MADE – 메이드림 – Made Lim Cafe

This highly aesthetic cafe popped up in my feed one day and intrigued me to put it on my list when I visit Korea. Located in Incheon, it is not highly visited by tourists yet compared to the rest of the cafes on travel influencers’ pages

Since it was located within the Incheon area, I did an early check-in for my flight before taking a taxi to the cafe which was a 15 to 20-minute ride from the airport. I am so glad I made it a point to visit as the cafe was simply stunning

The entire compound was huge comprising 3 historic buildings; the main church (Hall of the Forest), House of the Forest and the Heritage Building sitting across the church as well as the surrounding gardens and backyards. With 120 years of heritage, the Seoul-based architecture studio None Space kept much of the exterior architecture intact to preserve the beauty of the architecture. Instead, what the design team has done was redesign the interior space to create multiple pockets of spaces and areas with very different interpretation

What is really impressive is how they have converted the interior of the historic building into a design concept totally different from our perspective of a church building structure. The first floor consists of the main bakery and cashier counter and some seating area designed as a cave. The 2nd floor is named Hall of Forest which is the main seating area with a space for performances. The space includes floating balconies and rounded sitting benches, lazy day beds as well as a huge tree in the centre of the room as the heart of the concept. If I was not constantly reminded by the church’s stained glass windows, I would really think I was in an open forest or a garden somewhere else. The rooftop is also open for seating where you can get a clear view of the church tower

This is a video I took to better show the cafe from the first floor

The moment we placed an order at the cashier, the staff gave us these to put on our wrists before we made our way upstairs to find a seat. I guess everyone has to make an order before they can sit in the cafe. When we were browsing the bakery, everything looked very appetising and they do offer hot meals as well. As we were going to have dinner afterwards, we only ordered a couple of bread and pastries

We had a garlic bagel, cream cheese spring onion bagel as well as a mango cream pastry. We also ordered a grapefruit ade which was refreshing. The breads and pastries were well made with a crusty bagel top and chewy middle which was perfect when combined with the savoury garlic or spring onion fillings. The mango cream pastry was surprisingly light and perfectly sweetened without any overpowering sugary flavours

Overall, the bakes did not disappoint in terms of flavour and texture and I would have liked to buy more varieties. The hot food options are limited but do look nice as well. Most importantly, I truly enjoyed the space which is spacious and unpretentious. Enjoying your meal or drinks in a forest within a church totally seems all natural and we spent a few hours just changing our seats from the different spaces. I did not get to visit the other buildings which are used as experiential spaces but I do highly recommend this cafe for anyone planning an itinerary near Incheon. I am also extremely pleased that I visited this place before more tourists found them as my feed started popping pictures of the cafe only after I returned from my trip

Address: 42 Yongyuseo-ro 479beon-gil, Jung-gu, Incheon, South Korea

Operating hours: 10 am to 9.30 pm