Yongsan café with peach bingsu and a rooftop: HYBE Playground

A large café near Yongsan Station that stays open late

There are quite a few good restaurants around Yongsan Station, so I visit often. After another delicious meal this time, I was looking for a café and had no idea a place this big was here!

HYBE Playground is at 9-17 Hangang-daero 15-gil, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. The second floor is a café, the third is a lounge and terrace, and the fourth is a rooftop; it is open daily from 11:00 to 24:00, with last orders at 23:30. Since it stays open fairly late, it seemed like a great option when you want a café after dinner in Yongsan!

HYBE Playground has its entrance on the first floor, while the café space stretches from the second through fourth floors, making it quite a large café. Beyond the café itself, there is a lounge, terrace, and rooftop, so each floor has a slightly different atmosphere to enjoy. I had heard it was a Yongsan Station café known for its variety of desserts, especially bingsu, so I had to visit!

Second-floor café and desserts ordered by QR code

When I went up to the second floor, where the café is, I saw the ordering counter and plenty of spacious seating! I walked up to order at the counter, but they told me to order through the QR code on the menu or the ones placed at the tables. There really seem to be so many places using kiosks or QR ordering these days! Old-fashioned me always heads straight for the counter and starts talking without thinking, haha 😂

There were so many delicious-looking desserts around the ordering area too! If you are looking for café desserts near Yongsan Station, I think browsing the menu would be fun in itself.

And at one side, I thought, “Why is there an umbrella stand?” But looking closer, I realized they were selling umbrellas, haha. It was my first time seeing umbrellas sold at a café, so that was interesting!

Even the second floor alone had a lot of seating, but there were quite a few people there. It seemed that lots of people come by after eating near Yongsan Station!

They were also running an event where you received an eye cream for posting a photo review! If you visit, it might be worth checking out events like this too 😊

The third-floor terrace and fourth-floor rooftop atmosphere

There was a map of HYBE Playground by the stairs. Seeing the map made me curious about the upper floors, so I just could not walk past, haha. We properly began exploring the café!

The third floor had a completely different feel from the second. It had much more of a bar-like atmosphere!

To the left, there was also seating leading out to the terrace. It was so open and airy, with a lovely atmosphere. It looked like a great place to sit with a coffee or drink on a nice day.

Then, going up farther, there was the rooftop! The overall mood was slightly dark, with stair-shaped seating lit by red LEDs. I thought it would feel even hipper at night, in a totally different way from daytime. The weather has become quite chilly lately, but it still seemed nice to have a drink on the terrace or rooftop while catching a little breeze! It is sad that summer is passing, but cafés enjoyed in cool weather have their own charm too, right? 🍂

White peach bingsu piled high like two whole peaches

We went back down to the first floor, found a seat, and ordered through the QR code on the table! This time, we ordered HYBE Playground’s white peach bingsu, one of its signature bingsu (shaved ice dessert), for ₩26,000!

When our white peach bingsu arrived, it was covered in softly pink white peaches! 🍑 There were huge pieces of white peach piled on so generously. Unlike regular yellow peaches, they were a little more sweet-tart and had such a crisp texture! It honestly felt like they had sliced up about two whole white peaches and loaded them on, haha. It also came topped with red beans and condensed milk.

To be honest, the white peaches alone were more tart than I expected, so at first I wished for a little more sweetness. But the white peach syrup inside the bingsu was sweet, and eating them together was a great combination! Adding condensed milk to taste made it sweet and delicious too. I guess desserts make me happiest when they are just sweet enough, haha.

Personally, I also really loved the ice cream that came with it! It tasted milky, with a slightly distinctive flavor. It was completely my style! The sweet-tart peach and smooth ice cream tasted even better together.

A bowl that felt like my last bingsu at summer’s end

I ate so many summer foods throughout the long summer, but the white peach bingsu I had that day somehow felt like my last bingsu of the year. It felt like wrapping up summer with a cool bowl of bingsu, then welcoming autumn as I noticed the breeze had already turned crisp!

If you are looking for a spacious café near Yongsan Station, or somewhere with different atmospheres from a terrace to a rooftop, I think HYBE Playground would be a good choice! I especially recommend it to anyone who wants special bingsu alongside a varied menu—it was a Yongsan Station café with great desserts. Next time, I want to try some of the other desserts too, haha.