Whenever I had something to do in Myeongdong or Jongno, I passed a place called Cafe MAMAS a few times, and there was always a long line. I was never much into cafes, so I just shrugged it off, but after a recommendation I went one weekend morning. If you go early there is hardly any line, but not long after opening it was packed.
The front entrance
Very European.
Ricotta cheese salad and juices
The signature items here have to be the ricotta cheese salad and the green grape juice. We ordered the green grape juice and the strawberry juice, and both were delicious, probably because they use fresh fruit. The refreshing green grape juice in particular made a big impression. These days you see it at plenty of other cafes too, though. The ricotta cheese salad is not cheap, but the portion was generous. Ricotta cheese itself is not that hard to find on a menu, but there are not many places where you can eat this much good-quality cheese.
Come to think of it, I once had a really good ricotta cheese salad at a place called August 19 http://fri13th.com/ep/archives/7748 but that place must have gone under, since another shop had moved in. It was a nice spot, which is a shame. A bit ironic that of two places serving similar dishes, one is a massive hit and the other goes bust. Running a successful restaurant is clearly not that simple.
Ham and cheese panini
With that much cheese in it, there is no way it could taste bad.
There seem to be so many brunch cafes doing panini these days. I guess they are popular because you can spend your weekend feeling like you are in Europe, all neat and elegant. After all, eating the food of a travel destination is a lot cheaper than actually travelling there. There is clearly a reason brunch cafes keep popping up and doing well. Thanks to that, high-quality brunch menus keep appearing, so it looks like I will be on a brunch special for a while.
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