This weekend I found a really cute Korean theme cafe just across the street from Teangpang, 레인트리 Rain Tree!

~The theme of Rain Tree is Travel~

The cafe is owned by two people, 레오 Leh-Oh and 레인 Rain One who have been friends since lower school here in Korea and both love to travel the world.  They came up with the name of the cafe while they were traveling in Calcutta a few years ago, they came upon a rain tree park which had trees that had branches growing down and back into the earth. They learned that when it would flash rain the locals would gather under it for shelter and to watch the rain stream down the roots, and that it was a very beautiful and peaceful place to huddle together.

Leo stated in an interview “I wanted to make a place people could come in any time and rest as they please like the rain tree. “

Just up a small stairway we stepped into a cozy little hideaway cafe with plenty of pillows and soft drapes~

You can pick from really pretty floor seating with mats and pillows, or normal table seating if the floor is not your thing.

the sit-down tables have maps placed under the glass to enjoy~

We opted for the floor as usual, way more comfortable and looked so relaxing. You can also pull the drapes across to thinly divide the space between tables, it does not do much of course~ but it feels more intimate which I love.

You feel like a princess in the treetops of some faraway land!

Another thankful addition to our cozy seating area was a little throw blanket.  I LOVE that most places do that here in Korea when you have floor seating~ you can fling it over your legs if you have a skirt and want to sit Indian style, or use them to keep warm in the winter.

Keeping with the cafe’s Travel Theme the cafe the owners have placed photos from exotic places around the world, trinkets, maps, dried flowers, herbs, spices, and books throughout the space and filling up the walls.

I love these sorts of cafes here that are cluttered, but in a intentional and thoughtful way. I feel like I really get to know the owner

The menu is a lot more modest than I expected based on the signs outside~ but the selection is interesting at least.  Keeping with the “travel” theme the cafe offers drinks from around the world including teas, shakes, smoothies, yogurt drinks, sangria and even a few imported beers. Things like the yogurt and sangria are advertised as homemade ♥ A fun little touch was the owner added the flag of the country some of the menu items came from.

The most popular drink here is the house special “Lassi” which is a homemade Indian yogurt drink they offer in a few flavors.  Another very popular item on the menu for summer is the Green tea shaved ice. They use real green tea extract and the red beans are native to Korea and they make the red bean paste sauce themselves for the dish~ almost everyone in the cafe when we visited had ordered this so it must be very good!

♥ ♥ ♥

For their chocolate drinks, they do not use any powdered chocolate, they have real chocolates that are over 65 cacao and they melt it down for the drinks!  I really love these sorts of drinks and very rich chocolate~ so I want to go back and try one of these menu items sometime soon.

Originally we had come up here because they has “Sandwiches” written downstairs, but sadly when we opened the menu we found that they had been removed. I only mention this since it still says it outside and the sandwiches look so good T_T it is hard to find good sandwiches in Korea (people just dont eat them here..) so I got all excited for nothing! argh!

I was in a snacking mood so thankfully they still have one munchable item still on the menu, pancakes! Ok SOLD! Even if they are quite expensive for a single cake (5,500 won for plain and 9,500 for one with toppings) I do not get to eat pancakes very often in Korea so I wanted to give them a try.

Fingers crossed they taste good! These are one of the specialties at this location apparently ♥

Around each seating area is a large pile of photo albums from trips the owners have taken to many of the places worked into the cafe’s theme~ obviously these travels are where the inspiration for the cafe came from.

♥ ♥ ♥

Leh-oh had founded a traveling club in college here in Korea and has always been a travel maniac. Rain was a journalist for 10 years, when he turned 29 he resigned and traveled 10 countries in South East Asia and wrote a book about it called ‘서른 여행’ (30 travel). The albums in the cafe are from those travels both have been on through the years~  that explains the quantity and quality of them!

We could not tell if they took some from magazines, so to find out Rain was a professional is not very shocking now that we know ^^

I feel like I am relaxing in someones cool living room enjoying her vacation photos.

The room has so many albums that are filled, she must travel a lot *__* Each table had almost 5 books stacked to browse

I ordered the Lemon-Ginger Aide and Nara ordered a glass of Royal Milk Tea

My drink was really good and tasted homemade like many of the other menu items here~ I love ginger + lemon because it is so refreshing! This drink is the best when it has been allowed to soak for a day or so, that gives the ginger flavor time to really come out~ thankfully this drink did not disappoint!

Perfect summer drink ♥ Plus they had aircon in the cafe which helped my suffering immensely lol

Nara said his drink was really good and seemed to enjoy himself as well~

After a short wait our perfectly cooked pancake came out with a nice amount of toppings plus a side of ice cream + fresh whipped cream~ mmmmmm!  We also got a little side of honey to drizzle as we pleased, so of course we dumped the whole thing on top!

I do not get to eat pancakes very often here in Korea, so I was very excited to eat this when it came out haha.  Thankfully it tasted GREAT and did not disappoint, nice and fluffy!  The banana was also was fresh plus they were not stingy with the walnuts which is usually the case here since those can get a bit expensive.

MMMMM. YES.

The owners wish for the cafe is not to be a national branch, but to be a one and only old store that has their regulars and become a memorable place for people to remember and keep in their hearts. They are hoping the cafe can provide people with a place to escape reality, feel like they’ve traveled to a place where they can forget about their daily lives at least for a little while.

Internet access is provided in the cafe if you need to check your mail or look something up!

Directions to Rain Tree Cafe

 Thankfully this cafe is VERY easy to find and hard to mess up if your starting point is the subway station.

The easiest way is to take the green line to Edae station and use exit #3 which will spit you out right on the main road towards the school. Stay on the sidewalk and keep walking till you can slip into the street parallel to the one you are on, any area is fine~ and you can not walk too far because the street ends when you hit the school.

I usually cross over into the side street right here, it is an opening a few buildings before the Burger King.  Just look and you can easily spot the”Pink n Blue” shop filled with cute Japanese character imports just a few feet off the main road! Just walk down and go left and continue on down the next street~

Spotting this cafe is very easy thanks to the colorful signs!  It sticks right out and will be on your right hand side if you are walking towards the Ewha Uni gates! It is almost at the very end of the road so just keep walking if you do not see it right away.