LINE Friends Store & Cafe @ Garosugil, Sinsa, South Korea

LINE Friends Store & Cafe in Seoul is a LINE theme cafe + LINE merchandise store that adds charms and cuteness to the famous Garosugil street at Sinsadong, South Korea (首爾新沙洞林蔭大道). Everybody will love this – Quite true to certain extend, regardless of whether you are a fan of LINE characters, or not. We are never a fan of LINE, but when we came across blog reviews about this place and browsed through some of the pictures, we went hu-ha with sparkled eyes, shouting OMG-SO-CUTE.  In the end, couldn’t help but to stamp it as a must-go attraction in our Seoul itinerary.

Starting as a mobile messanger, LINE has developed swiftly into a globally known app, with LINE stickers, LINE merchandise, LINE stores, LINE cafe asides from services. The brand has clearly, creates a lot of market opportunities for themselves and users, far more than we initially thought of. LINE Store & Cafe in Korea is considered one of their most talked about business, driving locals and tourist to visit.

How to go LINE Friends Store & Cafe Seoul? Align at Sinsadong Subway Station (337), follow Exit 8. Walk straight on after coming out from Exit 8, for about 5 minutes until you see It’s Skin. Turn left and walk straight for about 3 minutes, passing Starbucks, Jaju, and after Hollister, you will see 3 cute LINE stickers- Brown the bear, Cony the bunny, and Moon the man who loves moon waving to you.

Super giant Brown bear waiting for you at the entrance. A visit to LINE Store & Cafe is of course, incomplete without taking a photo with the bear. Sit on its lap, hug it, kiss it but don’t try to “knock it down”. LOL. Just kidding. At first when we saw the queue barriers, we thought the store limit the number of visitors into the shop, avoiding over-crowded scene. So we waited in the line, only to know that the queue was actually for guests who wanted to take photos with Brown. Pai seh. Waiting time was not long, just 5 minutes before reaching our turn. For those who are not interested, just walk in.

LINE is a three-storeys shop selling merchandise from its own brand, and a LINE Cafe at lower ground floor B1. We went straight to the cafe, as we heard that macarons are always sold out by noon. 3000won (~2.5USD) for each macaron / 18000won (~15USD) for 6 Brown & Friends macarons with a box is not cheap though.

Hands down to its cuteness, we bought 3 -Sally, Cony and Brown.  We guessed we bought the last Brown, haha.

Ice cream came next, available in Cony Strawberry and Brown Chocolate flavours. You can have them in ice cream cone, or in cup.

We picked the strawberry flavours, yogurt ice cream base, topped with strawberry chocolate flakes and a piece of Cony biscuit. Not too bad though at 3800won (~3.3USD). Latte is forgettable, ordered because Summergirl loves the coffee stirrer with Brown printed on top.

Other food and beverage in LINE Cafe includes cakes like Cream Roll Cake, Brown Mini Pancake, Matcha Cream Roll Cake, Choco Bana Tart, Chocolate Cupcake, Carrot Cupcake, Strawberry Tart, Cold Brew, Chocolate Cake Pudding, Cheese Cake Pudding, Black Choco Coux, Lemon Meringue Tart, Maple Cupcake and so forth. Most sweet dessert, biscuit, pudding, cupcake and tart, plus coffee, tea and juices to complete.

Done eating and time for shopping!

Everything was so adorable that we felt like bringing all back home! Too bad LINE merchandise are quite expensive in price, we carefully chosen some that fit our budget – a packet of LINE Friends fridge magnet (5000won), a box of LINE Friends biscuits (18000 won) and few notebook (1000won each).

As usual, Summerkid (the what also can collect person) began to drown in his own world, wandering around, smiling like a kid as he looked at all the charming souvenirs. Finally he took a set of LINE Friends miniature figurines that cost whopping expensive 15000won (~13USD). Don’t think those figures worth the price but he looked at Summergirl like a little girl and said : “Nevermind la, only once, OK lar~ you see…so CUTEee neh~~”. @.@ OK lo, since he said so.

Clothes boutique section in LINE Friends Store & Cafe showcases T-shirts, dress, blouse, jackets, caps, bags, hair bands, ….

Notebook, pencil case, diary book, eraser, pens, pencils, stickers, key chains, cards, and many other stationary ideal as kids souvenirs..

Dining wares like cups, plates, mugs, vacuum flask, tumbler…

At home living section, we found bedsheets, pillow covers…

Kitchen apron, heat prove gloves, fridge magnet, table mat…

Can’t afford to buy them home, but we could take pictures with them!

Many things to see and buy in LINE Store! We spent almost 3 hours in there, walking up and down before proceeded to payment counter. Really need to stay calm and purchase wisely. Else we could easily lost control and buy a lot of cuteness overloaded merchandise. What said you?

Photography: Summerkid
Write Up: Summergirl

Address:
LINE Friends Store & Cafe
535-15 Sinsa-dong,
Garosu-gil Street,
Gangnam-Gu, Seoul, South Korea.
Opening Hours: 12PM – 9PM daily
Website: http://store.linefriends.com/

Summary of Our 6D5N Trip