Cafe Mama's

After our photo adventure with the City Hall Umbrellas we went looking for some lunch! Tracie suggested Cafe Mamas and we went for it!

 I loved their little "mustache" theme. Right up my alley! I was very excited about the fresh juices and was really craving a watermelon one, but they were not in season. I'm making sure to go back during summer so I can have one!

 Cafe Mamas' menu consists of very light items: coffee, sandwiches, paninis, salads, soups and fresh fruit juice. We grabbed a table and ordered. Tracie and I shared a Honey Camembert panini and Diane and Lindsay shared a mushroom and cheese one. They were both amazing. The honey camembert was one of the best things I have had while in Korea.

 We also ordered green grape juice and it was to die for. So fresh!

  Cafe Mamas is a chain and has about five or six locations in Seoul. My husband and I recently visited the Times Square mall location and the food was consistently good. I ordered a ham and cheese panini and due to what I think was the language barrier, I ended up with a honey camembert. Which I guess works since I like it but I was looking forward to trying a different one. My husband got the chicken sandwich and loved it. I also ordered a pineapple juice and it was the best pineapple juice I have ever had. Just delicious!

I am sorry that I don't have any directions. I don't remember exactly which way we went after the umbrellas but if I ever find it again, I will make sure to update this post!

More Information:
Website: http://cafemamas.co.kr/ (Korean)
Honest Cooking: http://honestcooking.com/cafe-mamas-seoul-korea/
Pricing: Entrees range between 8,000KRW to 14,000KRW
Foreigner Friendly

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Zayda

Pancake Story

Located in Hannam-dong is this little pancake place that I can't figure out if it's called Pancake Story or Pancakes Original Story or what. But seriously, who cares? Pancakes. Nom.

 Kathie and her two beautiful daughters were my allies into trying out this place. The menu is very ample, with lots of options but it doesn't have pictures, which oftentimes in Korea, I do need!

 The place is small and very cozy, and I loved their decor, specially these lamps made out of old bicycle wheels.

 We ordered some drinks. Fatty old me went for a milkshake and Kathie got an orange juice/smoothie. My milkshake honestly wasn't all that great. I do have to say, I am very picky about milkshakes. If I'm going to stuff my face with all those calories they better be thick, creamy and worth it. This one wasn't. It was a little too "watered down" for my taste.

 Kathie's girls shared the regular pancakes and loved them!

 Kathie ordered a bacon waffle. I was imagining some waffle with bacon on top, but this deliciousness had bacon in the batter. I tried some of it and it was great!

 I ordered the mozzarella cream cheese pancakes. Again, since there are no pictures, I imagined some pancake with a bunch of cheese on top, but these bad boys were stuffed with cheese! I normally don't post photos of my half eaten food but just look. at. that. cheese. They were absolutely delicious.

 After having loved this place so much, I decided to bring my husband the week after. He ordered a puffy omelette and believe me... it is PUFFY. The cheese in it is thick and the eggs feel like foam. It tasted really good and it came with bacon, sausage, potatoes and a pancake. He wasn't expecting all that food and we could have probably shared this plate. Great portions, people. Seriously.

 I decided to go with the Eggs Benedict. I think this has been the first time when I haven't absolutely loved eggs Benedict. I am not a big veggie fan, unfortunately, and I had no idea these came covered in them. I managed to pick out the onions, olives, peppers and such, eating only the mushrooms which I do like. The English muffin was very fresh, but the poached eggs weren't as runny as I'm used to when having this dish. I wasn't crazy about their hollandaise. Overall I enjoyed it and finished my food, all but the veggies but will not be ordering these again.

I can definitely see this place becoming one of our favorite spots. It's not super cheap but not terribly expensive either and the quality of the food is great, and the service is really good too!

More Information:
Address: 261-6 Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul Korea
Phone: 02.794.0508
Hours: Didn't catch the hours but it is closed on Sundays.
Foreigner Friendly

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Zayda

Honey Bowl

You know I love brunch.

I love it.

With a passion.

Now that I think about it... brunch is just breakfast food eaten around lunchtime, right? So scratch that. I love breakfast food, in all of its fattiness, at any time of day.

