Solo window bar seat at Blue Ribbon roastery in Gwanghwamun: Center

Today I'm bringing you a story about healing solo at Center Coffee in Gwanghwamun!

It's located inside SFC Mall in Gwanghwamun, so everyone from office workers to people out for fun stops by. If you visit after work or on the weekend, you can enjoy your coffee at a leisurely pace °°°☕️

What's more, this place has won the Blue Ribbon Survey award several years running...!! The coffee here is on a different level from your average café roastery ☕️

Center Coffee Gwanghwamun — location, hours, parking

📍 Location — B1, 105-ho, 136 Sejong-daero, Jung-gu, Seoul

• Mon 07:30 – 21:00
• Tue 07:30 – 21:00
• Wed 07:30 – 21:00
• Thu 07:30 – 21:00
• Fri 07:30 – 21:00
• Sat 11:00 – 21:00
• Sun 11:00 – 21:00

🚗 Parking — 90 minutes of building parking support

Center Coffee sits at the far end if you keep walking through the SFC Mall basement! There are lots of restaurants down there too, so it's the perfect spot for coffee after a meal.

There it is, right in front of you — Center Coffee! You can feel that good vibe smell already from outside the store °°°

A coffee roastery picked by the Blue Ribbon Survey 💙

So many Blue Ribbon stickers plastered on the glass in front of the store!! How many are there, seriously?! It's astonishing that a café can win the Blue Ribbon award year after year like this °°°° Having won it consecutively for several years just makes me even more excited 🎀

What's the seating like inside?

The inside had a variety of spacious seating! There are also bar-style seats like these that face out the window~

And there are group tables too! The store has a full glass wall, so it's great for zoning out and watching people pass by outside. The overall mood of the place is calm and warm °°° Walking in even made me feel calmer myself.

You can order at the counter or through the kiosk!

They also sell coffee beans right in the store, and you can actually smell them yourself. A Blue Ribbon-winning roastery really is different somehow °°

Take a whiff of the coffee too!

The packaging looked classy too, great for gifting to people around you. Center Coffee is already well known — turns out a lot of people around me already knew about it?? Perfect thoughtful gift, this coffee packaging!

Menu information

True to a Blue Ribbon-winning roastery, the coffee lineup is quite varied! Especially the Today's Coffee, available only until 3 PM!! I'm so curious about it.

They also sell Greek yogurt bowls and paninis. Looked like a great, simple café meal of coffee plus a sandwich?!

Cake menu too 🍰

From financiers to tarts °° the dessert menu looked so good, ordering is a must... I heard the financiers are famous for being delicious too — next time I visit, I have to try one!!

What I ordered and how it tasted

Iced americano ₩5,400 / Earl Grey lemon tart ₩9,800

I ordered the iced americano and Earl Grey lemon tart!

The iced americano felt clean and refreshing from the very first sip! Rather than turning watery as the ice melted, the flavor stayed relatively clean, so it was nice to sip slowly too. You could taste a gentle acidity, and it paired perfectly with the dessert.

The lemon's zesty brightness and the Earl Grey aroma made for such a soft tart >< And since it's a tart, the texture was crisp and nutty too — so good!!

Final thoughts

I needed some time to heal alone, and thanks to the really delicious coffee and the calm, warm atmosphere of the store, it turned out to be a very peaceful day enjoyed all by myself ☕️ Thanks to the high-level coffee befitting a Blue Ribbon-winning roastery, I got to fully enjoy the coffee and dessert while healing °°°

If you're also looking for a café in Gwanghwamun, I recommend Center Coffee! ❤️