Baby-friendly brunch café in Hongdae, Seoul with high chairs: MELA

Why MELA Hongdae for brunch with a baby in Hongdae?

I was looking for somewhere to have weekend brunch with my baby in Hongdae and ended up at MELA Hongdae! MELA Hongdae is a brunch café on Wolgeuk-buk-ro 5-gil, near Hongik University Station.

When you're eating out with a baby, the taste of the food matters, but so does whether there's a baby chair — and MELA Hongdae had one ready, which was great.

When you're out with a baby, these small details end up feeling pretty huge during a meal. There's a cute apple shape on the sign that really catches your eye, haha!

What MELA Hongdae is like right after the 9am opening

MELA Hongdae opens at 9am, and I went right as it opened. The moment I walked in, the café was so pretty. The overall vibe was nice and relaxing, great for spending time over brunch.

Hongdae has so many cafés that you end up paying attention to the space, not just the food, and I liked the vibe at MELA Hongdae too! Right at opening time, foreign customers were coming in for coffee.

What we ordered at MELA Hongdae: minari vongole, French toast, iced latte

That day at MELA Hongdae we ordered the fragrant minari vongole, classic French toast, and an iced latte. Everything on the menu looked delicious, so it was hard to decide, and I even thought about ordering the morning special, haha.

Since we went early, the food came out quickly right after we ordered! The dish I was most curious about was the minari vongole. Minari (water dropwort) in vongole?! That's not a combination you see often, so I was curious what it would taste like — and it worked way better than I expected.

How does the minari vongole at MELA Hongdae taste?

The vongole's flavor with the distinctive fragrance of minari added on top felt totally different from a regular vongole. When you eat the noodles together with the minari, a subtle aroma comes through, and it went surprisingly well together.

It also had a spicy kick, but not overly hot — just deliciously spicy in a way that cut through the richness perfectly. I ended up eating even the oil left in the dish by the end, haha.

Personally, the minari vongole was the most delicious of everything we ordered that day. I originally ordered it just because it seemed like an unusual dish, but after eating it, I felt like I'd picked the right one.

If you're having brunch in Hongdae and want something a bit different from the usual pasta, this combination is worth trying!

Classic French toast and an iced latte together

We also ordered the classic French toast. Rather than just having pasta, adding something sweet made it feel like a proper well-rounded brunch. With the iced latte on top, the whole combination worked really well.

Eating at MELA Hongdae with a baby: the high chair

Since we were there with the baby, we couldn't sit around leisurely for long, but having a baby chair made the meal a lot more comfortable. Finding a place to eat with a baby in Hongdae isn't as easy as it sounds, so having a baby chair ready was definitely a relief.

With the minari vongole in particular, just from the name I wasn't sure minari and vongole would go well together, but eating it, the fragrant minari and the vongole matched surprisingly well. When looking for a brunch spot in Hongdae, you usually weigh the menu and the vibe together, and MELA Hongdae delivered on both. The atmosphere was great, and everything we ate that day was delicious.

If you're planning to visit with a baby, it's worth checking whether they have a baby chair. If you're like me, looking for somewhere to have brunch with a baby in Hongdae, MELA Hongdae seems like a solid choice. This time we had the minari vongole, French toast, and iced latte, and next time I'd like to try other menu items too — though I think I'll still order the minari vongole again.