Took me a while to get accustomed to the tone but I'm enjoying it so far! Hanjun is reminding me a little bit of Louis (from Shopping King Louis) and Jeongdo (from Taskforce 38) with an extra serving of eccentric. The only other things that stick to mind right now are how damn attractive SIG looked in his orange cleaning apron & bandana and just COLOUR - there's so much of it and it's so striking.

Being totally honest, this show didn't quite hook me in completely per se (the way that Alchemy and Link did) - I'm not super duper invested in the plot yet and there were times when the comedy didn't quite stick for me BUT I'm entertained and intrigued by this first week to keep watching!!

I've always wondered, is it significant to have a four-character name in Korean? Seeing Hwang Woo-seul-hye in this recap reminded me of another actress (a newbie I believe, can't remember who it was or where I saw her) who also went by four characters in her name. From Wikipedia it looks like Hwang Woo-seul-hye is not her birth name though.

I know in China some people have compound surnames, and we don't usually have four-character names but I knew a girl who was born with one. I've rarely seen it for Korean names.

I'm loving the concept (In Guk acting like a shaman is freaking hilarious) and I like the characters: leads, second lead, siblings, detectives, etc; they're fun.
I'm ready for the ride.

The only thing I didn't get is the age. How old are they supposed to be? The kid kept saying "oppa" but In Guk looked like an ahjussi besides her. She looked really young and opa really old, but there's the epilogue of them crying, and she looked older but he still didn't remember her. Why?
Don't understand why he doesn't remember her and why the age gap seems so big when it isn't (timeline).

I really hope Jung Man-shik remains good and bubbly here.

It will take a while to settle into this one. Except for the intro sequence that I found wow!, the rest didn't really hook me in anymore. It wasn't bland, it was fun. The police sequence just made more laughs than the Cafe's.
And Seo In Gook looks extremely ridiculous when dancing his shaman tirades. How do you manage to maintain a straight face?

Thank you, @meryl, for the weecap! I find myself watching fantasy dramas nowadays. Just finished Park Hae-jin's shaman role in From Now, Showtime! and now, Link and Alchemy of Souls also have their own kind of magic, so what's another fantasy show for me? Cafe Minamdang brings in the comedy amidst the seriousness of the story. I'm hoping Han-jun with his law background will succeed in putting Mr. VVIP in jail.

I liked SIG in this role, he looked great in three-pieces suit! He's really perfect for this kind of role. The others members of the team are a little bit too cliché for now. I hope they will turn down a little bit.

For the FL, I was very surprised to see she was around 10 years younger than the ML... Oh Yeon-Seo looked older than SIG. They should have chose one of them, OYS or SIG, and then chose the second actor corresponding to the right age. I didn't think she needed extra powers to be a good a great cop. I mean the runnng and jumping everywhere was a little bit exaggerated.

For now, we got nothing about the past. How a detective ends up as a fake shaman?

There are different types of comedy like rom-com, dark comedy, parody, satire etc, but this one seems borderline slapstick but is not quite slapstick. It also goes for surreal humour with the FL's fight scenes, but then you can't tag the whole drama with it, which makes me wonder if "silly" would be the right word to describe the comedy. Stuff that kids would find absolutely hilarious. Unfortunately, I do not like it and as much as I enjoyed SIG's shamanic stage play, the FL is doing nothing for me so, I have to drop another SIG's drama ☹

Thanks for the weecap @meryl!
I'm not 100% sold on this show yet, but it did have it's good points. The show strongly reminded me of Showtime Begins! As, for me, it has a similar set up, with a main protagonist with seemingly amazing skills, but who has a whole back up team making him look good. We even have the cop FL as the potential love interest. As I enjoyed SB, I'll hang around for this one for another while, but the humour felt a little forced and I'm not sure everything landed as it should. Now that the scene is set however, I'm hoping things improve from here.

"Overly confident and adorably ridiculous" is exactly the tone of this drama that is very serious with his eccentric silliness.

Am I the one thinking "panty model" when Seo In Guk appared a second time in boxer ?

It was fine. I didn't love it or hate it. However I always enjoy SIG even if I don't like his dramas. So I will continue watching for that.

Fun Fun Fuuuuuun! I needed something light and silly after marathoning a few intense dramas (Happiness & Money Heist). Anyway this show is a nice change of pace, crossing my fingers that it won’t get too angsty in the second half, let’s hope the tone remains this goofy and oddball with just a dash of murder on the side eh? 😉

I need to figure out how to gif, Seo In-Guk’s shaman dancing is too good not to watch on repetition lol, I really want the bts too, cause damn how do these people manage to keep a straight face 🤣

Also excited to see the different colour suits Seo In-Guk manages to pull off throughout the drama, any guesses for the next episode’s suit colour? (Honestly feel like this is going to be the true mystery week to week rather than the criminal cases)

Seo In-gook, my beloved ❤️.

I'm ambivalent about this one so far. I think I'm worried it'll turn out to be another "Tomorrow" for me--a show that had a great cast and premise, but which quickly grew to be a disappointing bore.

