HAVE;A Gluten Free Cafe in Mangwon (Seoul)- This one you won’t find on the internet!

HAVE;A Cafe in Mangwon is one of those places I didn’t find on the internet but stumbled upon while on my way to another cafe nearby. Today, I finally decided to pay it a visit!

Note: While the cafe emphasizes that they use only rice flour for several products, it doesn’t explicitly declare itself as gluten-free. Please be careful if you have a high sensitivity to gluten or are concerned about contamination.

If you have ever been in Mangwon, you might be familiar with the shopping street near Mangwon Station (Line 6), Exit 2, which leads to Mangwon Market. At first glance, this part of the city might not seem very exciting. However, it definitely has a lot to offer if you know where to look!
Around Mangwon Station, you’ll discover not only opportunities for affordable grocery shopping and street food (as you would at the traditional Mangwon Market) but also numerous side alleys with cafes, restaurants, and a few vintage stores.

Cafe HAVE;A is one of those hidden gems tucked away in a side alley, and fortunately, they’ve put up some advertising along the main road, which is how I discovered them. The cafe is situated on the second floor above a restaurant, just a few minutes away from the station.

They mostly offer cakes, and some types of bread, although not all of them are gluten-free, so it’s a good idea to ask them before ordering. What I really liked about their cakes is the wide range of flavors they had, especially those that might be challenging to find in Europe. Today they had mammoth pea(?) cheesecake, black-tea milk cake, corn and orange cheese cake, coconut-berry cheesecake, bean cheesecake, and honey-sweet potato cheesecake.
Most importantly, all of these cakes were gluten-free and clearly marked with a ‘GF’ label.

I know that some of those flavours might sound unusal, but since I came the first time to Asia (mostly Japan and South Korea) I found that desserts made vegetables are actually really delicious.

The cafe is rather small with it´s around 5 tables but besides a group of Korean girls and us, there was no one else there, so we got to choose the corner table in front of the big window. HAVE;A with it´s yellow walls and detailed decorations has a warm and pieceful atmosphere. Eventhough it is not very spacious and tables are rather small I felt very relaxed and really enjoyed drinking coffee and eating cake while looking out of the window.

We ordered cafe latte and iced americano and I chose a piece of gluten free honey-sweet potato cheese cake. One piece of cake was for around 7,000 won and a bit bigger than it actually looks in the picture above. The cake crumbles on top were delicious and the cake tasted a lot like creamy Korean sweet.

For those who don´t know, Korean/Japanese sweet potato has a purple skin, is yellow on the inside and sweeter than western sweet potatoes. They are actually used for a lot of different desserts in South Korea and Japan, including cake, pudding, sweet drinks etc.!

Final thoughts

Total: ★★★★☆ (3.7 out of 5)
Taste: ★★★★☆
Variety: ★★★★☆ (3.5 only gluten free options) depending on the day
Price: ★★★★☆ (3.5 normal prices)
Interior: ★★★☆☆
Access: ★★★★☆

I really enjoyed my time at HAVE;A gluten free cafe in Mangwon. Their cheese cake was delicious and eventhough it was slightly expensive prices were okay for gluten free cake in Seoul. Their bright interior and pieces of vintage decoration created a relaxing atmospere in the small cafe and the staff was very friendly. It was easy to access from the station and the area is nice to take some relaxed strolls in the maybe less touristic area. I will definitely come back and try out more of their cakes! (Hopefully I will get a seat next time too).

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Closed on Monday and Tuesdays, Wed-Sun 11:00-21:00
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cafe_have.a/
Adress: 57-135 Mangwon-dong, Mapo-gu, Seoul, 2nd floor