Gyeongju walnut pastry shop with an English menu: Buja Hodu

Where is Buja Hodu on Hwangnidan-gil in Gyeongju?

Buja Hodu is a walnut pastry shop right at the entrance to Hwangnidan-gil in Gyeongju. If you walk straight from Korea Semiconductor Meister High School toward Hwangnidan-gil, you'll see it right at the entrance. I came here today to pack up a walnut pastry gift set.

Buja Hodu is great for picking up a Gyeongju souvenir gift set, and there were also a few tables out front where you can eat on the spot. Enjoying some downtime under such a clear sky — pure happiness.

Ordering the 24-piece mix from the English menu

Here's Buja Hodu's menu! I went with the 24-piece mix — 12 original red bean, 6 pea cream cheese, 6 matcha. There's also an English menu for foreign visitors, and the customers ahead of me, who were foreign tourists, bought their gift set easily using it.

The receipt review event: 2 free pastries and a coffee

I had to wait a bit for freshly baked walnut pastries, so I joined the receipt review event. I got 2 walnut pastries and a coffee, munched away, and rested for a bit at the table.

Looking around while waiting. And the walnut pastries turned out to have low-sugar red bean filling!!! I ordered without even knowing, which was a nice surprise. Sounds perfect for gifting to grandparents too. With the mix, you get variety in flavors, so it was fun to eat. There's even a walnut pastry affogato on the drink menu? Sounds delicious...

Box packaging and bojagi wrapping for the holidays

With Chuseok (Korean harvest holiday) coming up, they also offer bojagi (wrapping cloth) packaging for holiday gifts 🎁. Aren't the gift sets wrapped in bojagi in the display case so pretty? I think I'll gift walnut pastries next holiday too.

Now it was time to pack mine up ><. Since I was just going to eat it at home, I skipped the bojagi and they packed it neatly in a box instead.

Munching on today's packed Buja Hodu gift set plus the walnut pastries from the review event, with iced Americano and a friend. The walnuts were so generous and toasty-nutty, I couldn't wait to get home and dig in.

Rice-flour walnut pastries and how the gift set is packed

Each pastry sits in its own slot, and the wrapping paper differs by flavor, which felt really thoughtful. They told me these are made with rice-flour dough, apparently the only ones in the country made this way. My excitement was building up.

It felt like receiving a premium walnut pastry gift set. Courier delivery is also available through Smart Store, so since I live in Daegu, I'm thinking of ordering by delivery next time.

From top to bottom, they packed them: red bean–white, pea cream cheese–yellow, matcha–green, red bean–white.

How the red bean, pea cream cheese and matcha flavors tasted

Time to try each flavor ooooh?🤤 I sliced one in half — can you see the filling and the big walnut packed inside?

I've never seen walnut pastries this packed..! The filling was truly stuffed to the brim in every single one.

Thanks to the generous filling, each flavor really came through. The pea cream cheese had half pea filling and half cream cheese, so it tasted rich, and biting into big chunks of walnut was so satisfying. The matcha one had filling so packed with matcha flavor that you could tell it was matcha even with your eyes closed — a deep, strong taste. Since it's low-sugar red bean, it wasn't overly sweet, which was delicious — I'll give it my highest Korean-dessert praise, haha.

Maybe because the pastries are made with rice-flour dough, they had a crisp texture and felt like a healthier dessert! These were the walnut pastries with the biggest, most delicious walnuts I've had so far. If you're looking for a great dessert spot on Hwangnidan-gil in Gyeongju, I recommend Buja Hodu.