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Best Cafés in Seoul (2026)

Seoul's café scene is among the most inventive anywhere, and cafés here are often destinations in their own right, with striking buildings, serious coffee and bakeries that draw queues. Many occupy converted industrial spaces. Onion in Seongsu fills a 1970s building that was once a factory, and Anthracite in Hapjeong roasts coffee inside a former shoe factory, while Fritz in Dohwa-dong pairs its own roasts with an excellent bakery and a retro style.

There is a more traditional side too. Suyeon Sanbang serves herbal teas in the 1933 hanok of novelist Lee Tae-jun in leafy Seongbuk-dong, and Osulloc Tea House Bukchon offers Jeju green tea, matcha desserts and a non-alcoholic tea bar a short walk from the hanok village. Near Anguk Station, Layered is known for lightly toasted scones and cakes. Plan café stops by neighbourhood: Bukchon and Anguk pair with the palaces, Mapo's cafés with Hongdae, and Seongsu with an afternoon of design shops. Weekday mornings are the calmest time almost everywhere, and the most popular breads and cakes can sell out by late afternoon. Most cafés accept cards and many open late, often until 21:00 or 22:00, which makes them a useful break between evening plans.

6 places · Updated October 23, 2026

Our top 3 cafés in Seoul

  1. Onion Seongsu Bakery café in a converted factory, SeongsuThe original branch of the Onion bakery café, set in a stripped-back 1970s building in Seongsu that once housed a factory, known for pandoro and butter breads.
  2. Fritz Coffee Company Dohwa Speciality coffee roaster and bakery, Mapo (Dohwa-dong)The first branch of Fritz Coffee Company, a Seoul roaster and bakery known for its seal logo and retro style, set in a converted house near Gongdeok.
  3. Anthracite Coffee Roasters Hapjeong Coffee roastery in a former shoe factory, HapjeongA coffee roaster and café in a former shoe factory near Hapjeong, one of the venues that set the template for Seoul's industrial-style cafés.

Café

1. Onion Seongsu

Bakery café in a converted factory$$Seongsu

The original branch of the Onion bakery café, set in a stripped-back 1970s building in Seongsu that once housed a factory, known for pandoro and butter breads.

View details — Onion Seongsu

Café

5. Suyeon Sanbang

Traditional tea house in a historic hanok$$Seongbuk-dong

A traditional tea house in the 1933 hanok of novelist Lee Tae-jun, a listed folk heritage building in Seongbuk-dong run by his grand-niece.

View details — Suyeon Sanbang