633
Hours: 11:00 - 21:00 (Close on Mondays)

Update:

This cafe location seems to have now closed and (I believe) have been rebranded and moved to a new and bigger location (not sure if the owner is the same, cmiiw, but the concept is very well the same). I haven’t been to the new location because every time I passed by the place, it always have a long line of people waiting. The information on the new cafe name and location:

Greem Cafe • 그림카페

Address: 서울 마포구 성미산로 161-10 그림카페
Telephone: 010-2612-8103
Hours: Wednesday - Sunday 12:00 - 21:00 | Closed on Mondays & Tuesdays

Instagram: @greem_cafe