Last week I had dinner with a friend at Cafe Slobbie in the heart of Hongdae. I originally planned to come here a few weeks ago but unfortunately we got to the restaurant too late. Funnily enough, this time we planned to go to Jack's Bean but they had sold out! I have been keen to come to Cafe Slobbie since I read the review on aliensdayout. It's cool that they emphasize on local and organic produce and provide multiple veggie friendly options.They serve a mix of Korean and other Asian inspired dishes.
The atmosphere is pretty nice, its a decent sized place and despite its large concrete floor space they have managed to fill it up to create a very cozy and welcoming restaurant. Its a few floors upstairs too, making it a nice retreat from the busy central Hogdae area.
Not only do they have several veggie friendly options, but they clearly mark what is vegan, lacto-vegetarian, ovo-vegetarian or pescetarian in English. In Australia it's so common for dishes to either be marked or categorized by diet but it doesn't seem to be too prevalent here.
They also serve complimentary glasses of tea. I'm not sure what tea it was, perhaps a rice or barley tea? It had quite a nice warm, earthy flavour to it. Feel free to ask for more too, they gave us a whole jug more when I asked for some water.
Okay now please don't make the same mistake as I did. Although they clearly mark which dishes are vegetarian or vegan they still give you the standard banchans and soup. Unfortunately I was given a seafood soup with half a crabs body in it.... it was pretty upseting to see a little poor dead crab :(. The kimchi was also unlikely to be vegan. Make sure you clearly tell them you are vegan in order to get veggie banchans. Despite that mishap, I was quite happy with the Japanese curry I ordered - it didn't cost too much either, I think around $8 which is a fair bit cheaper than some of their other vegan dishes.
For dessert I ordered a vegan makgeolli patbingsu. I have never had bingsu before so I was really eager to try it, regardless of the coldness outside. It was quite simple, just read beans, redbean rice cakes and some crunchy shavings on top of the spiced makgeolli drenched ice. It was really tastey and I urge you to try it!
Although I was pretty annoyed to be served a dead crab I guess that's partially my fault for not being pre-cautious enough. I honestly don't think being Vegan in Korea is difficult, but it is important to be clear when ordering food from non-veg restaurants. I guess we learn from our mistakes yeah? Anyway, I enjoyed my meal at slobbie and I probably would go back to try more of their vegan dishes.
Cafe Slobbie
Veggie Friendly
5th floor, 163-9 Donggyo-dong, Mapo-gu
02-3143-5525
Open 11:30 - 23:00 (Break time 15:00 - 17:30)
Closed on Sundays
facebook.com/slobbie8
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