Seongsu dessert café weekday afternoon mille-feuille, cappuccino

I was craving dessert today, so I went to Notldun (노틀던), a well-known Seongsu dessert café near Seoul Forest. Let me introduce this really upscale dessert spot 🙌🏻

10-minute walk from Ttukseom Station Exit 8, near Seoul Forest

Notldun, a Seongsu dessert favorite, is about a 10-minute walk from Ttukseom Station Exit 8. It's close to Seoul Forest, so it's a great place to stop by before or after a walk there.

Weekday 2pm waiting and a 90-minute time limit

The café doesn't have that many seats, but customers keep coming in nonstop, so when it's crowded the time limit is 90 minutes. Takeout is available right away with no wait, and if there are no seats you can register for waiting at the kiosk in front of the store. I visited after 2pm on a weekday, so there was no wait for me, but customers kept streaming in the whole time. As a popular Seongsu dessert spot, it really was busy even on a weekday afternoon haha.

Browsing the showcase — desserts that look like a hotel dessert menu

Walking inside, the showcase had a variety of upscale desserts on display — Signature Noir, Signature Blanc, vanilla caramel mille-feuille, Pistachio Festival, and more, every single one gorgeous. They felt totally different from what you'd usually see at a regular café or dessert shop, so it was fun just browsing. Each dessert looked painstakingly made, with beautiful colors and shapes — honestly it felt like a hotel dessert spread!

Madeleines and financiers also available boxed

They also sell baked goods like madeleines and financiers, and you can get them boxed, so if you're looking for a dessert gift, it's worth checking out. They tasted great and looked upscale, so they'd make a lovely wrapped gift!

White-toned interior and seating

The interior was clean and calm, mostly white-toned, though I couldn't take many more photos since it was so crowded. The café is on the smaller side, but it's a perfect spot to relax for a bit with dessert and coffee ☕️ It also stays open late, so it'd be nice to visit after dinner too.

There's a good variety of drinks on the menu, and next to it was a sign marking the 40th anniversary of Valrhona's dark chocolate Guanaja. Reading it made me want to try the Valrhona madeleine selection I saw earlier too 🤤

What we ordered and the prices

There were so many upscale-looking, delicious desserts that it was hard to choose. We went back and forth between Signature Noir and the vanilla caramel mille-feuille, and ended up ordering the vanilla caramel mille-feuille along with a vanilla latte and a cappuccino!

• Cappuccino ₩7,500
• Vanilla latte ₩7,500
• Vanilla caramel mille-feuille ₩13,000

Cappuccino and vanilla latte

The cappuccino, topped with plenty of milk foam, was smooth and easy to drink, though it was a little disappointing that it cooled down quickly — still fine to have alongside the dessert!

The vanilla latte was clean and easy to drink, not too sweet, with just a gentle sweetness that made it even better. And the dessert we picked, the vanilla caramel mille-feuille — honestly too pretty to eat ㅠㅠ

Taste and texture of the vanilla caramel mille-feuille

Inside the crisp mille-feuille (millefeuille, layered pastry) was plenty of soft vanilla cream, along with sweet and salty caramel. You could see the layered pastry from the outside, which already looked delicious, and knowing it was packed with cream inside too made me even more excited.

The mille-feuille shattered crisply, and with the soft sweet vanilla cream plus notes of chocolate and caramel added in, it really was as delicious as it looked ㅠㅠ It wasn't as sweet as I expected, which made it even better, and the overall balance of flavors was perfect, so it paired really well with coffee 🤎 It wasn't just a pretty-looking dessert — the taste and texture were fully satisfying too, a genuinely upscale dessert!

Why I'd recommend Notldun in Seongsu and Seoul Forest

Notldun, a Seongsu dessert café great to visit after a walk in Seoul Forest, is a good place to go when you want to enjoy upscale desserts together with coffee. If you're near Seongsu, Ttukseom, or Seoul Forest and looking for a high-end dessert, I recommend giving Notldun a visit :)