After having some great bread at L’atelier Monique I got all fired up and made the rounds of the bakeries and cake shops in Seoul that people rate highly. I didn’t do it all in a few days; this is a record of visits whenever I had time, and since posting them one by one felt like a chore, I’m dumping them all here in one go.
Maison de Zoé in Cheongdam-dong
Get off at Cheongdam Station and walk in a bit and you’ll find it. The location is a little awkward – maybe even more awkward than L’atelier Monique, which sits right in the middle of Cheongdam-dong. It’s a really tiny bakery, but the bread is good and the prices are on the cheap side. Rather than the trendy breads of the moment, it sells lots of casual breads the locals would like – I mean corn bread and red bean buns rather than baguettes and pain de campagne. Everyone’s making a fuss about neighbourhood bakeries disappearing these days, and personally I’d love to see bakeries with this kind of concept spread across the whole country.
Bread
I bought corn bread, cookies and galettes. I hadn’t planned on dessert breads, but I dropped by on a weekend, which apparently isn’t one of their usual opening days, so there wasn’t much bread out. Of these, the mini galette, a bit like a croissant, was really good. The galette is pretty much the ancestor of all dessert breads, after all. The cookies were so well made they surprised me, so if I ever need to buy sweets as a gift, I’ll definitely use this place.
Bread I bought on my second visit
Galette, ciabatta and macarons. I already liked the galettes, but the macarons were so good that I wondered whether any other place in Korea does them this well. Chewy outside, with a nicely thick, sticky jam inside. The ciabatta was decent too, though so many places do ciabatta now that it’s not really a signature item here.
Debauve & Gallais, a chocolate shop in Cheongdam-dong
Before starting my bakery tour I dug through Fat2bach’s blog and made a list of bakeries with good reviews (the Gangnam bakeries in particular are really well organised there..), and this shop was on it. I’d heard it’s a very, very expensive chocolate shop selling chocolate imported straight from France, so I went out of curiosity, and to sum it up in one word: it really is expensive. Apparently they have cafe items like hot chocolate too, but my heart was pounding too hard to order anything. Japan has quite a few places to buy upscale chocolate as a gift, while Korea somehow falls short, so when you’re in that spot I guess this is the only place to go. It’s probably handy to know about for emergencies.
By the way, these days I’m living the foodie life in Gangnam by diligently following Fat2bach’s blog and Rainy’s blog. North of the river there are so many sources that I never need the power bloggers, but in Gangnam I just don’t know where to go.
The Barn Bake Studio
It’s somewhere between Apgujeong Station and Rodeo Street, tucked in off the main road.. It was on the 4th floor of a place called the Podo Building. I vaguely remember hearing it’s a bakery opened by a well-known company, but I can’t really recall. It looked like they’d brought in Japanese baking techniques.
Bread
The location is hard to describe and it’s on the 4th floor, but judging by how many people come to the cafe, the spot isn’t bad. They say they create a new bread every month, and when I went, the square-shaped bread above was the new one. The new bread wasn’t anything special, though; they do the standard breads well. The location is awkward, so I don’t think I’ll be going back.
The workshop
Given how big it is, I suspect they supply bread somewhere else too.
Retro Oven near the Gangnam-gu Office
This place is said to be a sister shop of Paul & Paulina, and it runs in a similar way. Specific breads come out at specific times, so if you time it right you can eat bread straight out of the oven. Being able to enjoy warm bread is a big plus, but the location is awkward, so the downside is that it’s hard to get to unless you live nearby.
Bread and the interior
The breads you see in the photo are every kind this shop sells. Since it caters to locals, it mostly sells breads you can have as a meal. I bought a croissant, a pain au chocolat and a pain de campagne, and a freshly baked croissant really is amazing. The others were good too. Prices are average, but the pieces are huge, so you get plenty for your money.
It’s Crispy in Apgujeong
I’ve posted about this place on the blog before. It was opened by someone who learned baking in Europe, and it’s known for its hard, crusty meal breads. Last time I tried the croissant and a meal bread, but they didn’t quite do it for me.
