Ikseon-dong bakery late afternoon: maple cream cheese bread, Munhwa

Went to Ikseon-dong today! After eating lunch there my stomach was pretty full, but I still couldn't give up on dessert, haha. I thought about heading straight to a café after eating, but decided instead to grab some bread to take home and eat with coffee.

So the place I found was Munhwa Bakery, a bakery in Ikseon-dong! Munhwa Bakery is such a famous bakery in Ikseon-dong that I'd heard the name plenty of times before. It's known as one of Seoul's top three bakeries, so since I was already in Ikseon-dong I stopped by, haha.

Where is Munhwa Bakery? Two minutes from Jongno 3-ga Station

Munhwa Bakery in Ikseon-dong is in a really convenient spot to find. Come out Exit 7 of Jongno 3-ga Station and walk about 200m toward Changdeokgung — about a 2-minute walk — and you're there! Ikseon-dong is fun to wander through alley by alley, but this place isn't far from the station at all, so it's a good stop on the way from a meal to picking up bread.

Munhwa Bakery runs mainly as a takeout bakery. And one thing I found impressive was that they only sell bread made that day! Only same-day bread gets sold, and whatever doesn't sell that day isn't kept for the next day — instead it's donated free to children who lack meals or elderly people living alone.

I visited in the late afternoon, and thankfully I could go straight in with no waiting.

The first thing I noticed the moment I opened the door was the smell of bread!! That nutty, sweet bakery-specific smell drifting around — honestly just smelling it felt like eating dessert already, haha. Since the bread was all baked that day, the smell inside the shop was pretty strong too.

The three breads picked at Munhwa Bakery

There was a wide range of bread too. The onion bagel looked delicious, and the coffee bread caught my eye too, ㅠㅠ. Everything looked so good I wanted to grab one of each, so I hesitated for a bit. In the end, after looking around, I picked the breads I wanted to try today.

• Maple cream cheese bread
• Mugwort rice cake bread
• Walnut bread

Munhwa Bakery is a takeout-style place, so I took my bread to go. Carrying the bread bag out felt weirdly satisfying — someone who ate a meal in Ikseon-dong and also managed to grab bread, haha. Once home, I brewed coffee and started eating my way through them one by one.

Maple cream cheese bread: sweetness that stays balanced

The one I was most looking forward to that day was the maple cream cheese bread. Sweet maple flavor plus cream cheese inside — perfect with coffee, right..? The maple wasn't just overwhelmingly sweet; the slightly salty, savory taste of the cream cheese balanced it out, so the sweetness didn't tip too far one way, which I liked :)

Walnut bread: the one that goes with an americano

Next up, walnut bread! The walnut bread had plenty of various nuts packed inside, so it had a great chewy bite. This one especially paired really well with an americano. Thanks to the nutty flavor, eating it with coffee made it feel even cleaner and more savory :)

Mugwort rice cake bread: the family favourite of the three

And lastly, mugwort rice cake bread! I picked this one to share with my mom, and sure enough she loved it most, haha. Older folks love mugwort rice cake, you know, haha. It had that fragrant, mellow mugwort flavor, and the rice cake inside was chewy, contrasting with the soft texture of the bread. Biting into soft bread and then hitting that chewy rice cake made for a fun texture, hehe. My mom tried it and kept eating, saying it was delicious... I bought it for myself, but in the end my mom ate more of it than I did.

Is bread to go a good move after a meal in Ikseon-dong?

This time, instead of a café after eating in Ikseon-dong, I took bread home, and it turned out to be a pretty good course too!! I picked maple cream cheese bread, mugwort rice cake bread, and walnut bread, and since the three had totally different flavors and textures, it was fun trying them one by one :) Next time I come back to Ikseon-dong, I want to try the onion bagel and coffee bread I missed this time! If you eat in Ikseon-dong and start craving something sweet, I'd recommend taking bread home to eat with coffee too.

Munhwa Bakery hours and parking

• Hours: Daily 11:00 - 20:00
• Parking: Not available