Brunch bakery café in Yangjae, Seoul: Dunkel Helsinki latte, Mini Male

Here's a recommendation for a great coffee spot near Yangjae Citizen's Forest where you can choose your beans.

Mini Male Coffee Roasters Yangjae Main Branch won me over with beans picked to my own taste, plus desserts on top.

Location and how to get to Mini Male Coffee Roasters Yangjae Main Branch

For navigation, the address is 32 Gangnam-daero 10-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 1st floor. By public transport, it's a walk from Exit 3 of Yangjaesiminuisup Station on the Shinbundang Line.

It's a nice stop after a date at Yangjae Citizen's Forest or the Yangjae Flower Market.

Mini Male Yangjae Main Branch opening hours

• Mon–Fri 08:00 – 20:00
• Sat–Sun 09:00 – 20:00
• On public holidays and long holiday periods, weekend hours apply.

Can you choose your beans at this Yangjae Citizen's Forest café?

Mini Male Coffee Roasters Yangjae Main Branch is a café near Yangjae Citizen's Forest that uses its own roasted beans, and it's a great dessert spot too. It started in Yangjae and grew into a chain, and it's well known among coffee lovers as a café with really good coffee.

It's a Yangjae café where you can enjoy a wide range of bakery items and desserts alongside your coffee.

At the Yangjae Main Branch you can pick the beans yourself. Everyone's coffee taste is different, and being able to choose the style you want, nutty and rich or bright and acidic, makes it very satisfying.

Is it good for working alone or for a date?

Near the Yangjae Flower Market, the Yangjae Main Branch has table seats and bar seats, so it suits both solo visits and dates. There are plenty of power outlets, so it's easy to get a bit of work done, and drinks get a takeout discount too.

I hear the bakery and desserts come with neat gift wrapping, and catering orders are available for events.

The first thing you notice walking in is the calm black-toned atmosphere, a clean and tidy Yangjae-dong café. There's music, not too loud and not too quiet, so it's good for chatting and comfortable for spending time alone.

Bar seats and table seats are both available, so you can sit wherever suits you. It was a weekday afternoon, yet there were plenty of couples on dates and some people working on laptops.

How to order at Mini Male Yangjae Main Branch: kiosk and outdoor tablet

The takeout discount was a fun surprise, and you can also order by tablet outside the shop, which looks handy for office workers nearby.

At the kiosk you can customize your coffee, from the beans to the milk in your latte, and browse the menu with photos as you order. For bakery items and desserts, you can see the real thing in the showcase and pick.

While waiting after ordering, I looked around. It has an open kitchen, so you can watch drinks and desserts being prepared, and it looks clean. I happened to see them making watermelon juice, and the sense of good hygiene made me feel even better.

Since you can choose beans, I was curious about the flavor options, and the staff explained each bean kindly, which helped me decide which one to pick.

What I ordered for brunch

• Helsinki latte
• Handmade New York–style matcha chocolate chip levain cookie
• Plain scone
• Butter salt bread
• Portuguese-style egg tart

I came for something like a meal-slash-brunch, and everything here goes well with coffee.

What does the Helsinki latte taste like with Dunkel blend?

The Helsinki latte is marked as Mini Male's signature menu item. According to the detail page, it was inspired by the best latte of the writer's life, found on a trip to Helsinki, Finland. You can choose the beans when ordering a latte, and I picked the nutty-style Dunkel blend, so it came out as a rich, nutty latte.

Each bean has its own description, and Dunkel is a dark blend known for the nuttiness of nuts and the sweetness of sugarcane. The desserts you can see and pick in person range from cookies to scones, salt bread and tarts.

Handmade New York–style matcha chocolate chip levain cookie

The matcha chocolate chip levain cookie turned out to be a nice sweet treat with the nutty latte. It's made with Jeju matcha, so it's green. The matcha flavor is subtle, and it's generously packed with dark chocolate chips and walnuts, so the texture is great.

It's the moist kind, which goes well with coffee. I hear you can pick several cookies from the shop to make a gift set, so it'd be good to bring along as an office snack or a housewarming gift.

Plain scone

The scone had a nice moderate sugar glaze on top, so I grabbed it too. It's a classic British-style plain scone, crisp outside and moist inside. The butter and fresh cream flavors are subtle, and it goes well with the latte.

Butter salt bread

This salt bread has a prettily formed butter hole. They warmed it up after I ordered, which made it even tastier.

Portuguese-style egg tart

The Portuguese-style egg tart at the Yangjae Main Branch tastes like something from a specialty shop. The crisp, layered tart shell was impressive and the filling is smooth. The balance of sweet and rich is good, so it pairs well with coffee.

There are so many chains these days, so I was glad to find a café where you can pick roasted beans. The coffee is good and the desserts are varied, so I'm satisfied.