Cafe Onion Seongsu

Cafe Onion opened in Seongsu in 2016 inside a building from the 1970s, and rather than polishing it up, the team kept the peeling walls, patched brickwork and bare concrete. The only sign outside is a small English 'onion' on red brick, so look for the corner building instead of a Korean signboard. Inside, a long counter holds around twenty kinds of bread and pastries. The one everyone photographs is the pandoro, a tall star-shaped Italian loaf buried under powdered sugar, usually ordered with an Americano or the house chocolate latte. Seating spreads across several indoor rooms, a courtyard and a rooftop, and on clear days the rooftop fills first. The room gets busy from mid-morning with a mix of locals and international travelers, and the bread counter turns over quickly, so popular items can run out later in the day. For pictures, try the pandoro against the rough plaster walls, or the rooftop with Seongsu's low brick buildings behind you. It sits about two minutes from Seongsu Station, which makes it an easy first stop before walking toward Yeonmujang-gil.