Yeonnam-dong café for escaping 39°C heat with iced lemon tea: Noknok

Fleeing the 39°C heatwave into Yeonnam-dong café Noknok

Seoul hit 39°C during the day?! Just standing in the shade outside had me dripping with sweat~~~ Walking along Yeontral Park, the Gyeongui Line Forest Trail in Yeonnam-dong, I felt like I was about to get heatstroke.

Continuing to walk wasn't going to count as exercise or a stroll anymore, so I switched plans and decided to just get indoors. The place everyone nearby seemed to be heading — restaurant workers, young people passing by, even foreigners — was Yeonnam-dong café Noknok (Knock Knock).

Noknok's location and hours

🏡 Address: 139 Seongmisan-ro, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Both floors 1 and 2 of the building are Knock Knock, so it's spacious. It's visible right from Yeontral Park while walking the Gyeongui Line Forest Trail. More specifically, it connects directly from the road by Yeonnam-dong Haneulchae building 103, so it's really easy to find.

⏰ Hours: Daily 08:30–23:30

A spacious store with wide passageways at Knock Knock

The Gyeongui Line Forest Trail in Yeonnam-dong is nicknamed Yeontral Park — when the weather's nice, there's water flowing and a great park atmosphere, perfect for a walk. There were even people running despite the heatwave, but I was scared just to walk, so I fled to Knock Knock for some heat relief haha.

I'd passed by this café Noknok many times without paying attention. Once I actually stepped in, the entrance was so wide open it was almost airy. Why did I only come now?

You order at the kiosk and get a pager. Since it's a bakery café, it's great for enjoying drinks and dessert together — if you pick your bread first and then order your drink, sometimes the bread comes out first.

The open kitchen and the big sofa seats in the middle

Noknok has an open area for making drinks and taking payment, and the countertop is all stainless steel, which felt clean and hygienic — I liked that. Even in the late afternoon, the café was full of people: some drinking coffee, some half-leaning back on the sofa resting, some on laptops or phones.

The large sofa sits in a square in the center, with seats facing each other. It looked comfortable, but there was a couple half-asleep leaning on it, so I took a seat near the entrance instead.

Bread selection at Yeonnam-dong bakery café Knock Knock

There were various kinds of bread, but the cakes all seemed to be sold out — I didn't even get to see them. There were cube-shaped loaves of bread and salt bread, mostly bakery items that go well with coffee. Craving something sweet, I picked the choco salt bread instead of cake.

Iced lemon tea, café latte, choco salt bread

An iced café latte to go with the choco salt bread, and an iced lemon tea to cool off from the heat. Whoever ordered this combo made an excellent choice. Haha.

There are a lot of espresso-focused cafés these days, but Noknok's coffee is really strong. In the hot summer you need strong coffee to snap your foggy brain awake~~!

I ordered the lemon tea iced, and it felt a little too sweet, so I added about 1/3 water and it was much easier to drink. You might ask why I'd do that, but when the sweetness is too strong, you can't taste the lemon anymore, so I diluted it to my own taste~~ Maybe the staff put in a bit too much lemon syrup! Still, the lemon tea itself was refreshing and cool, and did its job of beating the heat!! If you like things really sweet, go for the iced lemon tea at Yeonnam-dong café Knock Knock!!

How was the texture of the choco salt bread?

The choco salt bread was even more delicious than expected. I wasn't even hungry... I'd eaten a meal just an hour before coming into this Yeonnam-dong café, but the inside of the bread was moist and the chocolate had melted a little — exactly the style I like.

On top of that, being a salt bread, it had a chewier texture than I expected, which I really liked. It's a different texture from a bagel, but if I had to compare it to something, that's probably the closest.

Plant-decorated Yeonnam-dong café

The entrance of Knock Knock's Yeonnam-dong café is decorated with plants in a botanical-interior style. If you sit on the sofa in front of the entrance, these plants are right in front of you, and most of them were types I'd tried growing at home myself, so seeing them brought back memories, one by one. Well, strictly speaking, they're plants I grew and then killed... guess I'm a plant killer~ They're really thriving here at this café, I thought.

Seeing trendy, currently popular plants again for the first time in a while at the sofa seats by the entrance — I liked it. Heh.

Knock Knock's takeout service

At Yeonnam-dong café Noknok, known for its strong espresso, an Americano is ₩1,900 a cup. That's the takeout (To-go) price, of course. Compared to chain coffee americano prices, this seems perfect for Yeonnam-dong and Hongdae office workers to grab a strong Americano after lunch and head back to the office!

I didn't get to go up to the second floor before leaving, which left me wanting more, so I plan to visit Yeonnam-dong café Knock Knock again soon. There are also 1-liter drinks, a discounted takeout Americano, and delivery through Baemin and other apps, so there are many ways to enjoy Knock Knock.

If you can drink caffeine at night and still sleep soundly, closing at 23:30 makes it a nice quiet spot to visit at night too. I'm weak to caffeine, so it's probably one I'd use when working overtime or into the early hours haha. Such a uniquely atmospheric café, Knock Knock!