Vegan Café Review - 'Mano'

You can easily find many ordinary cafés on the street these days, but if you are sick of their same menus and looking for some healthy drinks even at a reasonable price, I recommend the café ‘Mano.’ This is a vegan café, yet you can enjoy their food even if you are not a vegan because they are so delicious.

- Menu

On the long menu, they have lots of drinks such as coffee, over 15 kinds of organic tea, frappe, shake, chocolate and smoothie. I chose unique and healthy one, ‘Brown rice and almond shake.’ The beauty of this shake was that I could eat both complex carbohydrate from brown rice and protein from almonds. Since the ground brown rice and almonds were mixed with soya milk, the taste was sweet without additional syrup. They also have food such as vegetable stew, chickpea salad, brown rice and sweet pumpkin soup; dessert like cake, waffle, and cookies. I ordered ‘Chickpea salad.’ There are brown rice with sesame, chickpeas, grilled tofu and green vegetables with citron sauce on the plate. The sauce was a little too salty for me but the salad was good overall.

- Atmosphere

Even though it was Saturday afternoon and the café is located near the main street around Sungkyunkwan University in Jongrogu, the cafe was not that busy. Wooden interior design, walls with full of books about health and vegan, relaxed order-at-the-counter atmosphere, and friendly staff create a cozy space which made me feel comfortable. Next time, I would like to go there alone and read one of the books on the shelves.

- Price

Besides, the prices are reasonable: the price range of drinks is from 3,500₩ to 6,000₩, food is from 6,000₩ to 10,000₩, and dessert is from 3,500₩ to 7,000₩. There are only three kinds of food which made me disappointed, but instead, you can enjoy various drinks which are nutritious and hard to find in other café. Especially the shakes they make are enough to substitute your meal. If you have a plan to visit here, I highly recommend ‘Brown rice and almond shake.’

 

The vegan café ‘Mano’ is a great option for not only vegans in Seoul but also people who need healthy drinks and a well balanced diet in their busy lives. Comfortable atmosphere and the affordable prices will make you open your purse and visit here again. Why don’t you try out this weekend? :)

Vegan? Vegetarian?

Until a year ago, I thought ‘vegan’ is short for ‘vegetarian’ with same meaning. How about you? Did you know that it’s different? Many people in Korea tend to consider vegetarians as vegans and think that they eat only vegetable matter like monks. Also, many of them are astonished by the fact that they don’t eat seafood as well. All these are because the concept of vegetarianism is not that popular here yet. Now, I’ll help you to understand 7 types of vegetarians.

- What types of vegetarians are there?

[Vegetarian]

1. Vegan; 유제품과 동물의 알을 포함한 모든 종류의 동물성 음식을 먹지 않는 경우

Vegans do not eat dairy products, eggs, honey, or any other animal products.

2. Lacto vegetarian; 유제품은 먹는 경우

Lacto vegetarians eat dairy products. (Including all vegan food) 

3. Ovo vegetarian; 동물의 알은 먹는 경우

Ovo vegetarians eat eggs. (Including all vegan food)

4. Lacto-ovo vegetarian; 유제품과 동물의 알은 먹는 경우

Lacto-ovo vegetarians eat both dairy products and eggs. (Including all vegan food)

[Semi-vegetarian]

5. Pesco-vegetarian; 유제품, 동물의 알, 해산물까지 먹는 경우

Pesco-vegetarians eat dairy products, eggs, and seafood.

6. Pollo-vegetarian; 유제품, 동물의 알, 해산물, 조류의 고기까지 먹는 경우

Pollo-vegetarians eat dairy products, eggs, seafood, and poultry meat.

7. Flexitarian; 평소에는 주로 채식을 하나, 상황에 따라 육식도 하는 경우

Flexitarians eat mostly vegetarian diets, but occasionally eat meat.

Use these definitions to find the style that works for you.

I like a flexitarian diet! I think I can be and at the same time, I’ll start with red meat first :)