Anguk: Cafes & Changdeokgung Palace

If you want to visit cafes and palace in the same day, Anguk is the place for you!

We started off the day by visiting cafes before going to Changdeokgung Palace and ended the day off with a visit to Gyeongbokgung station for Tosokchon Ginseng Chicken.

First stop: Anguk. So how do you go to the 'happening' part of Anguk? When you are at Anguk Station, look for Exit 1. Once you exit, turn right and walk straight down the street. You will see this:

When you are at this junction, turn right into the tiny street.

From here on, just continue walking straight. On the way there, we stopped a bit to take some photographs:)

Other than these rock walls, you would also notice that Anguk is a place with art as well.

And... you have officially enter the 'happening' street! To make sure that you could find your way in this confusing place, you could visit the information center to get a map of this area. With the map, you could find your way to the cafes and palace you want to visit. You could also ask the staff there for help. It is all for FREE! This is what I call awesome tourist services, haha.

After that, we continued to make our way into the busy streets. The first cafe which we visited was the Homestead Coffee cafe. This place would not escape your eyes... because it is just so GREEN and HUGE!

Took a couple of snapshots of the cozy cafe:

We ordered a set of Berries waffles, which comes together with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream. It was yummy:) However, I did not take down the price (Oops!).

Our second stop was Huidong's Mom Cafe, where the rumored DELICIOUS PATBINGSU is. And, it indeed is!

From the exit of Homestead Coffee Cafe, just cross the street.

You will see a cute display and this is the road leading to the cafe.

We ordered the Signature Patbingsu for 12,000Won. Even their menu is cute! I guess a lot of tourists visit this cafe, perhaps that is why it is translated in English and Chinese.

One bowl of Patbingsu serves two! Look at the heart shaped sesame rice cake. Chewy and yummy:)

At this point, you may ask what is so special about this Patbingsu? You may want to take a look at the next photo.

So far, this is the ONLY Patbingsu which I have eaten in Korea that has layers of peanut powder and red bean paste embedded between layers of iceflakes. Oh, the rice cakes are handmade as well. My favourite thing of the whole patbingsu is actually the chewy ricecakes!

The interiors of the cafe were pretty as well.

This is how the exterior of the cafes look like:

With our tummy satisfied, we set off to visit the Cheongdeokgung Palace. If you have the map, you could just follow the map and set off in the right directions!

The weather was pretty good for a visit.

We paid 3,000Won for a ticket to the palace itself. I would recommend you to pay for the ticket which gives you access to both the palace and Secret Garden. It is not only more worth it, I believe it is more interesting as well.

Anyway, here are more photographs of the palace:

After the visit to the palace, it is time for dinner! From the research done prior to the trip to Korea, Tosokchon Ginseng Chicken Restaurant is not a place to be missed for its GREAT GINSENG CHICKEN!

To get there, simply walk straight after leaving Exit 2 from Gyeongbokgung Station and then take a left turn onto Jahamun-ro 5-gil Road. You will then see the restaurant:

You could just enter the restaurant if you do not see a queue outside.

This is how the inside looks like. Seems like... everyone is going to sit on the floor:)

Here is the menu. Of course, the dish that you must order is the Ginseng Chicken Soup! You could also choose to order black chicken instead of white chicken but the price differs. One bowl of Ginseng Chicken Soup comes together with a cup of Ginseng wine. You could add it into your soup or maybe just drink it all from the cup (I did that because a Korean from the next table did it, haha).

So where is the awesome dish of ginseng chicken?

And where is the ginseng?

I am coming to the end of today's post. I just want to say if there is any food that you are going to miss, THIS is the one!!

Also, do go early or else you would have to queue up. We went around 4pm, fyi:)

This is how long the queue was by the time we left...

So what are you waiting for? Put this into your itinerary NOW!