The Best Raccoon Cafe in Seoul
There are a few animal cafes that get all of the attention, but there are also a few hidden gems in Seoul. This is the best raccoon cafe in Seoul!
The biggest of these overlooked highlights is the Akdong Animal Healing Café (or 악동 애니멀 힐링 카페). Meerkat Friends is located just around the corner, and sadly it gets most of the attention. I mean sure, meerkats are cute. But who doesn’t prefer a cute raccoon?
There is also another very famous raccoon cafe in Seoul that goes by the name of Blind Alley. Although I have nothing at all against Blind Alley, I have always found the Akdong Healing Cafe to be a better visit. Not only is it bigger, but it houses other animals besides raccoons.
If you only have time to visit one animal cafe on your visit to Seoul, then I recommend visiting this one. It has a very wide variety of animals and you will definitely not be bored while visiting.
Quick Facts:
Cost: 10,000KRW Entrance Fee | Drinks are 2000-5000KRW
Time: 12:00-22:00 | Hours remain the same for every day
Location: Akdong Animal Cafe is located very close to Hong Ik University in Hongdae | Location (It is located on the top floor of the pinned location)
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Hongdae Raccoon Cafe
What is most interesting about Akdong Healing Cafe is that it only has a few permanent residents. The raccoons, some of the dogs, and a few of the other animals call the cafe their home. However, for many other animals the Healing Cafe is only a temporary home.
This is because some animals stay at the cafe to be cared for (kind of like an animal hospital). Many only stay for a few weeks or months until they recover. This means that the cafe is always interesting, even if you have visited before.
On some visits you will find snakes, lizards or rabbits that are being looked after. However, the next time that you visit you may come across some totally different animals such as small monkeys, hamsters, or almost anything else!
Before getting into the article fully, I do also want to mention the conditions. I know that many people don’t like animal cafes due to the conditions that the animals are kept in. If this is something that bothers you, I recommend against visiting.
Akdong is, in my opinion, one of the better animal cafes. It’s a bit less visited so the animals aren’t overwhelmed, and the areas for each animal tend to be bigger. Further, I have been told that at once the cafe closes many of the animals are allowed to roam in bigger areas allowing them to have some stimulation.
Location
The Akdong Healing Cafe has recently moved. If you have seen other blogs or websites mention a different address, please keep in mind that they might be wrong. Luckily, the cafe has only moved just around the corner!
You can quickly visit the cafe from Hong-Ik University Station (Hongdae Station). Simply exit the station via Exit 9 and go straight until you reach a left turn (the first left turn after the one directly outside Exit 9). Follow the road until another road branches off to the right. This should be about 50 metres down the road.
Proceed straight until you get to an intersection. There should be a corner building that is five floors tall. The Hongdae Raccoon Cafe is located at the top of the building. You should be able to see some signs on the fifth floor indicating that the cafe is there!
I have included an exact address here. Unfortunately the address is hard to find since the cafe seems to have almost no English internet presence. I had to use Naver (the biggest Korean search engine) to even find the cafe in the first place!
Before Entering the Cafe
The cafe is located on the fifth floor of the building. However, as soon as you get off the elevator or stairs, you will find an area to store your shoes and to put on slippers. These slippers are required to enter the cafe. After putting on the slippers, you can go upstairs and pay for entry and drinks (if you want them).
At the counter you will also be expected to use hand sanitizer to clean your hands. You can also use this on the way out, so you don’t need to worry about dirty hands! Another important thing to note is that the cafe has storage cupboards. These can used to put coats or bags in.
Since the animals can be quite active, make sure to put anything that you want to stay clean behind the counter. The raccoons can quickly make your clothes stink if they decide to try and climb on you!
Cost
Entrance to the café is 10,000KRW per person, and this does not include drinks. Drinks are a further 2000-5000KRW on top of the entrance fee. The drinks are not essential though, and as long as you pay the entrance fee, you will have access to the whole cafe.
