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Saturday, 24 October 2015

Seoul Food Hunt- Brunch at New York B&C (뉴욕비앤씨)

Woke up feeling kind of lazy on the first Saturday post mid terms... It is hard to believe that I am already past the half way point of my first semester of graduate school. Two months ago today I was on a flight to Seoul and had nowhere permanent to stay. Two months later I am comfortably settled into my little loft, and familiar with the intricate details of living in Seoul (like utilities, buying garbage bags (specific ones to the district I live in so the garbage company can collect it), recycling etc) but more about that next time~

So I was FaceTiming T (yes he finally switched to Apple *victory punch*) and somehow in between all the discussions of my 'willingness to pay' for a flight (subtle econ reference heh) I decided that I will head out for a nice brunch and also get some reading done.

After some Naver-ing on my laptop with my newfound Korean typing skills, thanks to 2 hours of intense practice last night, I decided on this place that is within walking distance from my apartment that is nestled in-between Sinchon and Edae...

NEW YORK B&C (뉴욕비앤씨)

First glance of the place~ It is actually closer to the Sinchon train station (신촌기차역) than to either of the two subway stations.


It was an airy bakery cafe that had ample seating that were well spaced apart to give you a relaxing weekend vibe. Go in, grab a menu, sit down and decide what you want before going up front to the counter to place your order. 

You will be given one of these little placards with flags on it to place at your table so servers can identify your table!
They are well reviewed in the Korean blogosphere for their brundi (breakfast + lunch + dinner) sets, and there's a variety of them. A and I decided on two different ones, she got the pilaf brundi while I got the New York pasta brand. They also have this bakery brundi that changes everyday, and they will tell you what's in it on this board displayed by the counter!

Today's comes with the daily bread, cream salad, scrambled eggs and cheese sticks!
Since we were famished, we decided on our order real quick and I went ahead to the counter to order. Since the cafe was not crowded (it was about 2pm on a Saturday afternoon), our orders took only about 10-15 minutes to be served.

Our placard ^.^
Mine arrived first: cream pasta brundi (fresh homemade bread, salad, sausage and bacon cream pasta)


Thoughts: Pasta was well cooked (slightly past al dente which was the way I like it, sausage was well grilled, though I would have preferred if it had a more chewy texture. Salad was sprinkled with parmesan cheese (yay) and the bread, oh the bread, YUM. The multigrain bread was moist and earthy, while the chestnut bread was slightly sweet and just moist enough. I loveeeeeeed the bread! 

A's came soon after: jalapeños sausage pilaf brundi (pilaf, fried egg, fresh bread and salad)

Strong sunlight from the roof hence the shady feel of this picture >.<
 Thoughts:  A liked the rice, and like me, raved about the bread! 

Even if you guys aren't hungry, I would also strongly recommend coming here for a cuppa and bread in-between the shopping at Edae or Sinchon! They have a mini bakery up front and the freshly made bread are very well priced!

So fresh that water vapour is building up inside the packaging as it is still warm from the oven!
I am the hugest fan of a well lit interior (makes everything 100x better!) and this cafe got it just right. Glass ceiling that lets the natural light in, and a wide comfy seating area ^.^




On the whole... out of 5 stars.

Food: **** (one more star because of the bread!)
Ambience: ****
Value for money: *** (It was 9,200 won per brundi without drinks. Not steep but not cheap.)

Directions to New York B&C (Sinchon): 

From Sinchon subway (red path): take exit 3, walk straight towards Yonsei's main gate, make a right after seeing the church and keep going for about 300m.

From Ewha subway (orange path): take exit 1, go straight towards Edae's main gate, make a left when you arrive outside the main gate, walk past the giant Megabox building and it is about 300m from there. 

For those who read Korean, below is the cafe as indicated by the blue pin (ignore the red dot- it is where I was when I took the screen shot), with its address and phone number.