Modern meets tradition in many corners of Seoul, creating aesthetic pockets such as a light-filled bread cafe and a designer glasses boutique in a refurbished bathhouse. We wandered through the winding alleys of traditional village houses by day, and shopped in brightly-lit stores while munching on street food by night. Most of these things aren’t featured in my images sadly, since I lost an entire roll of film (still inwardly crying a little). Cafe culture is huge in Seoul, and for this trip, I had researched multiple that I wanted to visit - and while we didn’t hit up all of the ones on my list, I’ve included the ones we managed to visit below! I’ve also listed a few of the restaurants we enjoyed the most, as well as my favorite brands to shop in Korea. Hope this is helpful for those planning their next trip to Seoul!

Cafes

Mil - The most aesthetic, light-filled cafe ever, filled with the smells of steaming bread and sweet french toast. Add to that a cute bottle of strawberry or banana milk, and it was perfection.

Onion - Part bakery and part cafe, this Onion cafe location is situated in a converted hanok (traditional Korean home) into a modern-meets-traditional space with floor to ceiling windows, an open sunny courtyard, and exposed wooden beams. Their bread selection features items with a distinct Korean twist, and this was one of my favorite cafe finds this trip!

Seoul Coffee - Another cafe set in a converted hanok, and located the street over from Mil, this plant-filled cafe is known for their Korean flavored ice cream blocks (including flavors like barley, sikhye, and dalgona).

Restaurants

853 - A Korean bbq establishment focusing on different cuts of pork (my favorites being the “moksal” and “samgyeopsal”), all grilled to perfection in front of you by the store workers. Their pork is incredibly tender and flavorful, and with a side of dwaenjang jjigae (soybean paste stew), it was the perfect meal.

Buchon Yukhwae - Yukhwae is a Korean dish composed of the freshest raw beef marinated in a soy sauce/sesame oil mixture, mixed with a raw egg yolk and eaten with slivers of crisp Asian pear. Although the idea of eating raw beef can be intimidating to most people, this was one of our favorite meals and it’s guaranteed to be rewarding for those adventurous enough to try it! We ordered the yukhwae bibimbap, which was mixed with veggies and rice, topped with just enough gochujang (spicy sweet sauce) for a subtle kick.

Aesong Hwoegwan - Gomtang is a beef-bone based soup, but this place’s gomtang is special for its flavorful clear broth and the addition of both rice and noodles in its soup, along with cuts of tender beef. It’s the perfect meal to warm you from the inside out!

Egg Drop - Street toast is massively popular in Seoul, with the result being a sum far greater than it’s parts. It’s hard to believe just bread, cheese, egg, and ham could be this good together, but it is.

Shopping

ALAND - Great for stocking up on k-beauty brands such as klairs, COSRX, and heimish, as well as browsing both men’s and women’s fashion.

3CE - Created by popular Korean fashion brand Stylenanda, 3 Concept Eyes (3CE for short) is a makeup brand known for their high quality products and their gorgeous array of neutrals. Their eye shadow palettes, matte lipsticks, and blushes are my absolute favorite!

Gentle Monster - Gentle Monster features the ultimate artful retail experience, with each boutique featuring a different theme surrounding its signature art gallery-esque display of frames. Even if you don’t end up purchasing anything, each store is definitely worth a visit to experience each theme, and to try on wacky glasses!

Tamburins - Created by Gentle Monster, Tamburins features beauty products, particularly known for their line of hand creams featuring a sleek, minimal design and a gold chain. Their scents are complex and addictive - 000 and 7 are two of my favorites.

Useful Apps

MangoPlate - A great app for finding new places to eat, and particularly cute cafes! My favorite feature of this app is being able to search for places by each region in Seoul (and other cities in Korea).

CityMapper - For the non-Korean reader/speaker, CityMapper is a great option for searching up locations and navigating. It’s not quite as accurate as Naver Maps, but much easier to use if you can’t read Korean!

Naver Maps - Although the most accurate and detailed for navigating, and it’s supposedly the “English” version, I can imagine how frustrating it would be for someone who doesn’t read Korean to use this. That being said, it’s still my favorite for navigating Seoul.