Housewarming gift bakery run near Jongno 3-ga: garlic and squid ink

Today's Dasong's housewarming!! She moved in ages ago and is only now getting around to it…

So for the housewarming snacks, I got bread from Munhwa Bakery, a Jongno 3-ga favorite.

Munhwa Bakery is located near Jongno 3-ga Station on Line 1. I used to pass it every day commuting from my parents' place, always curious but never went in until now…

The store just looks put-together. Feels like it could have a long history, but super clean at the same time. My bread-lover instincts said this is a good spot. Wow, turns out Munhwa Bakery is one of Seoul's top three bakeries.

Weekend lunch, and why a line suddenly formed behind me

Visited during weekend lunchtime. Nobody was around so I was peering in through the big glass window looking at the bread while waiting for my friend, when suddenly people crowded around me. Passersby stopped, looked at Munhwa Bakery, said the bread here is good, and suddenly a line formed behind me.

It was like a flash mob straight out of Dream High, and I was momentarily flustered… I immediately pretended I wasn't looking and moved toward the street. Once I stepped away, the people behind went into the store, and more groups arrived, forming a proper waiting line.

Only two groups at a time, takeout only

The store itself is small so only two groups can enter at once! There's no seating to eat in, takeout only. The bread is on display, and you just tell the staff at the counter which one you want and they hand over the already-packaged bread right away, so turnover is very fast.

A look at Munhwa Bakery's bread lineup

For the size of the shop, Munhwa Bakery has quite a lot of bread types. Not the trendy style loaded with fillings and chocolate, but not totally plain basic bread either? Visually, everything passed. Let's go through them one by one.

Garlic bread

Seemed like the signature item of this Jongno 3-ga top-three bakery. Looking at reviews, everyone eats the moist garlic bread. Munhwa Bakery's signature garlic bread is packed with garlic cream, moist all through.

Coffee bread

Seems like the coffee version of a white roll. As someone who loves white rolls, I can't just walk past bread like this. Castella crumbs all over the outside with cream inside — you know the type right?? And really long shaped.

Loaf breads and sweet bean breads

Around noon on a weekend, and the maple cream cheese bread was already sold out, spot empty. Being empty made me curious about it for no reason. There's also loaf breads like rice-chestnut bread and rice-cheese bread, plus sweet potato bread, white bean paste bread, walnut bread. All plain-sounding names but strikingly visual breads. Kind of like quiet attention-seekers.

Onion bagel

This is a bread only people who've had it know. I've seen it a lot at big bakeries out in the suburbs or provinces, but didn't expect to find it sold in Seoul too!

Black sesame bread, milk cream bread, cheese bread, squid ink milk bread. The names are all so honest. Ugh, how do you resist this look? I can't.

Injeolmi (sweet rice cake) bread, bread with beans, mugwort bread. Solid breads that don't want to give up on anything.

Three breads picked as the housewarming gift

Out of all this, what I picked was coffee bread, squid ink milk bread, and

moist garlic bread!! Of course the signature one~ You can tell just by looking that it's packed with garlic cream and looks moist.

They sliced the garlic bread into easy-to-eat pieces and boxed it for me. Such a nice touch.

Since it's technically a gift, they put it in a paper shopping bag~

So excited to get there and eat it. Rushed straight to Dasong's place (okay, technically walked).

This was the moment I'd been waiting for. Dasong's mom even prepared fruit and we ate it together. Thank you so much, Dasong's mom is the best!

Honest review of Munhwa Bakery, a Jongno 3-ga bakery

Squid ink milk bread

The bread is chewy and has sweetened condensed milk cream inside, so it's nicely sweet and delicious. That said, not overly sweet. The cream isn't overloaded, so it hits just right.

Coffee bread

Genuinely tastes exactly like the coffee version of a white roll. The bread is soft yet appropriately chewy. Coffee flavor isn't strong, just subtle. The cream isn't greasy at all, just right. Recommend it if you like coffee and white-roll style bread!

Moist garlic bread

The one I was most excited for since it's the signature. Packed with garlic cream, exactly the sweet-savory garlic bread flavor Koreans love. The garlic flavor isn't overpowering so it's easy to eat casually. The bread itself is also appropriately chewy.

Final thoughts

Rather than being flashy, this is a bakery with solid fundamentals, nothing overdone, not just blindly chasing trends. The bread itself tastes great, and it feels genuinely, unpretentiously delicious!