Bread
This time I completely ignored what other bloggers and foodies said (the whole “the so-and-so bread is supposed to be good” thing) and just picked whatever looked tastiest. I don’t remember the exact names, but one was a hard bread with raisins and the other was a pain au chocolat. I chose well this time. The hard bread was crackly outside and soft inside. It could have used more raisins, but it was very big and fairly priced, so as a dessert bread I was more than happy. And with a pain au chocolat, the chocolate makes it hard to go wrong.
Le Alaska on Garosu-gil
A really big bakery-cafe. It seems to have branches here and there, but I’ve only been to the Garosu-gil one.
Baguette-style bread
Matching its size, this place has a huge variety of bread. But however I looked at it, the baguette family looked outstandingly good, so I grabbed two of those, and I was very happy with them. Every bakery has its own speciality, and I guess you get the tastiest bread by buying the one that best fits it.
Autumn sky
Though it’s full-on winter now..
Deux Amis, a cake shop on Garosu-gil
It’s in the back streets of Garosu-gil. I had high hopes because I’d heard it was opened by people who studied cake-making properly. I was really let down by a weird tart at Deux Crème, but I figured that wouldn’t happen here.
Slices of cake
The cakes here are pricey – about 7,000-8,000 won a slice. Expensive, but the flavour is the real deal, so no complaints. For various reasons I haven’t been able to get to Tokyo lately, and this was the first time in ages I got to taste a cake with such a layered, complex structure. It was on a different level from the Cheongdam-dong cake shops that are only expensive. I was moved to find that Korea has quite a few places worth eating at if you look.
Publique in Hongdae
I’d say it’s the hottest bakery in Hongdae right now. It’s famous for both its desserts and its meal breads.
Bread
I went late at night, so there wasn’t much left to buy, and I took home the one remaining item. It was bread with solid fundamentals. The problem is that going all the way to Hongdae is a hassle.
October in Hongdae
Lots of natural-yeast bakeries have popped up recently, and this is one of them. Since coming to Hongdae is a hassle, I killed two birds with one stone and dropped in here after Publique. I overdid it a bit that day.
Natural-yeast apricot bread
The bread here is definitely high-level, but it’s neither cheap nor generous, which bugs me a little. It tastes fine, but nothing really draws me in.. I don’t think it’s quite my kind of place.
Pain de Papa on Garosu-gil
It’s at the far end of Garosu-gil, near Le Alaska, and not hard to find. Its concept is “Dad’s bread”.
Bread
I bought a natural-yeast bread, a fig bread and a cheese bread. This place is a bit pricey too. If it’s expensive because it’s Garosu-gil, I suppose there’s nothing to be done, but honestly it’s a bit much for a casual bite. The bread was average. Nothing about it really grabbed me.
Bakersfield at Gangnam Station
Natural-yeast bread is the trend these days, so now there’s one at Gangnam Station too. I really, really never expected one to open at Gangnam Station. It’s about 100 m from Exit 6, and the cafe space is big, so I think it would suit a casual get-together. Of course, Artisée in Samsung Town is still nicer for meeting people casually.
Fig bread and wine cranberry ciabatta
It doesn’t quite have the polish of proper natural-yeast bread, but with Paris Croissant sizes and prices and much better taste than Paris Croissant, I think it can compete. You probably can’t expect anything tastier than this from a bakery at Gangnam Station.
Sachertorte at Cafe J. BROWN in Yeoksam-dong
Not long ago a cafe opened on the 2nd floor of Sports World in Yeoksam-dong. It seems to be produced by someone well known for chocolate, so it’s getting some word of mouth. I had nothing to do at the weekend (sigh), so I went over and had a Sachertorte. Sachertorte is the rich chocolate cake Vienna, Austria is famous for: chocolate on the outside, apricot jam and sponge cake inside.
Close-up..
It really was a delicious cake, and reasonably priced too. Hardly anywhere in Korea sells Sachertorte, so it’s worth trying once just for the rarity. I ordered the last one left, and they plated it nicely and added a chocolate on the side, which I liked. They sell bread too, but it didn’t tempt me much. Nor did the macarons.. The chocolate items seem worth having, so I’ll drop by if I ever have a use for them.