Dalki Little Farmer Cafe For Kids

Hidden away at Seoul’s Olympic Park in Songpa-gu is the most entertaining and comical play-and-eat restaurant for kids.

It was purely an accident that I found a flyer with information about this place. The Global Village Center translated the flyer and told me that the Dalki Cafe was in Olympic Park.

I have to admit that I love this idea of a play-and-eat restaurant that takes the food preferences and comfort of adults into consideration. Chuck E. Cheese pales in comparison to Korea’s restaurants for kids.

So, on a recent field trip to Seoul Olympic Museum, I asked around about the location and was pointed to the cafe which was just beyond the winged Olympic Park landmark.

The atmosphere inside the restaurant was warm and inviting. Lots of natural wood makes the space feel very organic.

Tables were available with chairs or on the floor with pillows.

An admittance fee of 10,000W per child is required in order to enter and play.

Street shoes are not worn inside the building. A locker is provided to each guest for shoe storage.

Along the ceiling beams, decorators have added a highway with little cars glued to the surface. Airplanes hang from the rafters leaving trails of cotton smoke.

There are a variety of play spaces set up around the building — blocks and books in one corner, a computer center, bouncy marshmallow mountain, Dongchimee slide, ball pit, zip line, and more.

By far, the weirdest play area was the Dongchimee slide. Dongchimee is basically a poop guy character who is obsessed with making poop sculptures. Apparently, dung is a playful topic to discuss with kids. Later I’ll write about a children’s book we bought called, “Holding Poop At Night” by Choon hee Lee and illustrated by Eun sook Sim — an interesting read and quite culturally informative.

Dongchimee’s slide comes complete with a giant, swirly poop, topped with a fly.

Dongchimee wears a poop swirl on his head and snot drips from his nose. It’s just another interesting aspect of Quirky Korea that a restaurant would build its theme around a poop character! Can you imagine that happening at an eatery in your hometown?

And, here’s Dongchimee with his toilet paper roll bench, followed by a diagram of Dongchimee making his infamous Poop Sculptures!

Not such a great segue into the discussion of food options, but, hey, that’s life in Korea.

Lots of great food and beverage options are available, and we were happy with our meal choices.

We ordered spaghetti with red sauce and topped with yummy mushrooms and mozzarella chunks. (Be sure to slice up the mozzarella as it’s a bit of a choking hazard. We also ordered a Kabocha Pumpkin stuffed with Korean red bean rice. There were several choices of pasta dishes and rice dishes on the menu. The size of the meal was pretty large so I would recommend sharing between two people. The place mats were really cute and had dot-to-dot activities for the kids.

This soup came with our Pumpkin and Rice. It had ICE CUBES in it which we all thought was interesting! It was a pickled daikon soup with cucumber and seaweed. The flavor wasn’t bad but it was very intense — like drinking sweet pickle juice.

There was also a nice birthday party room, and pictures on the website indicate that a costumed Dalki character can even be booked to attend the party. If you can read Korean, here’s a poster with the party options.

In the party room, the window ledge was lined with a row of plastic cups with colored gravel inside. I thought it was in interested decorating technique that was really inexpensive. The little touch of color in the window was quite festive.

A gift shop offered several fun Dalki accessories and some organic rice and kimchi.

Video screens are visible from around the building to keep track of kids while they play.

We also noticed a craft room where a variety of hands-on art projects are offered for kids. I didn’t notice the schedule, but you could call and ask.

Address

Little Farmer I Like Dalki – Dalki Cafe

Seoul Olympic Park

Bangi-Dong

Songpa-Gu

Seoul, Korea

Directions By Train

Take the Pink Line, Line 8 to the Mongchontoseong Station.
Use Exit 1.
You will come up right in front of the giant Olympic Park gate.
Walk through the gate and you will see the Dalki Cafe to your right.
It’s about a one minute walk from Mongchontoseong’s Exit 1.

Cost
5,000W Adults, 10,000W Children
Includes play for 2 hours
After 2 hours, cost is an additional 500W per half hour.

Food
Food prices vary and food purchase is not required to play.

TEL
02.2203.2761

Hours
10:00 AM to 9:00 PM
Half price after 7:30 PM

Olympic Park Map