Ogeum-dong bakery on a weekend: Sunset Arugula Ciabatta, Grid Cafe

What is Grid Cafe in Ogeum-dong like?

Grid Cafe is a café on Macheon-ro in Ogeum-dong, Songpa, that makes its own bakery items, not just coffee: salt bread, ciabatta, egg tarts and more. I wanted coffee and good bread on the weekend, so I searched for cafés in Ogeum-dong and ended up at Grid Cafe. I'd heard the bread selection is wide, so I went in with high hopes.

Will there be any bread left at 4 PM on a weekend?

When I got to Grid Cafe around 4 PM on a weekend, the egg tart I most wanted was already gone. The place has been on a Korean TV show about self-made millionaires (Seomin Gapbu), and it's usually packed with people waiting. Since it was the weekend and around 4 PM, I missed the egg tart and was so disappointed, but I packed up the remaining breads and enjoyed them a lot, so Grid Cafe is a place I want to revisit. Next time I'd like to relax in a calmer store with a coffee.

• Address: 146 Macheon-ro, Songpa-gu, Seoul (1st floor)
• Hours: 09:00-18:00, last order 17:30
• Closes early once the bakery items sell out
• No pets allowed
• No parking on weekdays / parking lot behind the store on weekends

Atmosphere and seating at Grid Cafe

The inside of Grid Cafe has a really nice atmosphere too. It felt like a place where you could sit back and enjoy a coffee. Honestly, it was so full of customers that I only managed to photograph this one spot. There are tables further inside as well, and I thought it was a lovely space. There are two kinds of salt bread and I wanted to try both, but I could only get one. A real salt bread hotspot.

Ordering is at the kiosk

At Grid Cafe, you take a quick look at the breads in the showcase, then order at the kiosk.

Normally Grid Cafe has a wide variety of bread, but look at all those empty spots in the showcase. This place must be the real deal, right? Seeing a bread shelf that empty just makes you think you have to come back, no question.

I'll check the times the bread comes out and definitely come back.

What I took home from Grid Cafe

• Iced americano, decaf
• Vanilla milk
• White sandwich bread (saengsik-ppang)
• Crack salt bread
• Sunset Arugula Ciabatta

The takeout packaging at Grid Cafe is neat and looks so appetizing, right? The store was bustling, so I thought about eating there, but I switched to takeout and ate comfortably at home.

How were the decaf iced americano and vanilla milk?

For drinks I had a decaf iced americano and a vanilla milk, which I ordered out of curiosity. The americano was decaf, but the beans were fresh and it tasted good. The vanilla milk had a rich milky flavor blended with a deep sweetness. It felt like a sweet milkshake.

What does the crack salt bread at Grid Cafe taste like?

The crack salt bread at Grid Cafe is big, crisp outside like a baguette and chewy inside. I couldn't get the egg tart I wanted most, but salt bread was the second thing I was curious about. I wondered about the name "crack salt bread"; first of all it's huge, and I thought it was great value.

I cut it in half. See the holes inside? Full of butter aroma. It was delicious. The outside is so crunchy it's almost like a baguette, and I thought, so that's why it's called crack salt bread. Crackly outside and chewy inside, so good. It has a charm that makes me want to stock up and keep eating it. A real salt bread hotspot.

White sandwich bread baked in-store every day

The white sandwich bread at Grid Cafe is plain and chewy, good as a breakfast replacement. One loaf was left, so I ordered it. Since they knead and bake in the store every day, even the basic white bread was wonderfully chewy. I like a plain, simple taste, and this bread was exactly that, a perfectly good breakfast substitute.

Sunset Arugula Ciabatta, a first for me

The Sunset Arugula Ciabatta is full of arugula aroma, and the ciabatta was soft and fluffy. I'd never seen anything like it, and I was curious since it was a ciabatta, so I ordered it. Lots of arugula fragrance plus fluffy ciabatta, delicious right from the smell. All the breads at Grid Cafe are so tasty and full of charm that I'll have to come back. Next time I'm definitely going early to enjoy a wider variety of the bakery items, I promised myself.