Hongdae brunch café for basil cream gnocchi and pastry pizza: MELA

Where is MELA Hongdae?

MELA Hongdae is a brunch café located at Unit 105 on the first floor of Nudite Hongdae in Seogyo-dong. It's open daily from 9:00 to 18:30, and parking is free for one hour at Nudite Hongdae.

A great-vibes brunch café at Nudite Hongdae 🍽️ MELA Hongdae

This was my first time at Nudite Hongdae in Seogyo-dong, and the red-brick building is such a pretty space 😍 It's a mixed-use cultural complex with restaurants, cafés, officetel units, and a hotel all inside. There were so many good-looking spots on the first floor especially. Such a great place to eat and drink hahahaha

Parking in Hongdae: what the Nudite underground lot costs

Around Hongdae there's usually nowhere to park so I always come on foot, but Nudite has a well-set-up underground parking lot, so it was nice to drive over this time 👍 Many of Nudite's tenants offer parking support, and even without it, it's just ₩2,000 for the first 30 minutes and ₩800 per additional 10 minutes — pretty painless.

Inside MELA Hongdae: atmosphere and seating

That day I visited <MELA>, a brunch café on the first floor of Nudite Hongdae. The warm wood-tone, exotic atmosphere is exactly my taste ♥️ 'Mela' means 'apple' in Italian — it's a brand launched to spread happiness through delicious food made with healthy, good ingredients, apparently. From specialty coffee to brunch, wine, and dessert, they have it all.

OMG the European-style interior is just so pretty...! A place that hits my aesthetic sweet spot lol. You've gotta eat by the floor-to-ceiling windows at a wood table to get that real brunch feeling 😉

There are tables set up in various sizes — 2-, 4-, and 8-person seats. Maybe because of that, I spotted a few tables having wedding invitation gatherings! Congratulations on the wedding, hehe 👀✨

It's an open kitchen and overall very clean. The food didn't take long to come out after ordering, which I liked even more 💯

MELA Hongdae menu and what we ordered

MELA Hongdae has a wide range of Western dishes — not just salads and brunch toast, but pasta, gnocchi, gratin, and pizza too 🥗🥪🍝 Everything looked delicious so it was hard to decide what to order 🫨

• Potato basil cream gnocchi ₩22,000
• Pistachio jalapeño pastry pizza ₩24,000
• Americano ₩5,000

We ordered~!

✔️ Every dish can have its seasoning adjusted. I asked for mine low-sodium, mild.

Isn't the view from my table amazing? Seeing the lush green street trees was so healing 🌿

Iced americano, 5,000 won

Iced americano (₩5,000) with crema on top and a slightly sour bean profile — exactly my taste. On weekdays I drink office coffee just to wake up... it felt so nice to relax and actually enjoy the bean's flavor for once 🥹

Potato basil cream gnocchi, 22,000 won: portion and taste

MELA Hongdae's potato basil cream gnocchi is ₩22,000, and the portion came out bigger than I expected. It's topped with nicely grilled baby potatoes and bacon chips 〰️

Chewy-textured gnocchi. The potato flavor is deep and delicious!! Pairs so well with the basil cream too 😋 The basil cream sauce was so good I ended up scooping it up with a spoon lol

+ I asked for the gnocchi mild when ordering, but eating it together with the bacon chips gave it just the right seasoning 🫶

Pistachio jalapeño pastry pizza, 24,000 won

The pistachio jalapeño pastry pizza is ₩24,000. I like trying new food, so I ordered the unusual-sounding item. Nutty pistachio combined with jalapeño — a flavor hard to imagine — and it's even on a pastry bread base lol

The pastry layers are clearly visible. Buttery and flaky, it has a dessert-like texture. Goes really well with the crushed pistachios.

While eating the nutty pistachio bread, the spicy kick from biting into a jalapeño in between is the highlight. It's like the moment it shifts from dessert to a proper meal item?

<MELA>, the Hongdae Nudite brunch café with experimental dishes that delight both eyes and mouth. Perfect for a blind date or a gathering spot, haha. Thanks for the meal!