Cheonan café pasta with cosmos flowers: Pino Cafe Cheonan

Pino Cafe Cheonan hours and location

Pino Cafe Cheonan 10:00 a.m.–8:30 p.m. Open year-round 99-23 Hyuyangnim-gil, Pungse-myeon, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan

I stop by Pino Cafe Cheonan in Pungse (풍세) now and then just for tea, but it is one of my personal must-visits whenever Christmas comes around in winter or the orange-yellow cosmos bloom beautifully in fall.

Out for brunch with my niece

The friend I usually go out with loves rice meals so much that I normally cannot have the brunch I love, but today my schedule lined up with my brunch-loving niece's, so off we went. My niece likes Western food too, so she suggested we try a pasta spot at a Cheonan brunch café, and we headed to Pino Cafe Cheonan. It should be about time to hear that the yellow cosmos are blooming.

Parking and expanded space

Even though the café was lovely before, it was a little tricky to visit except on weekdays. The parking lot was small for the number of visitors, so I used to park near Taehaksan Natural Recreation Forest and stroll down. Now Pino Cafe Cheonan has parking lots 1, 2, and 3. And even if those are full, you can park in front of the Taehaksan Recreational Forest office and walk down the trail. There is much more parking now, so it feels like I can visit comfortably even on weekends without worrying about it. The indoor and outdoor areas have also changed a lot and grown larger. Indoors, there are three sections: the main building, a neatly expanded new building, and a separate indoor space beside the main building where pets are welcome.

There are parasol seats around the yellow cosmos field, and farther in, private lawn seating laid out like a campsite.

There was such a wide variety of spacious areas that it looked easy for everyone to settle in according to their taste. We ordered at the counter, and since I was not sure how far the pager would reach outdoors, we first took a quick look around the yellow cosmos field, today's main destination.

We looked around the newly renovated building too, and just as we returned to our table, the pager buzzed.

Tomato-loaded pasta and half-and-half pizza

What we ordered:

• Tomato-loaded pasta
• Half-and-half pizza (bacon bulgogi)
• Grapefruit ade and a light iced Americano

I felt like I would have to drink another strong coffee as soon as I got to work, so I chose the refreshing grapefruit ade. My niece chose a light iced Americano.

My niece said that when she saw the name “tomato-loaded pasta,” she thought it would literally be packed with only tomatoes.

But when the food arrived, tomatoes were only the start: it was generously filled with plump seasonal shrimp and all kinds of toppings. The shrimp had a deep sweetness soaked into them too, so they were satisfying to bite into. Pasta sauce often dries out quickly and gets thick as you eat, but here there was enough sauce to practically take a dip in. I do not usually say things like this, but both my niece and I ate it saying, “This is a lifetime-best tomato pasta sauce.” Among the pasta at Cheonan brunch cafés, the sauce was easily one of the standouts.

The half-and-half pizza was delicious too, with plenty of cheese, but the pasta sauce was so good that we ended up dipping the pizza in the tomato pasta sauce instead of its own dipping sauce. The two of us diligently polished off the pasta first, and we were completely full. The pizza was quite substantial, so we could eat only half. We neatly packed up the rest and put it in the car first for the little cutie at home who could not join us today.

By lunchtime, it was so full that there were no empty seats, even on a weekday. We quickly cleared our table for the next guests and headed back out to the yellow cosmos field.

A walk through the yellow cosmos field

Outside, the wide field of orange-yellow cosmos stretched out before us, and the sight alone made my heart feel open. The red windmill standing in the middle of the field and the cute little cottage installations along the way suited the cosmos beautifully, making it a great spot for photos.

It was such a pleasant day: we enjoyed the flowers to our hearts' content in the wide yellow cosmos field on a beautiful day, then finished a hearty plate of delicious pasta at a Cheonan brunch café before heading home.