Sinnae Station lizard café, cricket feeding with a toddler: Kamerine

It's been so hot lately, and then right after ipchu (the first day of autumn on the lunar calendar), it suddenly turned cool — so surprising this weekend! Today I went for a really unusual experience with my 34-month-old, Zani: a place in Seoul where you can actually touch lizards! It's a lizard café where you can also see chameleons, and they even have a special vacation package for kids to do fun crafts — a quirky café called 'CAMERINE' (Kamerine)!

I had no idea a place like this was near my house, so I really want to introduce it to you now that I've discovered it. If your kid loves animals, or you're looking for a unique Seoul café date course, you'll be so satisfied here. We had SO much fun, and I'd 100% go back. (❁´◡`❁)

Where is Kamerine, and how do you get up to the second floor?

Kamerine is on the 2nd floor, unit 201 (road-side entrance), at 221 Bongwhasan-ro, Jungnang-gu, Seoul. You can park in the building's basement 1st or 2nd floor lots, with the parking entrance near Shabu All Day.

• 🦎Address: 221 Bongwhasan-ro, 2nd floor, unit 201, Kamerine, Jungnang-gu, Seoul (road-side entrance)
• 🦎Parking: Available in the building's basement 1st and 2nd floor lots! Entrance is near Shabu All Day.
• 🦎Getting in: You can either take the outdoor stairs on the road side, or ride the basement parking elevator up. (2nd floor)

Kamerine opening hours

• 🦎Weekdays 12:00–20:00
• 🦎Saturday 11:00–19:00
• 🦎Sunday 11:00–18:00

Hours vary slightly by day, so keep that in mind!

Kamerine drinks and prices: is there an entrance fee?

Experience cafés like this usually charge admission, but Kamerine has no entrance fee — you just need one drink per person. (Ages 36 months and up need one drink too!) We ordered a café latte and a strawberry smoothie, then added the curation (an experience with detailed storytelling about the lizards), plus an easy-level coloring kit where you color, cut out, and stick stickers on a chameleon. :)

This craft wasn't difficult at all for a 34-month-old — it was just right. Zani was super focused and really enjoyed it, haha. There are photos below~

Since my kid is still fairly young at 34 months, we couldn't do the harder crafts, which was a bit of a shame — but for slightly older kids, doing this affordable vacation package would be a great idea!

Besides that, they also have a wide variety of menu items — kids' drinks, bread, and meals — so you don't need to worry about food even if you show up unprepared, haha.

Inside Kamerine: the café zone and the lizard zone

From what I could tell, the inside of Kamerine is split roughly down the middle — one half is the café zone focused on food and drinks, and the other half is the lizard zone where you can see and experience lizards and chameleons.

The store was very well kept and clean, with no smell at all, and having the areas separated made it feel more organized — nice for enjoying our drinks and also for focusing on the experience.

You could really feel that the owner cares for these animals with a lot of love for kids too. Besides the experiences, they also professionally do lizard adoption, boarding, and one-week trial care. I thought this one-week trial care was such a great idea. We had zero interest in keeping a lizard before, but hearing the explanation, we got kind of tempted. It's a precious life so adoption should be taken seriously, but this trip made us discover the charm of lizards, haha. The babies were so, so cute!!!

On top of that, they sell all sorts of products for keeping lizards — supplies, accessories, terrariums, feed, various lizard goods, and more. They even had live crickets..!!! Haha. They really have every item you'd need for a lizard, so if you're thinking of keeping one, Kamerine seems like the place to get everything in one go. :)

The ₩3,000 curation at Kamerine: can a 34-month-old join?

Kamerine's curation (the guided experience and storytelling) costs ₩3,000, and the owner tailors it to the child's level. This is the highlight — the storytelling time! It's not an exaggeration to say this is what you come to Kamerine for. Even with a little one like ours along, there's really nothing to worry about. I was worried since my kid gets shy around strangers, but the owner explained everything so kindly that Zani perked up and paid full attention.