The menu is quite limited, but it has a few options. Soft drinks (sprite and coke) are available, and so are black coffee and mochas. Further, there are also black tea and chai tea options. For the hot drinks, you can expect to pay 3500-4000 and the soft drinks cost 2500.
The cafe does not offer food for the animals. Some cafes will allow you to buy food that you can feed the animals, however, Akdong does not allow this. I believe that this is in order to keep the cafe clean and to make sure that the animals aren’t overfed.
Therefore, all you will need to buy on entry is the entry fee. Drinks are optional, but if you plan to spend a few hours at the cafe then they are a good choice. Especially if it is summer!
Interior
Behind the counter of the raccoon cafe, you can find lockers. This is especially important to note as the raccoons can stink at times. Not only this, but they LOVE to dig in pockets.
If you want to keep your wallet, phone, or keys safe, feel free to hand them to the cafe staff. They will store your possessions in the lockers provided. The same goes for backpacks and excess clothes that you may want to keep clean. If you are wearing nice clothes, I highly recommend using lockers.
The raccoon café has a large interior that is divided into a few different rooms. To keep the cafe from dissolving into utter chaos, the animals are divided into specific areas. In the main ‘cafe’ area, the dogs are allowed to free roam.
There are a lot of different dogs, ranging from corgis to cocker spaniels. The cutest members of the dog family, however, have got to be the corgi puppies.
When we visited there were 5 puppies which were still very young. They, like the other dogs, roam around the cafe freely. Possibly the biggest highlight of the roaming animals, however, is the arctic fox. Not much bigger than a dog, the arctic fox walks around with the dogs.
Other than the main room, there are three more areas containing animals. The raccoon room, animal room, and healing room.
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The raccoon room is quite self-explanatory. It houses the most curious, playful, and stinky animals. I’ve visited the cafe twice, and on both visits, there have been five raccoons located in this room.
However, this may soon change! The raccoons have recently had babies, and I would expect them to be free-roaming soon.
Next-door to the raccoons there is another room containing a variety of animals. On my first visit, this room had a Coati, a wallaby, and some kittens. On the next, it had the Coati and an emu. When I most recently visited, it had meerkats, a few wallabies, a Coati, and more! The animals are always changing.
Finally, in the healing room, are animals that are being cared for. This room usually contains sick animals and young animals that are too young to be with the larger animals. Visitors are allowed to enter this room, and with permission, you are allowed to touch and interact with some of the animals.
On my most recent visit, this room had everything from fruit bats, to baby raccoons, to snakes. We were allowed to pat the bats, some corgi puppies, and hold a snake (although rather unwillingly).
If you aren’t a fan of these slightly less furry animals then you need not fear. This room can easily be avoided and there is not need for you to look at, or interact with the snakes or other animals.
However, I feel obligated to give a warning here. If you enter the room with the healing animals, often the staff will hand you them without even asking. When I visited with my cousin, they handed us a snake (despite protests) and then just left the room. We were left there just hold a snake and not knowing what to do.
On my visit after that, a staff member did exactly the same thing. They gave us a snake without our consent. Although we were more prepared this time, no one likes being forced to do things. Especially when some of the animals are definitely more scary than raccoons.
Again, this is just a warning. There may be some staff members that are nicer and will ask first. If you very obviously refuse to hold the animals you may be fine. However, if you are worried make sure that you make it very clear – the staff can be pushy. If you stay outside of this room, then you have no need to worry. The animals must stay in the specific area.
Raccoon Cafe Highlights
While the raccoons are the main attraction, this cafe is home to so many different animals. The thing that makes it truly unique is how free you are to interact with the animals. There are some restrictions (for both the customer and animals’ safety), however, you are generally free to play with the animals.
It’s one of the few cafes where you can play with a raccoon and then go next door to pat a wallaby, and this is what makes it very unique. Further, many of the animals are very active and interested (with the exception of the raccoons, they are very lazy).
