It goes without saying that all croissant lovers need to visit Nudake Sinsa when in Seoul. Brought to you by Gentle Monster, Nudake Sinsa is a viral bakery cafe in Gangnam which specializes in a single type of pastry — the croissant. This is Nudake’s third outlet after their first two outlets in Dosan and Seongsu.

Curious whether Nudake (and in particular, Nudake Sinsa) is worth the hype? Read on to find out.

We popped by Nudake Sinsa just after lunch. Whilst we didn’t expect to see a crowd outside the cafe given the timing of my visit, we were surprised to find Nudake Sinsa filled with a decent crowd on the first level. As for their dining space on the second level, it was close to full house.

The first thing that will catch your eye when you first enter Nudake Sinsa are the gigantic croissant sculptures that sit in the centre and at the corner of the clean and minimalist cafe space. And then right behind one of the croissant sculptures is a long table filled with different flavours of croissants for your picking.

This is where things get interesting. Nudake Sinsa doesn’t sell just regular croissants. Their menu features the Oniwassant, a French and Japanese fusion treat, which is a hybrid of the Japanese onigiri and a croissant. Their Oniwassant menu features 3 different shapes (a square, circle and flower) in 6 flavours.

 Being matcha lovers, we gravitated towards the first sight of matcha. This is the Peak Oniwassant (6,000 won), a flavour from Nudake’s signature menu. Even though we packed the Peak Oniwassant to go, we are happy to report that the square-shaped Oniwassant was still crispy and flakey the next day, and these textures paired well with the light matcha cream.

And if you’re looking for something more savoury, try the Pollock Roe Oniwassant (6,000 won) or the Green Onion Oniwassant (6,000 won). The former is a croissant filled with savory pollack roe cream cheese and pollack roe maple syrup, whereas the latter comprises a croissant filled with onion cream and scallion toppings. 

A tip — Nudake Sinsa is available for reservations on CatchTable. So if you’re serious about trying some of their Oniwassants, you know what you have to do. 

Nudake Sinsa
43 Gangnam-daero 162-gil,
Gangnam District, Seoul
Tel: +82 70-4177-6977

If you’re active on social media and have been researching on cafes to visit in Seoul, Soha Salt Pond would have definitely popped up on your feed at some point of time.

Nestled within the cluster of cafes in Ikseondong, Soha Salt Pond is arguably one of the more aesthetic cafes in Seoul. It is instantly recognisable for the various mountains of salt around its premises and for the long queues that line the perimeter of the cafe.

But for the popularity that this cafe has enjoyed, are their bakes worth the wait?

For context, we visited Soha Salt Pond in the early summer. So if you are visiting during the warmer seasons, do temper your expectations. The exterior of Soha Salt Pond may not be as magical as what you’ve seen online due to the strong and harsh sun.

And to be honest, the Salt Pond is actually quite small in real life. Nonetheless, the elements of salt were incorporated beautifully into the traditional Korean houses and was pleasant to the eye.

We came here for their signature Soha Salted Bread (3,000 won) and the Soha Salted Bread only. Despite the online fanfare about this cafe, we were pleasantly surprised to only wait about 10 minutes for our food at 10.30am in the morning. However, as the seating area of the cafe was small and already filled, we opted to takeaway the bread instead.

Whilst you may have read excellent reviews of the Soha Salted Bread, we felt differently. We’re not saying that it isn’t good bread; it is. However, it just wasn’t as buttery, soft or crisp like the salt bread from another famous bakery just down the row of cafes.

But to be very objective, the Soha Salted Bread was still way better than the best salted bread you’ll get in Singapore.

There was just one other thing that bothered us. Even though we visited Soha Salt Pond in the morning, out of the extensive selection of bread flavours on their menu, the cafe only had 2 types of bread up for purchase i.e., the Soha Salted Bread and the Green Onion Salt Bread (4,500 won).

We wondered whether it was a case that the other flavours had been snapped up by other customers earlier that morning or that Soha Salt Pond couldn’t keep up with the demand.

Soha Salt Pond
21-5 Supyo-ro 28-gil,
Jongno District, Seoul