Hongdae café with new ground-floor tables & Chelbesa: Central Site

Where is Central Site Yeonnam?

Central Site Yeonnam (센트럴사이트 연남점) sits on a big main road in the Yeonnam-dong direction from Hongik Univ. Station, so it felt easy to find. The exterior interior design catches your eye from outside, which makes it a hip café you want to visit. Here I share my experience trying the hand-drip coffee and dessert.

Central Site Yeonnam hours and parking

• Location: 29-1 Yeonhui-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• Hours: 8:00–22:00 (Saturday and Sunday 8:30–22:00)
• Parking: not available

Central Site has a Yeonnam-dong branch and also a Hongdae branch, which shows how popular it is. They really are serious about coffee: there are lots of bean varieties, and it seemed like a café where you can enjoy tasty coffee made from healthy, fresh beans.

Central Site Yeonnam exterior and seating by floor

The whole black building is the café. It was built to use the lot's original size as it is, so the exterior design struck me as very unique right away.

As you'd expect from a brewing coffee specialist, the colorful pamphlets outside were impressive, and the barista visible inside through the big windows looked really cool.

There are tables on the 1st floor now

Inside, Central Site Yeonnam is split into the main 1st-floor space and the coffee spaces on floors 2–3. With the recent interior work, tables were added on the 1st floor too, so I really felt it would be easier for customers who find stairs uncomfortable to visit from now on.

You can order right on the 1st floor, and the desserts displayed just in front looked pretty as a picture, which drew my eye even more.

A tree view on the 2nd floor and a quiet 3rd floor

Most customers seemed to settle on the 2nd floor. It's about level with the roadside trees, so the tree view is nice, and above all the restroom is on the 2nd floor, which was convenient.

Fewer people were using the 3rd floor, and it actually felt pleasant because it was less crowded.

Water, tissues and similar items are set out on each floor, so I didn't feel much inconvenience. The one catch is the narrow stairs, so if you come with parents or kids, using the 1st-floor space seems like a good idea.

How do you order brewing coffee at Central Site Yeonnam?

Central Site Yeonnam has a separate Brewing List.

As a brewing coffee specialist, there was a really wide range of brewing coffees, and each one is a blend that brings out its own character, so I thought trying them one by one would be a lot of fun.

When you order coffee and dessert you get a buzzer, and they bring it to your seat, which felt very fresh to me too.

When you order brewing coffee, you can also smell the beans you ordered. You can watch the hand drip being made right in front of you, so there's the fun of watching from the side, which I liked.

Recommended beans: Nordic Approach Yirgacheffe Chelbesa Washed

The coffee I'd recommend, because to my personal taste it was so good it felt like a life coffee, is the Ethiopia Nordic Approach Yirgacheffe Chelbesa Washed.

With flavors of jasmine, white peach, orange and green grape, it was wonderfully fresh, and the coffee aroma that lingered all through my mouth was really impressive.

The aroma was smooth yet crisp, and it was honestly my number-one pick for my taste.

The brewing coffee at Central Site Yeonnam comes with its coffee notes too, so you can understand the beans as you taste them, which I really liked.

How does the tiramisu at Central Site Yeonnam taste?

The moist tiramisu really went well with coffee. The chocolate piled on top was generous, and it had a deep chocolate flavor rather than plain sweetness, which I loved.

There's also a review event right now: write a Naver review and you get a coffee drip bag or chocolates, so it's worth trying when you visit.

Is Central Site Yeonnam worth going back to?

Overall the atmosphere was good, and above all the taste and aroma of the coffee were so impressive that I felt I'd really enjoyed coffee properly. The dessert was good too, and it's a café with so much charm that I'd honestly like to visit again. Wide bean variety, a brewing coffee specialist, recommended for dessert.