How Does the Hongdae Raccoon Cafe Compare?
One of the biggest questions is ‘how does it compare to Meerkat Friends?’ as it is located just around the corner. Meerkat Friends is the much more popular cafe due to the media coverage it has received, but I honestly believe that the Akdong Animal Healing Cafe is just as good, or better.
Meerkat Friends is generally a cleaner cafe, but Akdong features many more animals and is larger. The cafe isn’t as clean, but that is just the nature of the animals. Raccoons are known for being dirty (they are trash pandas after all!), but somehow the café still remains relatively clean.
This cafe also has the benefit of being less busy. It can definitely still be busy at peak times, but it usually doesn’t reach the same crowds as Meerkat Friends.
When being compared to the other big raccoon cafe in Seoul (Blind Alley), Akdong has a few advantages. It is bigger, located in an easier to access location, and houses a far larger variety of animals.
While all of these cafes are great in their own way (and all are worth visiting), I don’t think any of them are ‘better’ than the others. Akdong Healing Cafe is a cafe that is a lot of fun to visit, but it is very overlooked.
I believe this is because the cafe has almost zero internet footprint (in English). Finding the cafe was extremely hard the first time as I didn’t speak or read any Korean. Therefore, I hope that this blog article can encourage some more people to visit!
Should you visit?
Here are my final notes about the Hongdae Raccoon Café. If you want to have a hands-on experience with some cute, furry, and friendly animals, then the café is a MUST visit.
If you prefer to keep your distance from animals – and just view them, then this café probably isn’t for you.
The Hongdae Raccoon Café is generally a lot more hands-on than the other animal cafes of Seoul. This is it’s the greatest attraction – along with the large variety of exotic animals that it is home to.
Akdong Healing (Raccoon) Cafe FAQ
What Animals Are at Akdong Raccoon Cafe?
Besides the obvious raccoons, you can also find cats, dogs, meerkats, and much more. At times they will have everything from snakes to smaller monkeys.
How Can I Get to Akdong Healing Cafe?
You can quickly visit the cafe from Hong-Ik University Station (Hongdae Station). Simply exit the station via Exit 9 and go straight until you reach a left turn (the first left turn after the one directly outside Exit 9). Follow the road until another road branches off to the right. This should be about 50 metres down the road. Proceed straight until you get to an intersection. There should be a corner building that is five floors tall. The Hongdae Raccoon Cafe is located at the top of the building. You should be able to see some signs on the fifth floor indicating that the cafe is there!
How Much Does the Cafe Cost?
The cafe costs 10,000KRW (about $8) to enter. Drinks range in cost from 2,000KRW to 5,000KRW.
How Long Should I Spend at the Cafe?
Most people tend to stay at the cafe for around one and a half to two hours. However, it is possible to spend longer depending on how friendly the animals are.
How Does Akdong Compare to Blind Alley?
Blind Alley has a wider menu (also offering food options) and is cleaner. However, it is also smaller and has not only less raccoons, but also none of other animals that Akdong has.
What an amazing place this must be.
I totally agree! Raccoons are just some of the most curious and fun animals there are. Thanks for your comment!
you should be ashamed of promoting such a place. these are wild animals, they don’t belong in a cafe. just because there is no law, that prohibids opening wild animal cafes, doesn’t mean that it’s right.
Pass the law then
Is this place still open? A raccoon cafe pops up on google when I look but comments say it is closed and I am trying to figure out if it is still open.
Yes, it is still open (or, it was a few months ago when I last visited). Unfortunately, it’s very unknown (at least among tourists) and the location on Google is still the old location (hence why people are saying it’s closed). The new location is the one that I showed in my post, the cafe should still be open at that location.
Good afternoon, is this wheelchair accessible?
Unfortunately, I don’t believe it is. I could be wrong as it’s been a while since I visited, but I think that there stairs and rather small doorways. I will contact them and see if I can get a more definitive reply!
Are children allowed to visit? If so, what ages? Thank you!