Gyeongju dessert café for giant mango mochi: Tareudang

I found the number-one fruit mochi I have ever eaten in Gyeongju. Tareudang (타르당), a must-try spot on Hwangridan-gil +_+ Honestly, I do not love fruit mochi enough to go seeking it out, but after eating here, I totally got why people love it...!! Haha. It was almost a shame I first tasted it on the train home. If I had known it was this good, I would have bought more...ㅠㅠㅠ

Tareudang takeaway and visit information

• 49 Sajeong-ro, Gyeongju-si, Gyeongbuk, South Korea
• Hours: 11:00–19:00 (may close early when ingredients sell out)
• No parking; use a public parking lot
• Takeaway only

Store exterior

It was a busy day of getting around, since our itinerary was short. This time I took the KTX, and picked fruit mochi from Tareudang, a Hwangridan-gil dessert spot, for the ride home.

Tareudang, a Hwangridan-gil dessert spot, is takeaway-only. Along with egg tarts and butter tteok (rice cakes), it seemed to now specialize in fruit mochi. Naturally, the fruit is seasonal, so it changes with the season. Getting to see different fruits depending on when you visit is one of the fun things about Tareudang’s fruit mochi! When I visited, there were six varieties: five fruits plus fresh chocolate. It would be great with people who have different tastes, or to buy and split in halves.

Tareudang fruit mochi menu and sold-out items

There were fruit mochi and tart varieties, while the butter tteok had sadly been discontinued t_t We visited in the evening, so the peach yogurt was unfortunately sold out!ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ Peach mochi is so popular everywhere lately that I had been curious about it. Such a shame—I should have gone a little earlier!

We chose mango yogurt, pineapple, and fresh chocolate. Thinking back, ah... we should have added an insulated bag. We ate them about three hours later, and they seemed a little melted.

Big, satisfyingly hefty fruit mochi

The first surprise was their hefty weight and size. They are much bigger in person than they look in photos. Just one mochi makes for a seriously filling dessert, I would say?! And rather than putting in a tiny bit of fruit, they make the fruit’s presence unmistakable, so I was more satisfied eating them than I expected from the price alone. At home, I would have cut one in half to admire the cross-section, but we were eating on the KTX, so we had no choice but to have one each...haha.

Fresh whole mango mochi

It was the priciest one, but it really had a whole mango inside—no skimping at all. My companion ate this one and said it was really delicious, haha. It was not overly sweet, the rice cake was not thick and was nicely chewy, and with mango added, it was an impossible-to-make-bad combination haha.

Pineapple cream mochi taste

This is the pineapple mochi I ate.

The pineapple cream mochi had red bean paste as well as cream inside. But the rice cake skin here is really chewy and delicious.. It felt completely different from the fruit mochi I had eaten before '3' There was so much pineapple that it stayed delicious to the last bite bbb. The pineapple’s sweet-tart flavor went unexpectedly well with the cream and red bean paste. I worried that so many flavors might feel separate, but of course, it worked! So delicious. I definitely felt that eating it cold would make the fruit’s freshness and the springy rice cake texture shine even more '3'.

Fresh chocolate mochi compared with fruit mochi

Fresh chocolate mochi. Its rice cake skin was also very thin, but it was completely packed with fresh chocolate inside. It felt like putting a mouthful of chocolate straight into your mouth @_@ Anyone obsessed with chocolate would definitely love it! The chocolate mochi was delicious too, of course, but fruit mochi was still the top pick...heh..

Final thoughts on taking them as KTX snacks

Tareudang is worth stopping by if you are looking for a Hwangridan-gil dessert spot. The fruit mochi was really, really delicious, so I think I would have gone again if I had stayed one more day :D They are large enough to be a simple dessert during your trip, and also make a good snack to bring on the way back from Gyeongju. But if there will be a long time between buying and eating them, as there was for us, I think it is best to add an insulated bag from the start—great for gifts with the bag too! There is also a ₩500 discount per piece when you buy four or more mochi, so visit early and try a variety ♥ If I visit again, I would like to taste the winter fruit mochi too '3'.