Ikseon-dong bakery with no queue for black sesame cream bread: Munhwa

The day I decided to check out an Ikseon-dong restaurant! I got off at Jongno 3-ga Station and was walking over when I spotted a bakery that looked seriously good.

Turns out it's known as one of Seoul's top three bakeries. If it's famous as an Ikseon-dong bakery like that, how could I not go in? Haha

Inside Munhwa Bakery: is there any seating?

There's no seating inside Munhwa Bakery, so it's takeaway only. That said, the turnover is quick, so even during busy times you can pick your bread and get out faster than you'd expect.

Luckily there was no waiting that day. I looked it up and apparently people usually line up, lol, so I got to browse at a leisurely pace.

Munhwa Bakery's most popular breads and prices

The most famous breads at Munhwa Bakery are the coffee bread (₩5,800), garlic bread (₩6,800), and onion bagel (₩6,000). Beyond that there's a surprising range — injeolmi (sweet rice cake) bread, black sesame bread, and more! Maybe because it's one of Seoul's top three bakeries, this place sells purely bread, nothing else. When bread is the only thing they're competing on, it can't be bad, haha.

The three best-sellers especially were huge for the price! Like, the coffee bread is that long and that big for ₩5,800...? This is Jongno and the value for money was genuinely great.

I agonized over what to get, and that day I was craving something soft and moist like castella, so I ordered the coffee bread!! (The garlic bread here is also really famous.) One felt like too little, so I added the sweet potato bread and black sesame cream bread too.

The packaging was done neatly too. They put it all in a bag with the Munhwa Bakery name printed right on it, which somehow made it feel extra pretty and clean. It'd make a nice light gift too — good to pick up one for a bread-loving friend.

How to pair Munhwa Bakery with Ikseon-dong and Gwangjang Market

A day I properly found a good bakery near Jongno 3-ga Station! Munhwa Bakery is about a 3-minute walk from the station, so it's a great stop before heading to Ikseon-dong. I think it'd also work well to grab bread here and then head over to Gwangjang Market! The distance isn't far, so it'd make a great route for foreign friends visiting Seoul, too :) Touring from Ikseon-dong to Gwangjang Market while also picking up delicious bread — sounds like a solid addition to a Seoul trip, right??!

Taste test: coffee bread, sweet potato bread and black sesame cream bread

I wanted to try it so badly I almost ate it walking down the street, but I held off and dug in the moment I got home. Since the bread is so big, the staff actually sliced the coffee bread for me! That only made me more curious about what was inside — I was dying of curiosity the whole way home, haha.

Coffee bread, 5,800 won

Munhwa Bakery's coffee bread really had a strong coffee aroma, and the bread itself was incredibly fluffy. Inside there's some kind of coffee cream, and it wasn't the least bit rich or heavy, which surprised me!

You know that sweet potato castella-powder-dusted cream bread everyone loves? Think of this as the coffee version of that. I really, really loved this one, ugh. It's a good size and delicious too — personally, I'd strongly recommend it. If I come back, I'm getting the coffee bread again for sure 🤎

Sweet potato bread at Munhwa Bakery

Next up, the sweet potato bread!! When I hear