Meeting the chameleon and feeding it a live cricket

Since we came to Kamerine, of course we had to start with the chameleon, right? Haha. Apparently chameleons are quite timid. So instead of touching it right away, the owner had us wait for the chameleon to climb onto the kids' hands on its own, to build a connection. I got to put it on my hand too — it was so cute and... amazing, haha. Mom got more excited than the kid...😂😂😂

On top of that, we got to see the chameleon eat its favorite treat — a live cricket! Its tongue shot out in a single second and snatched the cricket up in a flash — Zani's eyes went completely round with amazement. Well, even we adults, who'd only ever seen that in documentaries, were amazed, so imagine how the kid felt, haha. It's something you really can't see anywhere else, so I think it'll stick in his memory for a long time. We even filmed the moment, and Zani keeps demanding to watch the chameleon eat the cricket over and over since we got home, haha.

Touching a bearded dragon and a crested gecko

After that, they showed us a lizard called a bearded dragon, which apparently is so gentle it's nicknamed 'the puppy.' It looks spiky and totally dragon-like, but it was very docile even when petted and handled from different angles. Hearing the explanation alongside the touching helped my kid stay calm and bond with it without fear. Zani is usually a bit of a scaredy-cat, haha, but here he touched every single lizard and had a blast. (Though there's also the side effect of him constantly asking to go back, haha.)

This one looked like a crested gecko, and it seemed to be the special type with distinctive eyelashes. Its lashes really curve upward like it's wearing mascara, which is its signature feature. It looks like it'd be hard and rough from the outside, but touching it, it was actually so soft — I wanted to keep touching it, haha. Lizards really have a serious charm. Even as an adult I felt this much, so I'd highly recommend it if you come with kids — you'll get a really great experience!

They also mentioned they professionally handle adoptions, and it seems they raise them with care starting from the egg before adopting them out. They showed us actual eggs and a bearded dragon that was only two weeks old. I never imagined I'd get to see a real lizard egg, and it was so fascinating. It was a great opportunity for my kid to directly witness how life is born, grows, and develops. And the baby lizards were just so! Cute! and adorable ❤️🦎

Besides that, you can also see various other creatures like Chinese mitten crabs, rhinoceros beetles, fish, and tarantulas, so the kids never get bored

Kamerine's ₩6,000 craft kits: which ones can you choose?

Kamerine's craft experience costs ₩6,000, and we chose the easiest chameleon coloring kit. At first Zani said he didn't want to do the craft and just wanted to look at the lizards, but by the end of the experience he'd relaxed enough that he suddenly wanted to color too?! Haha. We picked the easiest difficulty on the far right, and made it by coloring and adding stickers.

Other options include drawing and building LED lights, keyring making, decorating a terrarium with beads, and building a keyring with blocks. I wondered how a kid would even draw a lizard, but it turns out they provide an outline to trace over, so even kids who can't draw well can easily follow along!

I wanted to commemorate my kid's first-ever chameleon experience today. Rather than just buying goods for the kids, having them participate directly in making something felt like it would make today more memorable. And you know kids play with things longer when they made it themselves, right..?😂

Honestly, we've mostly only seen furry animals, so seeing a lizard or chameleon for the first time made me worry Zani would be scared or find it strange. But those worries turned out to be completely unfounded — he properly enjoyed himself the whole time. Kids really are tougher and more adaptable than adults expect (as the boy expert Director Kim Min-jun always says, haha), and I felt that again today.

We enjoyed some cool drinks too, and seeing our kid smile made us grin from ear to ear like fools ourselves, haha.

Who should visit Kamerine?

Kamerine was such a fun time! We'd especially recommend it to:

• 🦎Parents who want to give their kid a safe, special reptile bonding experience over vacation
• 🦎Anyone looking for a clean, hygienic, and unique date café
• 🦎Anyone in Seoul who wants to adopt a lizard and get friendly, expert advice on care and tips
• 🦎Anyone looking for lizard boarding during vacation season