Hongdae board game café date: Hero Board Game Cafe

Wanting to spend time indoors on a hot day, we went to Hero Board Game Cafe Hongdae Branch 1. With a weekday all-day pass, the two of us played several board games and stayed for a long time, stopping for dinner in between.

How is the walk from Hongik University Station?

It was an easy walk from Hongik University Station. Being near Hongdae's main street also made it easy to plan alongside other things to do nearby. The café is on the second floor at 31-10 Wausan-ro 21-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul.

The original post lists the hours as 1 PM to midnight Monday through Thursday, noon to 1 AM the following day on Friday and Saturday, and noon to midnight on Sunday.

Are there games for two and a place to take a break?

Once inside, we found a wide variety of board games. I had expected there to be few games for two people, but there were more options than I thought.

There was also a space to wait if there was a queue. When we wanted a short break from board games, we could come out and use the arcade machines and pool table.

How did we use the weekday all-day pass?

We used the weekday unlimited-use pass, and one drink per person was required. Playing games while having drinks felt like enjoying café time in a different way. The all-day pass gave us enough time to choose several games and eat dinner as well.

What is it like to choose games and learn the rules?

We could get recommendations based on the number of players or a game's theme, and each game had instructions and a how-to video. Still, new games took time to learn and get used to, so we mainly chose games we already knew.

We brought over deduction games, betting games, and reaction games, taking turns with them. Mixing easy games with ones that needed more thought made us competitive, and it was fun to laugh and chat while seeing sides of each other we do not usually notice.

Can you have dinner while playing games?

We got hungry while playing, so we ordered tteokbokki (spicy rice cakes), chicken mayo deopbap (chicken mayo rice bowl), and sotteok sotteok (sausage and rice-cake skewers). With all three set out together, it made for a fairly substantial meal.

We kept playing while eating with the food beside us. There was a more varied food selection than I expected, making it easy to choose something to eat.

Several events were also underway when we visited, but we did not take part because we had already eaten a lot. This time, we centered our time around the board game café, and being able to continue from games to a meal in one place made for a relaxed indoor date.