Suwon café date with Ex-Boyfriend Toast & bear einspänner: Hongrad

Hongrad Mangpo Station Branch (홍라드 망포역점) is a Suwon café near Mangpo Station that greets you with a vintage camcorder and monitor. It's a cozy café close to Exits 7 and 8 🤍 It has the famous Ex-Boyfriend Toast, plenty of other desserts, seats that are great for studying, and comfy sofas. Here's my visit review :)

Hongrad Mangpo Station Branch hours, location and parking

Hongrad Mangpo Station Branch is open daily 10:00–23:00, and parking is not available. It's on the 4th floor of the Nonghyup Mangpo Station / Yangsimso building, and there's an elevator on the alley side.

• ⏰ Hours: daily 10:00–23:00
• 🅿️ No parking
• 📍 4th floor of the Nonghyup Mangpo Station / Yangsimso building (elevator on the alley side)

What are the atmosphere and seating like?

Hongrad has a warm, cozy feel, with tall tables and almost all the chairs in a soft, sofa-like material. Pretty, atmospheric cafés often have uncomfortable chairs or low tables, but Hongrad doesn't, and I loved that. A café that's stylish and comfortable too is rare..🛋️

There are lots of different seats, from two-person tables where you sit facing each other to four-person tables. The space is really wide and open too, so it feels airy.

A Mangpo Station café for studying late

Hongrad Mangpo Station Branch is open until 23:00, so it looks like a great Mangpo Station café for studying or working late. Right at the entrance, a sign says "Welcome Laptop Free Wi-Fi" in the cutest way haha

Separate solo and partitioned seating area

Hongrad Mangpo Station Branch has lots of solo seats for people studying or visiting alone. The café is naturally split in half: the side with the order counter is the group seating area, more comfortable for chatting, and the other side is the solo and partitioned seating area, which is quiet.

The lighting is soft and the seats are plush and comfy, so that day plenty of people were studying, working or reading. Because of that, the whole café felt calm, which made it a really good place for a date too..🤍

Hongrad menu and decaf options

The menu at Hongrad Mangpo Station Branch ranges from coffee to tea, ade (fruit soda), smoothies and non-coffee drinks. Every coffee drink can be switched to decaf (+₩500). Desserts are varied too, from toasts to brownies, Basque cheesecake and croffles (croissant waffles). There are lots of good eats around Mangpo Station, but this seems like a good spot to come after a meal too!

After ordering, I looked around at the little goods. There were lots of cute things, including ones that work well as keyrings.

Bear einspänner and iced americano

We ordered an iced americano and the bear einspänner (cream-topped coffee). The bear einspänner is Hongrad's signature drink: a cute coffee with a bear face drawn on the cream with a chocolate pen..🧸 And for dessert, the big one: the Ex-Boyfriend Toast.. so what is the Ex-Boyfriend Toast?

What is Hongrad's Ex-Boyfriend Toast?

The Ex-Boyfriend Toast (전남친토스트) is a recipe of toast an ex-boyfriend made: toast bread in a toaster, spread it with cream cheese and blueberry jam, then microwave it for 10 seconds.

Hongrad's Ex-Boyfriend Toast has cream cheese spread between slices of toasted bread, topped with a generous heap of blueberry jam? compote? And they add a scoop of ice cream on top. Sliced banana is tucked in too, so it's even more filling ☺️

My boyfriend's one-line review

After one bite of the Ex-Boyfriend Toast, my boyfriend said:

Worth asking about..

hahaha which means it's that good.. ㅠ It looks like a simple combination, but you get that "wait, why is this so good?" feeling.

Blueberry cream cheese toast? No, it's Ex-Boyfriend Toast. The coffee at Hongrad Mangpo was good too, and eating it with the iced americano and einspänner was so good and a real sugar recharge.. 👍

What to try next and overall thoughts

On the way out, the matcha Basque cheesecake looked delicious too, so I think I'll try it next time 💚 With its nice atmosphere, comfy seats and good setup for studying, Hongrad Mangpo Station Branch is my recommendation for anyone looking for a great café near Mangpo Station :)