Home to the quirky and unusual, it’s not solely Seoul’s high street fashion trends that garner attention.
Famous for trialling new and often controversial trends, it comes as no surprise that the infinitely sprawling South Korean capital is home to a café with some of Mother Nature’s more fascinating creatures: meerkats; arctic foxes; a wallaby; a raccoon; a South African genet; and ‘boring old cats’. They're all notable features on the non-edible menu. In fact, edible items don’t play a part in the fantasia of this central city café: it’s the opportunity customers have to interact with and cuddle the mostly furry creatures – particularly the meerkat – that has travellers visiting the Hongdae establishment in droves.
With a penchant for unmasking the unusual, I decided to visit Meerkat Friends Café on a rainy day with comrades in tow.
How to Get to Meerkat Friends Café
Here’s how to navigate your way to this one-of-a-kind café in the Hongdae area:
- Take the Seoul Metropolitan Subway (Line Two, or the Green Line) to Hongik University Station.
- Leave the station via Exit Nine.
- Use Maps.Me (which works offline) or Google Maps (if you have a local sim card) to navigate your way to the cafe. Alternatively, follow these walking instructions:
- After leaving the Subway, walk forward one block, until a major intersection appears.
- Turn left once you have crossed the road.
- Walk for three blocks, then take a right at the pharmacy.
- Walk along the alley, then turn left.
- The building will be on the right. It's on the second floor.
The address is:
Business hours are:
- 12.30 – 22.00 Monday, Saturday and Sunday.
- 12.00 – 22.00 Tuesday to Friday.
Entering Meerkat Friends Café - Things to Know and Do
Controversial, particularly to those who hold conservationism and animal rights in high esteem, I entered the front door of the second story café with contrasting emotions. I’m no expert regarding the finer details of animal rights, but I understand withdrawing them from their natural habitat can be damaging. I moved cautiously, assailed by trepidation.
Greeted courteously by a South Korean smile, we were encouraged to remove our shoes and replace them with the colourful rubber clogs neatly arranged in pigeon-hole-shelves at the entrance. I handed over 10,000 Won for a drink. Minutes later, I learned it included the entrance fee, proceeds of which go towards preserving the café and its non-human inhabitants.
After placing my belongings at a table, one of several scattered around the periphery of the rectangular room, presentiments I'd conjured dissipated and a solar smile emerged radiantly across my face. As I stared in astonishment at the meerkats playing mischievously in the pen at the room’s core, a South African Genet whooshed between my legs, creating a flurry of excitement in the air.
Moments later, I was transported home to the land Down Under as a native Australian wallaby skipped by, unabashed by the iPhone cameras clicking at its curious way of moving. I got a sense that animal cruelty was not on the agenda, even if the animals were being confined in a spacious room surrounded by four large walls.
The Meerkat - What Is It?
Interestingly, according to a member of staff, meerkats live twice as long in captivity as they do in their natural African habitat. Although immune to the venom of certain desert-dwelling creatures, their natural enemy soars above in the heavens.
They are foragers at heart, dwelling in burrows in South Africa, Angola and Botswana. Although primarily insectivores, at times, they demonstrate preference for a hearty meal of meat.
Their inquisitive movement held me captive: with arched backs and front legs dangling in the air, their tiny heads moved back and forth, in search of the next pocket to pick.
Playing with the Meerkat Mob at Meerkat Friends Café
After admiring my surrounds and attempting to pat a particularly shy arctic fox – hidden securely beneath the shelter of an outlying table, it was time for our group to enter the meerkat pen. I anticipate I wasn’t the only adult visitor overcome with a pinch of adolescent glee.
The stout Korean woman who ushered us close, encouraged each member to read the litany of rules plastered beside the gate at the pen’s entrance: do not pick up the meerkats, or you will be removed; do not throw the meerkats, or you will be removed; and do not leave items in your pockets otherwise you will lose them. By the end of the list, I could easily identify the party in the powerful position.
After sanitising our hands (to avoid interrupting the physiological function of the small carnivoran), we reservedly moved to places on the mat, sat down - crossing our legs - and covered our respective laps in soft woollen blankets. Before long, the gang had moved from the corners of the pen and started foraging – both in and beside our laps – for treats they could call their own.
As foragers, our pockets became meerkat property, and it deteriorated into a free-for-all. The incessant scratching at my side induced a fit of giggles, until one burrowed a hole in my lap and started nesting. It didn’t stay long, as its counterparts were forming a bundle on Sterre’s lap, layered in multiple directions pushing out meerkat-snores.
The ten-minute interaction passed incident free, each member of the party leaving the pen with clothes and limbs intact.
Should You Visit Meerkat Friends Café?
Visiting the Meerkat Friends Café was a personal highlight of my South Korean itinerary, an activity in which I encourage you to engage when you visit the unusual East Asian nation.
