Paju bakery café with floor-to-ceiling windows: Mokushura French Café

There are so many large cafés in Paju that I don't get surprised by size anymore, haha 😌 But Mokushura French Café stuck in my memory, inside and out, from the moment I saw it.

With about 760 pyeong of space, a European-style exterior, and not just bakery and drinks but pasta, pizza, and panino dining menus too, it's a great spot to combine café hangout and brunch in one visit.

I came this time with a friend who's about a month away from giving birth, haha. Before the café, I gave her some baby clothes as a gift, and since she lives in Paju too, we wanted somewhere spacious and comfortable to sit and talk rather than walk around a lot — so we landed on Mokushura. Let's get into it!

Open daily 10:00–20:00, last order 19:00.

Mokushura French Café: address, hours and size

• Address: 138 Gigok-gil, Jori-eup, Paju-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• Hours: Daily 10:00–20:00
• Dining order hours: 11:00–19:00 (dining closed Mondays)
• Group seating available / private parking / Wi-Fi / high chairs / kids zone / separate restrooms / takeout available

Parking at Mokushura: free for 3 hours when you register

Mokushura French Café has a fairly large private parking lot, so it was easy to visit by car. Just driving out doesn't automatically give you free parking though — you need to register your car after using the café.

Register your license plate at the kiosk next to the elevators on the 2nd or 3rd floor and you get up to 3 hours free. After that it's ₩1,000 per 10 minutes, so keep that in mind! Parking is honestly a pretty important thing I check when visiting Paju's large cafés.

The café itself is so big that between eating bread, chatting, and looking around inside, time flies — so having 3 hours free makes it easy to linger. Also, pets are not allowed inside, as noted at the entrance!

The European-style exterior of Mokushura French Café

The surroundings are fairly quiet, so this large European-style building suddenly appearing really caught my eye from a distance! With its arched structures and stone-textured exterior walls connecting together, my first impression was less "café" and more "European mansion or resort."

At around 760 pyeong, it's already big just from the outside, but once you go in, the space unfolds across multiple floors, making it feel even bigger. There's an elevator too, so moving between floors was easy, and it wasn't much trouble even with my pregnant friend.

Where to order: drinks, bakery and dining are all on the 2nd floor

Since Mokushura is such a big space, first-time visitors might be a little confused about where to order! Drinks, bakery items, and dining menu can all be ordered on the 2nd floor. Both the elevator and stairs are available, so getting around was easy.

The first thing that caught my eye as soon as I got to the 2nd floor was, of course, the bakery corner! The display case was huge with so many varieties that it actually took me a while to choose, lol.

From basic croissants and madeleines to pastries, manju, and cream-loaded desserts, everything looked so different it was hard to pick. I meant to grab just a few... but ended up taking everything that looked good, haha.

What we ordered at Mokushura and what it cost: 49,800 won

• Sunny lemon sparkle ₩8,500
• Flower peach sparkle ₩8,500
• Tomato mozza pastry ₩7,500
• Lemon madeleine ₩3,500
• Copper pie manju ₩2,800
• Croissant ₩5,000
• Garlic bread ₩6,000
• = ₩49,800

With my pregnant friend along, I figured we should eat whatever we wanted, lol, so before I knew it, we'd loaded up a whole tray of bakery items.

Sunny Lemon and Flower Peach Sparkle, 8,500 won each

For drinks I picked something refreshing and sweet — sunny lemon sparkle and flower peach sparkle! One was blue, one was pink, so together they looked pretty just from the color, haha.

Both had carbonation for a refreshing kick, sweet and tangy, and paired well with the bakery items. Since we ordered a lot of bread, sipping something refreshing in between felt clean and crisp — good pick 💕

Tasting the Mokushura bakery: pastry, croissant and garlic bread

We picked several bakery items and shared small bites of each — overall the quality was good and tasty, haha. The tomato mozza pastry especially had a great combo of sweetly cooked tomato and savory cheese, and the pastry itself had crisp, well-defined layers.

The lemon madeleine was really sweet-tart and moist, and the copper pie manju had sweet red bean filling that matched well with the pie texture 🤎 The croissant was sweet with a crispy-outside, soft-inside texture — totally my style! The garlic bread was sweet and crunchy with a strong garlic flavor, easy to eat without feeling too heavy ☺️

Mokushura's dining menu: pasta, pizza and panino

Mokushura isn't just a café selling bakery and drinks! They also run a separate dining menu with panino, pasta, salad, and pizza, so it seems like a fine choice if you're visiting for brunch or a full meal.

• Mokushura bacon tomato panino ₩18,000
• Mokushura steak panino ₩19,000
• Scallop oil pasta ₩23,000
• Pescatore pasta ₩22,000
• Crab roe pasta ₩23,000
• Margherita pizza ₩19,000
• Gorgonzola pizza ₩19,000, and more

There were so many options. Dining wasn't available on the day we visited, so we just had bakery items, but next time I'd love to try the panino, too 🥹

Sitting by the floor-to-ceiling windows with a friend

Once we settled in, the lush green view through the huge floor-to-ceiling windows was calming. Since the café is on the outskirts of Paju, the surroundings aren't busy, and the view outside is wide open even from inside — a different feeling from the large cafés you find downtown.

Mokushura definitely has plenty of space on every floor, so it felt quiet and calm, which made it even more relaxing.

My friend has about a month left until she gives birth, so before the café that day I stopped by her place and gave her some baby clothes as a gift, haha. Seeing how happy she was made me happy too.

Overall, the Mokushura bakery was easy to enjoy across the board, and with convenient parking and a nice atmosphere, it was a really satisfying place to spend a relaxed afternoon chatting with a friend!

Honestly, Mokushura was as much fun to explore as it was to eat at — I ended up wandering from the 1st floor all the way to the 4th, plus the kids zone and rooftop in the building next door. I'll cover the giant chandelier, the fountain, the floor-by-floor interiors, the family room, kids zone, and rooftop in detail in part 2 ✨