SIG is obviously ridiculously good looking and he practically oozes playful charm no matter what type of character he's playing, so he's the big draw for me here. But right now, his character seems to be more of a caricature, a kind of Sherlock Holmes, King Louis hybrid who is sometimes very amusing, sometimes very clever, always very attractive in jewel tones, but not yet believable as a "real" (fictional) person.

I also am loving both Kang Mina and Hwang Woo-seul-hye (especially nice to see him playing a lighter, non-sociopath type of role) but again, by episode 2, they were veering into caricature territory.

And the FL is intriguing, but in a show centered around a guy who pretends to have supernatural powers but doesn't, I'm not sure what to make of her characterization, either. Unless I missed it, the show offers no explanation for her gravity-defying jumps and super speed. Yet the crime elements are gritty and clearly not supernatural, either. So I'm not sure exactly what world I'm in.

The humor is less predictable and better than, say, "Tomorrow," but it's not blowing me away yet.

Finally, I'm not sure about the potential romantic pairing. It could be the sparky cat-and-mouse variety, but I'm not seeing the chemistry yet.

I'll stick around for now, but hope next week's episodes pull me in more.

My wife loved the first two episodes.

I am watching it was Ziggy. It’s so refreshing to see him in a light role. I did enjoy the quirky humor. But the legal/cop/chaebol arc didn’t work for me.
I am not fully onboard as some of you are. Hope the next two episodes work for me. Hope! I don’t want to drop another SIG drama. Noooooo.

Un-lurked just to comment here 😁 I don't normally dig slapstick humor but due to some real life workplace chaos, I walked into this drama with open arms lol. I consider this my weekly laugh therapy - not to mention SIG love! - so I'm glad this show is getting a weecap!

PS hello Beanies!

In Guk saves this frankly. His character shows some kind of internal agony, hesitation, spite, stubborness, and I hope we get the layers peeled off slowly. he has internalised this character to the bone.

it is wacky, but if they can hold on to the campy-ness and not get too serious, it can push through. a bit scattered tho. Maybe too many characters all at once. I would rather follow one or two more closely at a time.

it will probs be episodal, a la Hotel de Luna and Masters´ sun, without the actual supernaturalness.
I wonder how korean viewers will take the poking not even fun but a very cynical and straightforward stick right in the ribs of the blind faith in shamans and fortune tellers. Might not sit well.
maybe the ghostlyness of the detective should not be pushed in our face like that. looks like it "sounded good on paper" but doesnt quite transfer to screen.
But, we´ll see. Seo In Guk plays the character so well that I dont want to miss it.

Seo In guk is amazing. 😍😍😍😍
How can he be hilarious yet serious, a genius and yet silly and a little bit of a coward?? He is playing the role of a shaman while he gets scare of sounds and pray to God... It's so funny. 😁
He can read people's story or inclinations because he was a profiler but he can read the girl he likes and instead he thinks she is crazy in love with him 😂😂😂😂😂

I love him, I totally love his character. It is like a mixture of different characters he has played before, including Louie, and I am happy to see a "piece" of Louie back. 😍😊😍
I also love that he has now a sister. Usually he is an only child or he has a brother.

Now in regard to this show in general, the palette is very dark, and I dont enjoy that so much. Murder, crime and conspiracy that they will face and solve.... I understand, but I also don't like that either. At least, I hope it will continue with the focus on team work and no on the baddies...

The humour is great. 😂😂😂

Big surprise with actor Kwak Shi-yang. He made me hate him with his characters in Chicago Typewriter and also a little bit in Fight my way, but here I really like him. Great acting.

In regard to Oh Yeon-seo... I have only seen her in Love with Flaws... (the drama was a little bit of a disaster), and I am ok with her acting. I hope she delivers in this show.

Kang Mina: she is cute... I also like her character...

With a charming cast and likeable characters, even murder or conspiracy plots are doable. Let's keep watching!!!!!!!🎊🎉🎇🎆🎈

Hello Beanie!! I have been craving a good silly drama. And I think Cafe Minamdang is here to deliver. I’m here for Seo In Guk and all his charms. Even though his last two dramas were a bit of a disappointment plot wise. But this one has potential, even if it’s just a silly mess.

I've been on a kdrama hiatus for a bit since nothing really caught my interest. This show was enjoyable enough so I'll give it a shot.

I wanted to love this show but it didn't hook me. I could barely get past the first ten minutes of episode one. I don't hate it, or even dislike it (yet), but it doesn't have any appeal to me and I'll be dropping it 😭.

Took about most of the first episode to get into it. The tone and pacing feel off. It's like they took a straightforward drama and then decided to adapt it into a webtoon right on the screen? I find the ML's not interesting enough so far to balance out his intended unlikability so far. I got into the rhythm during the second episode and am curious to see what happens next! I really like OYS's character. She bore those protective booties and gloves while breaking and entering into his home. More people should do that during B&Es!

it's weird watching this after Showtime Begins...I wonder what the shamans in Showtime Begins feel about the ML here pretending to be a shaman who obstructs police work, especially since there were entire scenes in Showtime Begins about the prejudice against shamans.