Garosu-gil café with mango cream cake and decaf: Butter & Shelter

What kind of café is Butter & Shelter Gangnam-Sinsa?

Butter & Shelter Gangnam-Sinsa is a dessert café on Garosu-gil near Sinsa Station, famous for its butter cookies. My boyfriend and I ate a big lunch nearby, then wandered over to Garosu-gil!

We had two coffees, cookies and cake at Butter & Shelter, and ate it all up haha. It sits deep in an alley off Garosu-gil, and the warm look of the exterior catches your eye even if you're just passing by.

Seating on a Sunday afternoon

Around 2 p.m. on Sunday, Butter & Shelter Gangnam-Sinsa had plenty of open seats, but it was completely full within an hour. There's a group seating area at the back too, and that filled up as well!

What desserts are in the Butter & Shelter display case?

The display case had everything from butter sands to cookies, financiers and other baked goods. I was full, but dessert has its own stomach, so I ordered dessert too~~ Everything looked so pretty that I agonized for a long time over what to get. A low-sugar tiramisu, wow! Is it the low-sugar era for desserts and cakes now, too?

The signature item at Butter & Shelter is of course the butter sand! A rich butter aroma paired with sweet caramel. With all that butter it could easily be greasy, but this isn't. Eaten with coffee, the balance is just right. The cookies look like display models, so pretty and neat, but they're all real cookies.

There were so many kinds of cookies that I wanted to try them one by one, but I held back and turned my eyes to the cakes.

Butter & Shelter cookie gift boxes and baked-goods sets

Butter & Shelter sells its cookies in gift boxes like this. There's also a baked-goods set that includes cookies and scones, and the packaging is pretty, so it looks good for gifts.

I picked one butter sand cookie, and a mango white cream cake because the yellow mango on top looked delicious.

There are scones and cookies too.

Five kinds of cookies, Victoria cake, scones, even dujjonku (the Korean pistachio-kadayif chewy cookie)!! Butter & Shelter has a huge range of baked goods.

Butter & Shelter americano price and decaf option

The americano at Butter & Shelter Gangnam-Sinsa is ₩4,500, a very decent price. I liked that the coffee came in a glass, haha. These days it's all plastic cups,,

You can switch to decaf for an extra ₩500, so I made one a decaf iced americano. Both were low in acidity and nutty, an easy coffee nobody would dislike.

A sweet dessert like the butter sand went really well with the nutty americano. Butter & Shelter's desserts aren't just sweet across the board; they balance well with coffee, so I could enjoy them to the end without feeling weighed down. If you're hunting for a dessert spot on Garosu-gil, it's worth a stop!

Each Butter & Shelter cookie is individually wrapped in paper like this. It gives off a real premium-cookie feel.

It was hot that day, so sweet desserts and a cold iced americano in a shop with blasting air conditioning felt like heaven.

How was the mango white cream cake?

Butter & Shelter's mango white cream cake paired white whipped cream with a fluffy sponge. The sponge melts in your mouth. It's incredibly soft.

The mango and cake are frozen, but it was sweet and tasty. Recommended when your sugar is low!! lol After the cake, the butter cookie tasted plain and mellow.

Is the crème brûlée butter sand too greasy?

For the butter sand cookie I chose the crème brûlée one! Butter & Shelter's cookies use gourmet butter, so the flavor is great. It feels like a premium cookie. The crème brûlée has custard buttercream, so it's a bit sweeter and softer.

The sugar coating looks so appetizing. I've baked before, and spreading this sugar coating thinly is really not easy. Extreme difficulty!!

The charm of the crème brûlée is that crackly sugar coating. After just one, I got curious about the other flavors. People who don't like overly sweet desserts can enjoy this one too.

The butter filling is super thick too. Yet it wasn't greasy at all, which amazed me. Is this the power of gourmet butter(?)

Since it's a butter cookie, I worried it would be heavy or greasy at first, but it was cleaner than I expected. The butter flavor is strong, yet no oily feeling lingers in your mouth, so I kept reaching for it with my coffee. Having tried it, I get why Butter & Shelter's butter sand is famous!

The crispy texture is great! Skip the cake if you must, but I definitely recommend the butter sand cookie.