thebarange.com

Barange's travelogue Korea. (based in seoul, South Korea)

thebarange.com

POL (Peace of Luck)

Tucked into a quiet residential neighborhood near Yeonsinnae Station, POL is a small café loved by locals. It serves freshly made Japanese-style sando, and the sandwiches themselves are a feast for the eyes as much as anything else.

The café is filled with character figurines — Rilakkuma, Crayon Shin-chan — and countless cute little decorations everywhere you look.

Their signature is a four-leaf clover-shaped sando, meant to symbolize good luck — it was so pretty I hesitated for a while before eating it.

A closer look at the clover-shaped cut — each leaf is a separate slice of fruit

The sando was delicious — soft, fluffy cream paired well with the fruit (kiwi) for a well-balanced bite. The iced Americano I ordered alongside it, though, had a roast that was way too smoky for my taste, which was a bit of a letdown.

The interior has a charming, playful feel packed with Japanese decor — I’d recommend it for anyone in Eunpyeong-gu looking to step away from Seoul’s busier tourist spots and enjoy a bit of Japanese “kawaii” cuteness.

Rilakkuma figures lined up along the window counter.

POL’s unassuming entrance — easy to walk past if you’re not looking for it.

Yeonhui Espresso Bar — Where Great Coffee Meets Great Sando

The paper order sheet — write your drink choice and hand it to the counter

Located in Yeonhui-dong, a neighborhood full of stylish cafés and good restaurants, Yeonhui Espresso Bar is a place where you can enjoy a range of espresso drinks alongside Japanese-style sando.

At most cafés, dessert feels like a side item — but here, the sando has clearly become the main event.

For takeout, you order at the kiosk outside. For dine-in, you take a slip of paper, write down your drink order, and hand it over at the counter.

The fruit on display is genuinely impressive. The interior leans modern with a European touch, which makes it a nice space to enjoy espresso and sando together.

Today’s star was the melon sando. Honestly, though I came for the sando, I ended up enjoying the espresso even more. The melon released so much juice that the cream and bread turned a bit soft — but the melon itself tasted incredibly fresh, and it’s clear a lot of care goes into the fruit here.

I guess some things you can only really get right where the tradition comes from — between the two cafés, the fruit and cream were both satisfying, but the bread felt like it was missing something. I still miss the specific richness of eating fruit sando in Japan itself — the way the milk bread, cream, and fruit all come together in one bite, especially that dense, chewy texture of the bread. (Maybe that’s just one more reason to keep traveling.)

Even so, cafés serving sando at this level are genuinely hard to find in Korea.

If you want a quiet neighborhood spot with a small slice of Japan and lots of charm, go to POL. If you want great coffee alongside a European-style café experience, go to Yeonhui Espresso Bar.