Cafe Onhwa: Hidden Grounds for Souffle Pancakes

Janice K. Lee
Apr 17, 2020
2 min read

Updated: Jul 27, 2020

온화 Onhwa Cafe 溫花 | A Review

My exchange student and I stumbled upon Cafe Onhwa as we were exploring Ikseon-Dong, a small but bustling outdoors food and eatery market in Seoul, South Korea. After a fulfilling dinner of Korean Barbecue, we decided it was time for dessert.

Throughout the trip I was determined to have a bite of Korea's infamous, fluffy souffle pancakes, so we walked around the narrow streets until we found one.

So here are my thoughts.

The place: 10/10

Cafe Onhwa is located in the heart of Ikseon-Dong. The consistent theme among the streets is a homely but high-end feel that makes you feel like you're walking in the middle of a Studio Ghibli set. That ambiance and spirit definitely followed its way into the cafe.
The cafe itself is a wide, open area set in a traditional looking Korean building. I fell in love with the warm lighting (look at the stair lights) and natural sunlight. The hues of tan and coffee brown made the place seem like an upgraded hotel. In other words, it also makes for the perfect Instagram shot.
The ambiance was amazing. As expected, there were a lot of customers but it wasn't too busy to the point we were kept waiting for too long. Unlike certain cafes in the States that tend to be bustling and too loud to carry a conversation, Cafe Onhwa's environment definitely was more of a relaxed atmosphere meant for day to day conversations and not business meetings.

The Food: 9/10

We ordered two of the menu items, the Honey and Strawberry Souffle Pancakes. The Honey one came first and I was never so excited to take a bite into a honeycomb. The interesting thing about this one was that it came with a separate little bowl of honey so you could drip it over the cream-covered pancakes. While it wasn't as sweet as I expected, the overall experience of pouring over the honey, tasting the honeycombs, and cutting open the pancakes were a quaint delight.
The Strawberry Souffle Pancake met the sweetness I was expecting. It was the cutest lump of flour and cream I had ever seen in my life. While there were no fancy gimmicks like the honeycomb and pour-over honey, it tasted better. The airy texture of the pancakes were perfectly complimented by the strawberry-jelly filling in between the pancakes and the foam cream around it made a perfect blanket to wrap up the bite.

Verdict: 9.5/10

I'm glad Cafe Onhwa was able to treat me to such a delightful first-timer souffle pancake experience. From the food to the location, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. The next time I go back to Korea you can assume I'll be paying another visit to try their other items.