Sinnonhyeon café for caramel cheese pie: Upper and Under

Here's another one of those big Gangnam Station cafés that's made me admit — these large-scale spots are actually great at dessert too!! Upper and Under in Gangnam~~ It has a similar vibe to Something About Coffee right next door, maybe the same owner,, anyway both are solid. This one's a cream dessert spot too.

Where is Upper and Under, and what are the hours?

Upper and Under

• ⏰ Hours: Daily 11:00 – 22:00
• 🚗 Parking: Not available
• 📍 Location: 28 Gangnam-daero 102-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul

It sits right between Gangnam Station and Sinnonhyeon Station, so it's convenient from either one! Best of all, it's a huge café spanning three floors, so it works fine for a casual chat or for solo work with a laptop. It gets crowded on weekends, but on weekdays it's nice and quiet haha.

Upper and Under seating, floor by floor

This is the 1st floor!! You order on the 2nd floor, and the 1st floor entrance is separated from floors 2–3, so it's not the busiest spot — but that's exactly why I'd recommend it if you want a quiet time hah. Come on over if you like a separated space. Might even be decent for a bit of café-working when it's not busy..

The 2nd floor is right next to the counter, so it's super convenient to move around. Lots of 2-person tables, so mostly solo or duo customers, and there really was someone with a laptop working away!

Finally, up to the 3rd floor, which is the biggest and widest space — and the seating variety matches!! From 4-tops to combined seating for up to 8, it's a genuinely huge café.. If you've got a big group and can't find a spot, Gangnam Station's big cafés need to be at least this size.

Going outside connects you to the terrace, and that day the weather was cool enough that lots of people had taken terrace seats~ Still, indoor was a bit more comfortable for now haha.

Choosing dessert at the 2nd-floor showcase

Grabbed a seat and then picked dessert from the 2nd floor showcase~ Upper and Under is a dessert spot, so skipping dessert isn't really an option. The tiramisu and cakes looked amazing too and I wanted to try them —

— but what really caught my eye was the yellow cheese Basque cheesecake... A regular Basque cheesecake would've looked good too, but I couldn't pass up yellow cheese after so long.

And so many baked goods! From financiers to madeleines to pies, and there was even the trendy sweet potato mattang financier..? But here, the caramel cheese pie stole my attention, so I went with that.

I mentioned Upper and Under is a cream dessert spot, but honestly they're just good at cream in general, so cream-topped coffees are also delicious.. Ordered the salty caramel latte from their signature cream latte lineup haha. Must've been craving caramel that day..

What we ordered at Upper and Under, and the prices

Here's what we ordered

Salty caramel latte ₩8,000 / Iced café latte ₩7,000 / Yellow cheese Basque cheesecake ₩9,500 / Caramel cheese pie ₩7,200

There's no getting around it — Gangnam Station dessert café prices are a little scary..

Yellow cheese Basque cheesecake, 9,500 won: a strong Ppoddo cheese-cracker flavour

You know yellow cheese Basque cheesecake is surprisingly hard to find, right. There are plenty of good regular Basque cheesecake spots in Gangnam, but yellow cheese versions just aren't sold much~ It even comes with crumble, a perfect match.

First off, that rich Ppoddo (a cheese cracker snack) flavor really comes through — genuinely tastes like "cheese" cake. Texture is slightly firm on the outside but melts into a soft cream on the inside. Sweet-to-salty ratio, I'd say around 45 sweet to 55 salty..? It wasn't just plain sweet, which made it even better!

Caramel cheese pie, 7,200 won: soft pastry with vanilla bean cheese cream

The caramel cheese pie was interesting precisely because it's a cheese pie, not an egg tart... I expected a hard pastry shell but it turned out to be a surprisingly soft pastry haha.

Under the caramel sauce is a cheese cream even creamier than the Basque cheesecake, dotted with vanilla bean — probably what the base Basque cheesecake would taste like if it were a touch more rare??? Tastier than expected, though the caramel sauce layer is fairly thick, so it's pretty sweet overall!! You might think "oh, this is a bit sweet" but it's not overwhelmingly so haha. Recommended if you want a soft sugar rush.

Salty caramel cream latte, 8,000 won: cream worth eating on its own

The salty caramel cream latte — I told you this place is a real cream spot.. You could eat just the cream on top and it'd genuinely be delicious. Great smooth cream texture, and a really rich cream flavor... tasting like the good einspänner spots.

Pairs even better with the caramel sauce underneath — being salty caramel, the sweet-salty balance is incredible!! So this one also gives you a big sugar rush haha. Still, since it's a cream latte with actual coffee in it, the ratio feels just right — anyway, if you come to Upper and Under, make sure to order something with cream, whether coffee or dessert.

Who is Upper and Under best for?

And that's my review — from a sweet-tooth who insists on one dessert per person — of Upper and Under, a cream dessert café near Gangnam Station and Sinnonhyeon Station. If you love cream desserts like me, or you're looking for a big, comfortable café to hang out in, I recommend it ^_^