Buam-dong's hillside café from Coffee Prince, and the quiet ridge around it

Buam-dong sits just over the ridge from Gyeongbokgung. The bus ride takes about fifteen minutes, and the neighbourhood is quiet enough that it still feels like the edge of the city. In 2007 a hillside café here stood in for Choi Han-kyul's house in Coffee Prince (커피프린스 1호점, Keopi Peurinseu Il-hojeom), and it has been serving coffee to visitors ever since.

Getting over the ridge

Green buses 1020, 7022 and 7212 leave from outside Gyeongbokgung Station, exit 3, and climb north out of the palace district. Get off at Buam-dong Community Center (부암동주민센터, Buam-dong Jumin Senteo), where the road levels out for a moment near Changuimun, a small northwest gate in the old city wall.

The café at the bend of the mountain

Sanmotoonge (산모퉁이) means roughly the bend of the mountain. It sits at the top of a steep residential lane, about fifteen minutes on foot from the bus stop. The white house and its terrace look much as they do in the drama, and a small corner inside still acknowledges the shoot without making it the whole point.

The terrace looks south toward Inwangsan, over low rooftops instead of towers. Arrive on a weekday morning and you may have the view mostly to yourself. On weekend afternoons, expect to wait for an outside table.

The drama brought people up the hill. The view is the reason they stay for a second cup.

Making it a half day

Buam-dong is better for wandering than for ticking off sights. The Whanki Museum, which holds work by the abstract painter Kim Whanki, is a short walk downhill. Changuimun is also where the Baegaksan section of the Seoul City Wall begins. Allow about two hours for it and bring water.

The lanes are residential, and most of the houses are lived in. Keep your voice low, stay off doorsteps and walls when you take photos, and take the bus back down the way you came.

부암동은 서울 도심에서 가장 가까운 산골 동네로 불린다.