Baby-friendly Seocho café with tomato juice and egg tart: Mini Male

Toddling along, ๑◕‿‿◕๑

Mini Male Roastery & Coffee Bar is famous around Gyodae and Seocho for premium beans. I stopped by with my kid after a campus tour and lunch at Seoul National University of Education. It's about a 10-minute walk from the university. The Helsinki latte was so good, and my kid spent the time sipping on 100% fresh tomato juice.

Where is Mini Male Roastery & Coffee Bar Seocho Gyodae Branch?

Mini Male Roastery & Coffee Bar Seocho Gyodae Branch is at 70 Banpo-daero 30-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul (1F), a 10-minute walk from Seoul National University of Education. Hours are Monday–Friday 08:00–10:00, closed weekends, and there's paid parking nearby.

• 📍70 Banpo-daero 30-gil, Seocho-gu, Seoul, 1F
• ⏰Mon–Fri 08:00–10:00 (closed Sat–Sun)
• 🚘Nearby paid parking lot
• 👼🏻Babies welcome / no high chair / stroller accessible

Mini Male Roastery & Coffee Bar is already famous around Seocho and Gyodae. It's a roastery café that roasts its own green beans in-house. We stopped by after our campus tour of Seoul National University of Education. There are plenty of restaurants and bars near Gyodae station, but not many great cafés, right? If you're looking for specialty coffee near Gyodae, Mini Male is the place.

Inspired by Helsinki, Finland, the signature Helsinki latte here shows off the café's strong identity. There's a distinct sensibility to this place — it's not easy to find a café like this near Gyodae station.

We'd had samgyeopsal (pork belly) and mokssal (pork neck) for lunch with the kid, and this specialty café happened to be right nearby, so the whole route worked out perfectly.

Can you bring a baby to Mini Male? The 100% fresh tomato juice

Mini Male Seocho Gyodae has 100% fresh tomato juice, which meant I could sit down with my 17-month-old. Usually when I take my kid to a café I order a strawberry latte, but here the tomato juice option meant we could go together. Whether there's a drink for kids really matters.

Mini Male's house-made bakery, baked fresh each morning

This place bakes all its desserts fresh every dawn. Even the desserts have that Mini Male feel. Prices are reasonable, and the bakery items are just the right size to enjoy with coffee. My 17-month-old loves egg tarts, so we ordered one.

There's a clear high chair-type seat, so the baby got to sit up excited at both baby height and adult eye level. Spending the morning wandering campus with my kid and then having a sweet teatime like this — it puts both of us in a good mood.

We juice tomatoes at home often, so it's a juice my kid genuinely loves. They happened to have tomato juice here, and Hajun drank the whole thing by himself. (Not-so-secretly, I had a sip too.)

What does Mini Male's Helsinki latte taste like, served hot?

What can I say about Mini Male's Helsinki latte — it's excellent. I'm the type who orders a hot latte even in the middle of summer, so I always drink mine warm. The Helsinki latte has a sweet aroma with a deep milky flavor. It tastes familiar somehow, and yet I haven't found a latte quite like it anywhere else.

Mini Male's egg tart: the taste of Portugal in Seocho

The egg tart at this Seocho-dong café dessert spot is seriously better than it looks! I was genuinely surprised. It tasted just like the egg tarts I had in Portugal. They warm it up too — the outside stays flaky and crisp, paired with a subtly sweet custard cream that's just perfect. Unless you go to a dedicated egg tart shop, it's hard to find a properly made one at a regular café.

Another successful café outing with my kid today — nice ♥

After all that, my kid fell asleep in the stroller on the way out and napped soundly for an hour. Meanwhile I got a rare moment to relax, put in my earbuds, listen to some music, and just zone out.