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May 16, 20164 min read

#FELinSEOUL Day 4: Common Ground, C.Through Cafe, Heukdonga


#1: Breakfast of toast, black rice sausages, scrambled eggs and bacon.

#2: This to-go coffee is really good!

Headed down to Garosu-gil again after breakfast to hunt for Bloom and Goute Cafe, and once again, another cafe that has ceased operation! What bad luck.. Stopped by another cafe that was along the way, Coffee Arco. This cafe is so pretty! White walls and marble tables; wood, plants and chalkboards. Love the neon-litted words that helped bring attention to them. A nice place to chill with funky music going on.

COFFEE ARCO

Opening hrs: 1030hrs to 2300hrs.

Address: 519-17 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea

Subway: Sinsa Station (line 3 exit 8).

#3: Passed by this ramen shop that has lots of notes written by customers!

#4: Found one that is in English - best ramen in Korea!

#5: Coffee Arco.

#6: Coffee Arco. Check out their furniture, so pretty!

#7: Their neon-litted wall decor that I really love.

#8: Flat White and Creme Brulee. Creme Brulee was pretty good but coffee is so-so.

After this, I went down to Apgujeong Rodeo to look for CUBE Studio Cafe.. Damn! This has closed down too! Really such bad luck.. It is actually located just diagonally across JYP Entertainment. While, JYP is still there but the cafe has been replaced by a Korean restaurant that is set to open next month. Passed by Coco Bruni (chocolatier chain cafe) and decided to try their signature, Secret Caramel Ice Cream, to cheer myself up! It is so yummy! It is a salted caramel soft serve ice cream dipped in dark chocolate and finish off with some sea salt flakes. The ice cream cone was really crispy as well. If you come to Korea, you have got to try this!

#9: JYP Entertainment.

#10: Where CUBE Studio Cafe used to be.

COCO BRUNI

Opening hrs: 1000hrs to 2300hrs.

Address: 666-10 Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea.

Subway: Hangangjin (exit 2).

#11: Coco Bruni's Secret Caramel Ice Cream.

Next, I head off to Common Ground, Korea’s first pop-up store and the world’s biggest pop-up shopping mall, built with 200 large cargo containers. A weekend market in various different themes is held in the central square of the mall. Food trucks can also be found at the ground level, along with some eateries located in the mall. This place is so damn awesome! Every corner is so dope and photogenic, it's somewhat similar to Singapore's SCAPE and Bugis Street, but much much prettier! They even have in-house DJs to play and mix music to hype up the place!

The mall is basically divided into two sections - fashion based items like designer clothing on one side and street-style fashion like funky items on the other side. I love love love this place so much! It is also a nice place to take your #ootd shots!

COMMON GROUND

Opening hrs: 1100hrs to 2200hrs.

Address: 200 Achasan-ro, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, South Korea.

Subway: Konkuk University Station (line 2 exit 6).

#12: Common Ground.

#13: Common Ground map.

#14: Common Ground.

#15: DJ Station.

#16: Common Ground.

#17: Common Ground.

#18: Food Truck at Common Ground.

After having my lunch of Carbonara with Bacon, Corn and Mushroom, I head down to C.Through Cafe. C.Through Café was initially not in my itinerary. Recently, a new trend, coloured latte art went viral on the internet and I chanced upon this café in Seoul on Instagram that serves really pretty latte art and coloured latte art by barista Lee Kang Bin. How could I miss this out? So I decided to try my luck on getting a cup of coloured latte art since the cafe is pretty near to Common Ground. However, they wasn't selling it on my point of visit, so I settled with a cup of Iced Latte instead.

Another really lovely and cozy place with hip-ish music and best of all? They have swing chairs! C.Through Cafe's coffee was the best cup of coffee I had in Korea thus far! Really awesome and smooth! Lee Kang Bin is a coffee trainer of C.Through Cafe and a judge to Latte Art Competitions, and that explains the quality and standard of their coffee and latte art!

C.THROUGH CAFE

Opening hrs: 1000hrs to 0300hrs.

Address: 289-21 Seongsu-dong 2(i)-ga, Seongdong-gu, Seoul, South Korea.

Subway: Seongsu Station (line 2 exit 1).

#19: Lunch of Carbonara with Ham, Corn and Mushroom.

#20: C.Through Cafe.

#21: C.Through Cafe.

#22: C.Through Cafe.

#23: Swing chairs!

#24: Super cool coffee-related machines on display.

#25: Iced Latte.

#26: More seating upstairs.

#27: More seating upstairs.

#28: They have a private business room too.

Last but not least, I settled my dinner at Heukdonga, a renowned black pork (kurobuta) Korean BBQ restaurant originated from Jeju. The restaurant specializes in different cuts of black pork, and is best eaten dipped in a special Jeju-style salted anchovy sauce. Minimum of two portions is required so I went ahead with pork belly and marinated pork ribs (150g per portion). Both were delicious but I prefer the ribs meat as it was more tender and with more flavour since it has been marinated. The meat is cooked over charcoal-grill so it tasted really good, unlike most Korean BBQ restaurants which uses electric grill.

HEUKDONGA

Opening hrs: 1100hrs to 0500hrs (Mon to Sat), 1100hrs to 2200hrs (Sun).

Address: 14 Bongeunsa-ro 86-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, South Korea.

Subway: Samseongjungang Station (line 9 exit 5).

#29: Heukdonga.

#30: Pork belly on the grill! And that's the salted anchovy sauce in the tin cup.

#31: Marinated ribs meat!

Expenses for Day 4

Coffee Arco - Latte KRW5,500; Creme Brulee KRW5,000

Coco Bruni - Secret Caramel Ice Cream KRW4,000

T-money Card top-up - KRW20,000

C.Through Cafe - Iced Latte KRW4,500

Heukdonga - KRW18,000 (x2) = KRW36,000

Sub-total: KRW75,000 = SGD89.20

Expenses from previous: SGD1,466.95

Current total: SGD1,556.15

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