Café by Mangwon Market, Seoul: vanilla bean latte with a friend, PICT

Bongsam, who is all about tasting coffee in style, headed to PICT Roastery Mangwon Branch (픽트로스터리 망원점), a café near Mangwon Market famous for its Basque cheesecake (the Korean nickname is "bachike").

PICT Roastery Mangwon Branch hours and parking

PICT Roastery Mangwon Branch is at 45 Woldeukeop-ro 23-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, on the 1st floor. It is open 11:00 to 19:00 Wednesday to Friday and 11:00 to 21:00 on weekends. It is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays, and there is no parking.

• Address: 45 Woldeukeop-ro 23-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 1st floor
• Hours: Wed–Fri 11:00–19:00 / weekends 11:00–21:00
• Closed: Mon, Tue
• No parking

How to get to PICT Roastery from Mangwon Station

PICT Roastery Mangwon Branch sits near New Seoul Apartments. It is about a 5-minute walk from Exit 2 of Mangwon Station on Line 6, so it is easy to reach. Parking is hard in these narrow alleys, so please use a nearby public parking lot.

What is PICT Roastery Mangwon Branch like inside?

The inside of this café near Mangwon Market has seriously good natural light. It is newly opened, so it is clean, needless to say, and the sunlight coming through the windows feels so healing. The mix of white and wood tones makes you feel relaxed, too.

PICT Roastery menu and what we ordered

The menu at PICT Roastery Mangwon Branch has a few coffees plus lattes, ades and teas. You can smell the coffee beans, and it seems you can pick your beans to taste. After some deliberation, we ordered an iced café latte and a vanilla bean latte, plus a Kyoto matcha Basque cheesecake.

I don't know much about this stuff, but the machine and grinder look like really good ones. My expectations for this being a total coffee winner were bubbling up. No desserts were on display, so we ordered by instinct. How would it turn out?

After a short wait, the buzzer went off and I picked up today's desserts. Coffee that looks rich at first glance and a cute Basque cheesecake: a perfect dessert spread. The mug with PICT's mascot and logo looks stylish too.

How is the extra-shot iced café latte?

With an extra shot, PICT's iced café latte was rich and nutty, and excellent. In the photo, the café latte is on the left and the vanilla bean latte on the right, and the café latte looks even darker thanks to the extra shot. For a second I wondered if they'd given me an Americano by mistake, but when I stirred with the straw I could see the milk at the bottom, so it was right after all. As you can see in the photo, it was really rich and nutty, and excellent.

Is the vanilla bean latte too sweet?

PICT's vanilla bean latte was smooth, neither bitter nor sweet. It looks so white that I wondered whether it would taste of coffee, but the smoothness is lovely. Even when you order a coffee with syrup, too sweet is no good, and the sweetness here comes up just enough to not be bitter, so the balance was great.

On top of that, maybe they make their own syrup at PICT, because look how full of vanilla beans it is! I've often had drinks that say vanilla but really just taste like sugar syrup, so the real vanilla beans seem to give it better flavor.

How does the Kyoto matcha Basque cheesecake taste?

PICT's Kyoto matcha Basque cheesecake was thick and soft in texture, with a strong matcha flavor. It was small and plain-looking, so I didn't expect much. But I could see the denseness right in the cross-section, and with one stab of the fork you really feel that soft, thick texture. And as the color already shows, it's not a half-hearted imitation: the matcha flavor is properly deep.

Wow... seriously, everyone, the Basque cheesecake at this café near Mangwon Market is really good..! The cake itself is already well made, and then a fragrant, non-bitter matcha aroma sweeps through... it's soft yet thick, and sweet, and anyway it's the kind of flavor that does everything on its own.

My friend and I each took one bite and said "Hey, this is so good..!" at exactly the same time. If I could, I'd have eaten a whole cake. The Basque cheesecake is number one here, so don't miss it and be sure to try it!

Is PICT Roastery Mangwon Branch worth a visit?

My personal takeaway from visiting PICT Roastery Mangwon Branch is that the Basque cheesecake is the star. Tasting good coffee and dessert in a comfortable, sunlit space is such a healing time! There are plenty of places to stop around here, but I think nowhere beats this one for Basque cheesecake, so please do visit!