Exploring the Yugu Café Menu at London’s New Korean Café
I made a video while back about a Kiwa which is a korean street food stall in Portobello road.
And when I was talking with the owne, Seulbi, I found out that she also has a small cafe on London Fields. She told me that she is rennovating the cafe, and after rennovation, she would invite me.
So, I visited a new Korean café in London called Yugu, and it immediately felt different from the usual coffee-and-toast spots. Not because of one single thing, but because everything they do feels thoughtful, from the drinks to the food to the space itself.
Let me walk you through it.
Yugu Cafe Drinks That Is Better Than Matcha (?)
One of the first things that caught my attention was the mugwort everthing.
If you haven’t had it before, imagine something in the same family as matcha but more herbal, slightly earthy, and not as creamy.
left is Matcha latte with strawberry / right is Mugwort latte
It is one of the popular ingredient they use at cafes in Korea. Even my brother's cafe in Korea uses a lot of mugwort.
What Mugwort Is and How It Tastes
If you’ve seen mugwort latte on a Korean café menu and wondered what it is, mugwort is an herb used often in Korean and Japanese cooking. In Korea it’s called 쑥 (ssuk) and shows up in rice cakes, soups, and teas.
The easiest way to describe it is:
- similar to matcha, but more herbal,
- less grassy,
- a bit earthy in a calm, steady way.
When blended with milk, it becomes smooth and mellow, with a flavour that feels familiar if you like matcha but different enough to stand out.
Korean cafés use mugwort because it brings a traditional flavour into modern café drinks, and it adds a small touch of home to the menu.
Korean Café Food You Don’t Usually See
Most cafés in London follow a similar pattern: pastries, sandwiches, maybe a few brunch plates.
But Yugu brings in dishes that feel genuinely Korean without being heavy or complicated. Here is the menu :
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