Mapo café for late meetups and sofa seating: Noknok

If you are looking for a café in Yeonnam-dong with lots of room plus plenty of desserts and bakery items to choose from, I recommend Noknok.

Finding Noknok from Hongik University Station

Walk along Yeontral Park from Hongik University Station, and Noknok is the green building you see as soon as you turn inward from the big intersection. It is quite a large place. As you walk along Yeontral Park, turn toward Yeonnam-dong at the intersection where the Yeonnam Kolon Haneulchae apartments begin, and it is right there. Look for the café in the green building with an electronic clock up high.

A very straightforward message.

This large café uses both the first and second floors, and stays open late, from 8:30 AM to 11:30 PM. The second floor does close at 9 PM from Sunday through Thursday, though.

Affordable coffee and spacious first-floor seating

The first reason I recommend Noknok is that the coffee is very affordable. Takeout is especially cheap. I cannot drink budget coffee when the bitterness is too intense, so I love finding places like this.

Once inside, an enormous open space unfolds. You head into it to order, and roomy sofas and tables are laid out with plenty of breathing room.

There is a bar table by the window on the right...

Further inside, a huge, unbelievably comfortable sofa sits in the middle.

First, I decided to order.

An Americano is ₩3,800 and a café latte is ₩3,900. Just a ₩100 difference between them... I love lattes, so I was so happy that the café latte was this cheap, haha. You can even choose your coffee beans. I went with the berry-noted beans. Most café lattes in Yeonnam-dong are usually in the ₩5,000 range... Besides coffee, there are chocolate latte, matcha latte, sweet potato latte, milk tea, toffee nut latte, and misutgaru latte (multigrain powder latte), all ₩4,400. House-made strawberry latte and house-made mango latte are ₩5,900. All ades are ₩4,900. As a large Yeonnam-dong bakery café with very reasonable prices, it is also great for gatherings: coffee and drinks are cheaper than typical Yeonnam-dong café prices, so everyone can come without feeling burdened.

There are lots of tea and smoothie options too. I think the menu board may need to be printed again sometime. Haha, it is so free-spirited... hahaha.

A huge sofa you will want to lie on and group tables

The real kick of this café is this enormous sofa... It is great for lots of guests to sit however they like. Honestly, it is more like lying down than sitting, and for people who are always short on sleep, a café with sofas like these feels like an oasis. Further inside are large tables that are great for working.

I decided to choose some bakery items first.

Choosing bakery items for a meal

First, there are mini loaves that make an easy meal substitute.

Double Cheese Loaded Loaf, ₩5,500.

Buldak mayo corn sausage, ₩6,000, and hot chili chicken sandwich, ₩6,300.

There are various sandwiches based on sogeum ppang (salt bread).

There are many kinds of salt bread too.

There are scones and chocolate baguettes as well.

A quiet weekday space for group gatherings

The layout has large tables farther inside, and perhaps because it was a weekday, it was quite quiet overall. There is another area beyond that, and the tables deep inside are good for group gatherings. The last time I came, foreign and Korean guests were having a gathering there.

A notice says seats may be cleared if they are left vacant for a long time, so I suppose that happens now and then. There is a two-hour limit on weekends and public holidays.

A quiet second-floor work area and dogs welcome

Go upstairs and there is another space; no music plays here, so it is quiet. It is a dog-friendly café, so you can bring your dog.

There is a space that is good for working...

It is incredibly spacious.

You can see the dog-friendly notice too... And the coffee is not bitter, but nutty and so delicious! A Yeonnam-dong café that is truly easy to visit has arrived!!