So today I bring you to Honey Bowl in Hapjeong! Tracie found this place and I was very happy when she invited me to join her and Carol to try it! As you may be able to notice... well... there's a little snow on the street... ummm yeah, I am just a tad behind on my blogging/photo editing/posting... but who cares, right? Look! It's a honeycomb themed restaurant!

 I am still not sure this place counts as a themed cafe. It's technically NOT a cafe... but they do serve coffee... Hmmm... I'll just tag it like one and whatever, you can yell at me if you think it doesn't fit the category.

 Everything is yellow/bee. So fun. This place gives your table an iPad 2 instead of actual menus, so you can look at detailed photos of everything they have to offer. I think that's quite a good idea, since you normally get those menus with teeny-tiny pics of what you are getting, or sometimes, no pics at all.

As I was going through the photos, I noticed the place does look a little dirty, which I didn't notice AT ALL when I was there. Or maybe I was really hungry. Or really excited about brunch. Or maybe, just maybe, I am just THAT oblivious. I swear I didn't think it was gross at all.

 Now, to the important part. The food! Let me tell you. It was amazing. Carol ordered an omelette that was just right!

 Tracie ordered the Eggs Benedict, and they were incredible. I might be biased because I have yet to try an order of Eggs Benedict that I don't like, but seriously, they were so, so good.

 And of course, fatty ole' me ordered the French Toast breakfast which was great too, but my favorite part of the whole thing was the butter. Their butter has honey in it and it's just amazing. I might sound like a total fat-ass saying this but I think I could just eat that butter by itself. No bread needed. Just give me a spoon and a tub of it and wait for the heart attack.

I strongly recommend this place and I can't wait to go back!

More Information:
Website: http://www.honey-bowl.co.kr/
Take a look at this Blog post for more details: http://lacrymamosa.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/eat-wonderful-buttermilk-pancakes-eggs-benedict-at-honey-bowl-hongdae-seoul/
Directions: Closest Subway Stations Are: Hapjeong, Lines 2 and 6, Exit 5 or Sangsu, Line 6, Exit 1. Unfortunately I don't have better directions because we did a lot of wandering before getting to the place. The blog post recommended above has a little map.
Pricing: From around 4,700KRW to around 15,900KRW
Hours: Sunday - Thursday: 10:00AM - 10:00PM
            Friday - Saturday: 10:00AM - 11:00PM
Foreigner Friendly

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Zayda

The Alley

In my humble opinion, this place is one of the hidden treasures of Itaewon. And I say hidden because I would have probably never seen it if I wasn't heading to eat somewhere else. The name says it all. This lovely place is located in the heart of one of Itaewon's alleys and, since we're always looking to try new places, we decided to ditch our original plan and have lunch here instead.

The Alley has great ambiance and not one, but two art galleries featuring lovely artwork. They even have something call "Art Bread", which I'm dying to try but we didn't ordered it this time because, as much as I would love to, I can't eat all of the menu every time I go out, but I am looking forward to trying this the next time I go to The Alley.

 I loved all the colorful artwork. It was very bright and cheery. Totally my kind of thing.

 I also loved these hand-drawn pictures of South Korea. They were absolutely beautiful.

 The Alley offers several types of bread and toast, sandwiches, rice, pizza, pasta, soups and salads. They also have a variety of cocktails and wine. My husband decided to go for the pasta of the day, which this time around came with beef and that beef was absolutely amazing. I ordered the Croque Madame and I absolutely loved it too. The food tastes very fresh and the portions are the right size. The service is outstanding as well!

This place will easily become one of our favorite spots and we will definitely visit it again. I am NOT leaving Seoul without a photo of that Art Bread. 

More Information:
Directions: Noksapyeong Station, Line 6, Exit 3. Walk Straight to the crosswalk towards Itaewon. Turn right into the first alleyway (Where the Pizza Peel is),  keep walking past the Pizza Peel. The Alley should be right next to it.
Pricing: Entrees range from 7,000KRW to 16,000KRW. There is something for everybody.
Foreigner Friendly

Thank you for reading!

Love,

Zayda