Seodaemun bakery with ₩1,500 rusk: Mandong Jegwa

The Yeonnam-dong bakery I think of when I’m down

“I was sad, so I bought bread.” You know that famous meme? Mandong Jegwa Yeonnam Branch (만동제과), the bakery that the super T types would want to ask, “Where did you buy the bread?” about, is right here. When you’re feeling down, head to Mandong Jegwa in Hongdae’s Yeonnam-dong. You’ll get it once you taste the bread. It is the kind of flavor that makes dopamine burst out the second you take a bite.

You start out thinking you’ll eat just a little, then eventually let go of your last thread of reason. All the intensely addictive, dopamine-bursting breads are here.

A weekday afternoon visit and the location

I heard there can be a wait on weekends, so I went on a weekday. Since lots of breads sell out if you arrive late, I got there around the afternoon. Even later in the day, the signature breads are still available, so it should be fine if those are what you’re after.

Mandong Jegwa is close to Hongik University Station, on the ground floor along the main road toward Yeonhui-dong, so it is easy to find. It sits right in the middle of a lovely Hongdae/Yeonnam-dong and Yeonhui-dong walking route. Parking is not available.

Breads are displayed on the left, right, and center of the shop...

As soon as you arrive, they hand you cut-up samples to try.

Signature breads and choosing by sample

The signature bread here is the garlic baguette! It is the kind of bread that makes you suddenly realize, wow, garlic baguette can be this good.

Mandong Jegwa has lots of dopamine-bursting breads beyond the garlic baguette, and it is nice that you can sample them before choosing.

Cheese Mallang and rusk. These are among the breads I stock up on whenever I come to Mandong Jegwa. Yakbap bread—yakbap is sweet glutinous rice—and salted soboro bread.

Chestnut loaf.

Cappuccino bread is unbelievably soft, and with coffee it sends you straight to heaven. The sweet potato bread is new, and quietly filling. Shrimp baguette. Today I picked up a squid-ink bread. If you like custard cream, this is going to be your kind of bread.

Mugwort Rice Cake Mugwort Rice Cake. Walnut. It tastes like an upgraded version of soboro bread.

If you like Emmental cheese, pick this bread.

The maple one is delicious too. One of my absolute favorite breads is the pretzel. I love cream cheese, and this one has delicious cream cheese tucked inside.

• Corn mayo
• Butt bread
• Injeolmi, Korean roasted soybean rice cake flavor
• I picked up a kabocha squash one too.
• Chestnut, red bean, and mugwort
• Bacon ciabatta
• Fig country loaf
• Onion bagel—put this in the freezer, then eat it straight away; it is wonderfully crisp.

• Jalapeño ciabatta
• Kaya coconut
• Tortilla
• Red bean cream
• Chili sausage

Rusk at Mapo Lifelong Learning Center

After buying bread, I had a bag of rusk at the nearby Mapo Lifelong Learning Center!

Rusk is usually in the ₩3,000 range, but here it is ₩1,500. Such a nice price, and seriously delicious. It tastes far better than most snacks. So crispy.

Cream cheese and sweet potato breads at home

Once home, I needed to portion out the breads and store them in the freezer.

The breads I bought. This one has cream cheese inside. It is fluffy, with cheese baked onto the outside, so good. The bread is packed with cream cheese. Since I love cream cheese, I loved this so much! And sweet potato bread.

The sweet potato bread is full of little pieces of sweet, sweet potato. Kabocha squash. The reason to come to this Hongdae favorite, this Yeonnam-dong bakery with a wait, is that its breads are bigger than the ones at a typical bakery. Once Mandong Jegwa becomes your benchmark, you go elsewhere and think, why is the bread so small? Really, Mandong Jegwa’s breads are just large and heavy. The kabocha bread is also packed with cream cheese.

Since it is kabocha squash cream cheese bread, it makes a good breakfast substitute. It seemed even more delicious with a latte.

Custard squid-ink bread the next day

The next day, squid-ink bread! It is filled with sweet custard cream, a true dopamine-bursting flavor.

I cut it with scissors, telling myself I would eat only half today, but...

I ended up inhaling the other half too. It is that dopamine-bursting flavor you cannot stop halfway through. Buy bread, keep it frozen, and eat some every day—there is no room for sadness. If you feel gloom coming on, one piece of Mandong Jegwa bread makes it disappear in no time. Dopamine bursting everywhere. The next day, it was bread packed with cream cheese!