Picnic basket rental and garden seats at La Cuesta, a Gonjiam café

I visited La Cuesta, a large café in Gonjiam, Gwangju, Gyeonggi. It's about 10 minutes by car from Hwadam Botanic Garden and close to Gonjiam IC, so the parking and route are convenient whether you're stopping by after a round of golf or an outing to the garden.

It's a large Gonjiam café with a bakery that's great both for dessert after a meal and as bread to eat as a meal substitute.

Where is La Cuesta in Gonjiam, and what about parking and hours?

The navigation address is 278 Gyeongchung-daero, Gonjiam-eup, Gwangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, La Cuesta. It's open every day, Sunday through Saturday, from 10:00 to 22:00, with last order at 21:30, and brunch runs from 10:30 to 20:30.

La Cuesta has a pretty spacious parking lot, and there's a parking attendant on site who guides you in. They helped me the whole way, from entering to parking, so it was easy going with a car.

Borrowing a picnic basket for La Cuesta's outdoor garden

La Cuesta is a fairly large café with even a picnic spot, so it felt like heading out on an outing. It's a bakery café with a wide variety of bread, and even on a Sunday afternoon fresh bread kept coming out.

La Cuesta (LACUESTA) also has its own separate parking lot, so it works well for a stop on the way back to Seoul after a trip, a Gonjiam date course, or an end-of-year gathering spot.

When you enter the store, there's a corner set up so you can get that outdoor picnic feeling, with picnic baskets, carriers, mats, and blankets all ready to use.

You can carry your coffee out to the outdoor garden and drink it in a picnic mood.

Seating at La Cuesta, including the 2nd-floor window seats

Once you're inside, being a large café it feels open, with a range of seating from regular tables to bigger tables for groups, so it's easy to sit according to how many you are. The tables are spaced generously too, so conversation was comfortable.

They said the interior changes to a Christmas mood at year-end, and since the space itself is so big, it's also good for booking family or friend gatherings.

On La Cuesta's 2nd floor, the windows go floor to ceiling, so the window seats let you look out at the scenery. You can see mountains out the window, which gives more of an outing feeling than a downtown café, and it was nice being able to take in nature at the same time. Inside, there's also a space where kids can draw, and the outdoor picnic area looks great for kids to run around in too.

How ordering works and what's on the bakery display

You order on the 1st floor, and the bread is laid out so you pick it by seeing it in person — a bakery-style setup. The bread comes out freshly baked so you can see the real thing, choose what you want, and pay, and there's a good variety too. Inside the store I noticed footage from Live Today (생방송투데이) episode 3161 featuring their doenjang bread, so there are some unusual breads on offer.

The La Cuesta latte and free americano refills

The La Cuesta latte is a milk-based latte topped with soft whipped cream. I like sweet coffee, and this was a latte that went down smoothly.

Once you order an americano in the store, you can get refills, so it goes well with bread.

How the sausage bread, corn bread and garlic baguette taste

From the bakery I also picked out the sausage bread. It's shaped like two regular sausage breads stuck together, so it's a hearty dessert to eat alongside coffee.

The corn bread has corn topping inside, so you get a nice texture when you bite in, and the bread lived up to its name — I enjoyed it. The garlic baguette was baked to a nice sweet finish, and the corn bread was moist with bits of corn giving a chewy bite here and there — both were delicious.

La Cuesta has easy parking and a spacious interior, making it a large café that's great for a date and also fits group visits well.