I.N Birthday Cafe @ Vanilla 808, 2026

It’s a new year, which means…

new birthday cafes!

view of the counter of Vanilla 808, with a few shelves along the back covered in paper cups

Since last year, I also picked up another ult group that happens to have 8 members so that means I’ll be going to a lot of birthday cafes this year. (My poor wallet… ㅠㅠ)

There were approximately 13 birthday cafes across Korea for Stray Kids’ 막내 (maknae, youngest member) I.N, but only 3 in Busan. One was near the Jagalchi fish market, one was only open for one Saturday, and one was on the green subway line, which is where I went.

sign outside the cafe; I brought along I.N’s SKZoo figure *FoxI*.Ny, a fennec fox, but he was feeling sleepy so I just let him sleep on the sign for a bit

This was at Vanilla 808, which appears to be primarily a cafe for birthday cafe events. It was difficult to find at first, as it was located inside the building at the end of a long hallway.

It was a very understated cafe, which was nice. I ordered the more expensive set that included iced tea, two cookies, a keychain, photocard, calendar poster, and, strangely, a paper cup that was not the one being advertised.

I met a friend at the cafe who I know from a crafting group. She’s an Army but hasn’t been to any birthday cafes, so this was her first. She opened her matcha and briefly considered pouring it into the paper cup before realizing, “I shouldn’t do this, should I?” Nope! The cups are collectible and not meant to be used for drinking. (In the past, I’ve used some of mine to hold pencils at my desk and now I display them on a small shelf.)

my goodies, including a photocard holder I was given as service

Because there was only one easily-accessible birthday cafe, I didn’t have to make any decisions regarding which cafe to go to. This can be a problem if you’re in Seoul, where there are not only many birthday cafes but they’re also in such close proximity it’s easy to say, “Well, what’s one more?”