Hwangnidan-gil walnut pastry shop beating Cheonan's: Buja Hodu

Hwangnidan-gil in Gyeongju has so much to eat — meals, cafés, desserts — that just wandering around is half the fun.

This time, instead of the usual snacks you see all over Hwangnidan-gil, I went looking for something a bit different and ended up at Buja Hodu (부자호두), which sells walnut pastries with a whole walnut baked into each one.

Where is Buja Hodu, and what are the hours and parking?

Buja Hodu is a takeout-only walnut pastry shop at 38 B-dong 105-ho, Poseok-ro 1095beon-gil, Gyeongju-si, Gyeongbuk, South Korea, in front of Korea Semiconductor Meister High School. It's open daily from 09:00 to 20:00 and closed every Wednesday.

It's in an alley close to the Hwangnidan-gil central parking lot, so it was easy enough to park and walk over.

It opened earlier this year, and it seemed like a good place to pick up a Gyeongju souvenir set or snacks on the way home from a trip.

One whole walnut inside: the free warm sample at Buja Hodu

Buja Hodu's biggest feature is right there in the name: each pastry has one whole walnut baked inside. I like nuts, so I've always been a little disappointed when walnut pastries only have small broken pieces.

Here, a whole chunky walnut goes in, so you get a real hit of nutty, savory walnut flavor with every bite. They're baked fresh every morning, and since I stopped by after lunch to browse for snacks, the owner handed me a warm, freshly made piece to try. Eaten warm, the rice dough was soft and the walnut so fragrant that I couldn't just walk past. 😂

Buja Hodu flavors and what's in the 24-piece mix box

Beyond the classic red bean, there are several flavors to choose from depending on your taste. I went with all four: low-sugar red bean, pea cream cheese, matcha, and almond praline, packed into a 24-piece mix box.

• Low-sugar red bean: a natural sweetness that pairs well with the rice dough
• Pea cream cheese: New Zealand cream cheese meeting sweet pea paste
• Matcha: deep, subtle matcha flavor
• Almond praline: the nutty combo of walnut and almond at once

Almond praline is limited to 50 pieces a day. And since a lot of people prefer less sugar these days, there's also a low-sugar red bean option — not too sweet, so it seemed like something both adults and kids could enjoy without hesitation.

Buja Hodu vs Cheonan walnut pastries: which tasted better?

After the free sample the owner gave me, I couldn't resist — I ended up sitting at the outdoor table in front of the shop and trying one of each flavor. 😂

Pea cream cheese was my personal favorite. The rice dough was packed with filling and walnut, roughly half paste and half walnut — the ingredients were genuinely generous. Biting in, I first got the soft pea paste and cream cheese, then the crunch of the big walnut piece added a nutty finish that worked really well together. I'd also tried the famous walnut pastries in Cheonan, and honestly, I liked Buja Hodu's better.

True to the name walnut pastry, it really did feel like half walnut, half filling — like eating an actual walnut pastry rather than a filling snack with a token nut. Maybe because of the domestic rice dough, it didn't feel heavy afterward either. Since Buja Hodu is takeout-only, it works well both as a snack while traveling and for putting together a gift box to take home.

Holiday bojagi gift wrapping, storage and reheating

With Chuseok coming up, they also offer traditional bojagi (wrapping cloth) packaging for the holiday, so it's worth a look if you're after a Gyeongju Chuseok gift. I mentioned I thought purple looked prettier, and the owner actually swapped the display to purple wrapping cloth for me haha 😚

I liked that it makes a Gyeongju souvenir you can actually eat instead of the usual tourist trinket, and it's not a heavy gift for parents or friends either. It keeps in the freezer for up to a month. If a pastry cools down, you can microwave it for about 10 seconds or warm it in an air fryer at 180°C for about 5 minutes to eat it warm again.

Coffee and the walnut ice cream affogato at Buja Hodu

Buja Hodu doesn't just sell walnut pastries — they also serve coffee brewed from house-roasted beans, along with ade and juice. I ordered an iced Americano to go with my pastries, and it wasn't too acidic, more of a rich, roasty style that went really well with the sweet pastries. There's also a slightly unusual item on the menu.

The walnut ice cream affogato — a menu the shop developed itself, combining walnut pastry, walnut ice cream, and coffee. You can also just order the ice cream without coffee, apparently, so if you're after something different from the usual Hwangnidan-gil dessert, it's worth trying.

They also sell Ulsan jjondegi (a chewy snack), so you can try a few different treats alongside the walnut pastries.

Is Buja Hodu worth it as a Gyeongju souvenir?

Walnut pastries are a familiar rest-stop snack, but the whole, chunky walnut in each piece here made a real difference. Honestly, the kind of thing you could polish off a whole box of while snacking on the drive home. 😂

With Chuseok coming up, it'd make a nice Gyeongju souvenir gift wrapped in the pretty bojagi cloth, and I'd recommend it as a snack for parents or friends too. If you write a Naver receipt review after visiting, they're currently giving out 2 extra pastries or 1 Americano, so keep that in mind.

For anyone outside the area, it's also available through the Naver Store, so if a trip to Gyeongju isn't in the cards, ordering online is an option too.