Yeonnam-dong bakery at opening: ₩1,200 chewy cheese bread, Mandong

Where is Mandong Jegwa Yeonnam Branch and when does it open?

Mandong Jegwa Yeonnam Branch (만동제과 연남점) is on the main road at 32 Yeonhui-ro, Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, in Yeonnam-dong, and it's open daily from 11:00 to 21:00. There's no parking, and it's takeout only.

I always used to see this place from the bus on the way to Yeonhui-dong... and those giant bread letters on the sign really catch your eye! So here we are: the Yeonnam-dong bakery Mandong Jegwa!

Is Mandong Jegwa busy on weekday mornings? Inside the bakery

Mandong Jegwa Yeonnam Branch opens at 11:00 on weekdays, and even when I went at 11:30 on a weekday, it was as popular as a weekend. The inside runs deep toward the back and it's takeout only, but I heard that if you order a drink at Ediya Coffee's Yeonnam-dong branch, you can eat Mandong Jegwa's bread there.

All the bread is baked fresh every day, and because it's so popular even on weekdays, they were constantly baking more in the back. If it's like this on a weekday, then weekday or weekend, the only answer is to show up right at opening! And there were so many kinds of bread.

Mandong Jegwa bread menu and prices

Right at the front was a bread called "Butt" (엉덩이), ₩3,500. I think it has something like cream cheese inside..?

• Injeolmi (rice cake, roasted soybean powder) ₩3,500
• Pumpkin ciabatta ₩6,200
• Chestnut, red bean & mugwort ₩7,200
• Chestnut loaf ₩4,900
• Salt soboro ₩3,600
• Walnut ₩4,300
• Emmental ₩5,200
• Fig campagne ₩5,800
• Sweet potato ₩3,500
• Bacon ciabatta ₩4,900
• Jalapeño ciabatta ₩4,900
• Cappuccino ₩5,600
• Yakbap bread ₩3,800
• Kaya coconut ₩4,500

So many kinds of bread, it makes your eyes spin... if you don't keep your wits about you, it's easy to lose your mind..

Onion bagel, cucumber baguette and basil tomato, packed at the counter

The onion bagel (₩5,500), cucumber baguette (₩6,900) and basil tomato (₩6,200): these three breads are packed for you if you ask at the counter.

I saw on another blog that the cucumber baguette is crazy good.. they raved about how it's packed with sliced cucumber tossed in cream cheese or mayonnaise. I wasn't eating right away so I couldn't buy it, but if you're a cucumber lover, I recommend the cucumber baguette.

The shrimp baguette is ₩5,800. Is there a whole shrimp inside? Or minced shrimp? I was curious, but since I couldn't see the filling, Mandong Jegwa's shrimp baguette stayed a mystery...

The garlic baguette is ₩7,000. When I was on a trip to Gangneung, I walked past Mandong Jegwa and huge crowds were streaming in and out right when the garlic baguettes came out. That very garlic baguette.

How do the new sweet pumpkin ciabatta and fig campagne taste?

Instead of the garlic baguette, I picked the new pumpkin ciabatta (₩6,200) and the fig campagne (₩5,800). I don't like garlic baguettes, so I skipped the garlic, and with pumpkin and fig on offer I couldn't pass them up.

The pumpkin ciabatta has mozzarella and cheddar? flowing inside like a waterfall, so it feels hefty the moment you pick it up. It stretched and stretched, so I couldn't eat it while walking. Instead I tried the fig bread they'd sliced for me on the street: the bread is crackly with a baguette-like texture, almost like a fig baguette, and inside there's fig and cream cheese.

When I unwrapped the fig campagne at home, I thought it would only have figs, but there was also sweetened cream cheese inside, and the crust is crackly and crisp. The inside is moist! I thought only the garlic baguette was famous, but everything at Mandong Jegwa was delicious.

The ₩1,200 chewy cheese bread: a last-minute grab that won me over

Mandong Jegwa's cheese chewy bread (치즈찰빵) is only ₩1,200, so I grabbed it at the last minute. I figured it was just plain chewy bread, but it's packed with cream cheese inside! If I'd bought three, I could have eaten every last one..

Does Mandong Jegwa's shrimp baguette have whole shrimp inside?

So was there whole shrimp? Or minced shrimp? The shrimp baguette I'd been curious about turned out to have chopped shrimp in a mayo sauce. It smells strongly of shrimp and the sauce tastes like the mayo you dip pork cutlet in. It was quite a lot, but it went down so easily that I could have finished a whole loaf in one sitting...

Top picks: yakbap bread and chewy cheese bread

Mandong Jegwa's yakbap bread (약밥브레드, sweet rice bread, ₩3,800) feels full of chew, as if made with brown sugar and glutinous rice. When a bakery has a chewy bread like this, sometimes sold under the name "Okinawa," I'm the kind of person who can't walk past it... It's under ₩4,000, hefty, generous and delicious! The yakbap bread and the cheese chewy bread are strongly recommended!

When should you visit Mandong Jegwa Yeonnam Branch to get the bread you want?

At Mandong Jegwa Yeonnam Branch, weekends are obviously an opening-time run, and even on weekdays you need to go before 2pm to get the bread you want. It's right between Yeonnam-dong and Yeonhui-dong, so even though it's on a main road the location can feel a little~ awkward, but it's insanely popular.