House of Vinyl Mangwon • 하우스오브바이닐 망원점

House of Vinyl Mangwon (하우스오브바이닐 망원점)—just as the name suggests—is a vinyl cafe located in Mangwon (망원동) neighborhood in Seoul. The cafe occupies a house-like building with interior set up just like a cozy vintage living room, making coming here feel like visiting a friend’s home. In the main area of the cafe, there’s a record player, sound system speakers and a shelf between the speakers with their current nine picks of vinyl records on display. Next to and above the window that lets in natural light into the space, there are more vinyls that are stored neatly as a part of their in-house collection. 

What makes this cafe unique is on top of the fact that you can listen to LP records that are playing on rotation, guest can also request one song per person to play during their visit (although this is subject to availability and if they don’t have the requested song on their LP collections, they’ll play the digital format for you).

There are about 18 seats that are spread around different corners of the cafe, with almost all of them are for 2-person party. And since the place is not too big, they do impose a 1.5 hours usage time and a 1-person-1-drink-order rule for visiting patrons. For the menu, they serve coffee, non-coffee drinks, tea and a selection of desserts including a pretty uncommon option, the Pavlovas. Due to the pretty loud music playing inside the cafe, noise level at this place is pretty high. While it’s not too busy during the weekdays (at least when I was visiting), the cafe can get busy during the weekends with people lining up to get a seat inside the space. 

With the significant rise in popularity of vinyls these past past couple of years, House of Vinyl Mangwon (하우스오브바이닐 망원점) definitely has its own appeal and charm to LP as well as music and coffee enthusiasts and makes it a unique spot to visit in Seoul. 

 

House of Vinyl Mangwon • 하우스오브바이닐 망원점

Address: 서울 마포구 희우정로16길 23 1층
Telephone: 0507-1321-9546
Hours: Everyday 11:00 - 22:00

Instagram: @houseofvinyl_mangwon

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Anthracite Seogyo • 앤트러사이트 서교점

Anthracite (앤트러사이트) is one of the more well known coffee brand in Korea that serves great coffee in their always well designed coffee shops. I think my first visit to Anthracite was about five or six years ago. Not to this branch though, but to their Hannam branch. Friends who visited Anthracite told me good things about their coffee so since then, Anthracite (앤트러사이트) has been on my radar and I’ve tried to visit their different branches around Seoul, mainly to see the interior of their coffee shops of course, since I don’t drink coffee.

Anthracite Seogyo (앤트러사이트 서교점) is one of their branches that has a very charming, interesting interior. The cafe occupied an old spacious three story mansion in Mangwon-dong (망원동) that could well be someone’s house in the past. When you arrived in front of the building, you’ll be greeted by concrete steps that will take you to the garden area in front of the mansion that is covered with rocks and trees.

The mansion itself is decorated with wooden furnitures combined with gold, silver, and copper accent here and there that added some contrast to the more organic feel of the wood and exposed bricks combination that they have going on on all three floors of the cafe. The tables and chairs are set up with plenty of space in between so you have room to move around the cafe more freely. It also has floor-to-ceiling windows on all three floors that are over looking the garden and balcony access if you choose to sit outside to enjoy the view.

 

Anthracite Seogyo • 앤트러사이트 서교점

Address: 서울 마포구 월드컵로12길 11
Telephone: 02-336-7650
Hours: 09:00 - 23:00 (Weekdays)

Instagram: @anthracite_coffee_roasters

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Un'icon • 언아이콘

If you’re a fan of a white minimalistic cafe, Un’icon (언아이콘) might be worth checking out if you ever found yourself around Mangwon-dong (망원동) area. I visited this newly opened cafe during one hot summer day after having lunch nearby. The place is not that big and seating is a little bit limited. But since I was there during weekdays, I got a seat right after two guys who finished their drinks left when I came in.

I made my way to the counter to see the menu and have no idea what’s good here. So, like any other times I went for a first visit to a place I never been before, I usually ask whoever is behind the counter for their recommendations on their signature non-coffee menu. The guy wearing the red shirt recommended Melting Gray (멜팅그레이) to me. He said it’s their popular non-coffee menu, so I ordered one following his recommendation.

To be honest, I was a little bit skeptical when I saw what it looked like. Sure, the black syrup-like liquid that’s slowly dripping down the white milk looked cool and totally Instagrammable. But from past experiences, this kind of ‘Instagrammable drinks’ usually don’t taste very good or overly sweet. Still, I gave it a try. That’s the whole point of going to new places anyway right? Trying new things and hopefully discovering good stuff along the way. The black liquid that goes into the Melting Gray itself is handmade and made out of seven ingredients. What those ingredients are, I’m not sure to be honest. Maybe I should ask next time I’m there.

I gave the whole thing a good stir before taking my first sip of the cold grey liquid. And what do you know, it actually tasted good! I was genuinely surprised and I remembered I even hummed unconsciously after my first taste. It wasn’t too sweet and was actually refreshing. Wether it’s because the ice ratio was perfect or perhaps the fact that I let it set for a bit since I was taking photos of it before I drink it made the whole thing refreshingly cool, I’m not entirely sure. Either way, I like the drink and it’s been a while since I tasted something different that I like. Next time I come here, I might try their other non-coffee menu. We’ll see.

Video of the space:

Un’icon • 언아이콘

Address: 서울 마포구 월드컵로13길 19-23
Telephone: 010-4186-0131
Hours: Tuesday - Saturday 13:00 - 21:00 | Sunday 13:00 - 20:00 | Closed on Mondays

Instagram: @uniconcoffee

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Tokyo Bingsu • 도쿄빙수

Bingsu is probably my favorite Korean dessert, especially during summer. A bowl of this fine ice shavings on a hot day could make the hot and humid summer days in Seoul more bearable. Tokyo Bingsu (도쿄빙수) is one of the new bingsu places I tried when I was wondering around Mangwon-dong with my friend, Jesselyn. Although they are well-known for their Tomato Bingsu (토마토 빙수), we opted for their Oreo Bingsu (오레오 빙수) since we weren't sure if we would like the Tomato ones and kinda felt like eating something sweet. The bingsu was great. The snow-like ice shavings were covered in condensed milk and top it off with the oreo crumbs, it made a perfect combo. And it's not too sweet either. I found out later that they have multiple locations in Seoul. Not a lot like those chain stores, but you got different options. Next time I visit, maybe I'll be brave and try their Tomato Bingsu.

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Tokyo Bingsu (도쿄빙수)

Address: 서울특별시 마포구 포은로8길 9
Tel: 02-6409-5692
Hours: 12:00 - 22:00

Instagram: @tokyobingsu

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