Injeolmi cream bread and choco forest drink at La Cuesta, Gonjiam café

I went out toward Gonjiam and stopped by La Cuesta for coffee and some good bread.

La Cuesta is a large bakery café in Gonjiam-eup, Gwangju, Gyeonggi, where you can enjoy coffee along with a wide range of bakery items and brunch menus. The building itself is quite sizable, so even on my first visit it felt like a pretty big café.

Rather than just a place to grab coffee and bread and leave, La Cuesta has both spacious indoor and outdoor areas, which made it seem like a good spot to visit on a nice day.

La Cuesta Gonjiam: exterior and parking

When you arrive, the first thing you notice is the large building exterior. With its deep-colored trim and floor-to-ceiling glass walls, it gave off an open, airy feeling overall. There's also a parking area right in front of the building, so it was convenient to visit by car.

Trees and greenery surround La Cuesta, giving it a different vibe from a typical city café. There's outdoor space extending behind the café too, with parasol tables and a lawn area.

La Cuesta is in fact known for having quite a large outdoor area, with a grassy lawn and various outdoor seats set up.

What is the inside of La Cuesta like? Teddy bears and bookshelves

Inside — is this La Cuesta's mascot? — there's a bear, and lots of books, so you can read while having your coffee.

La Cuesta's bakery display and brunch menu

Once inside, the bakery display case and ordering counter are the first thing you see. Being a large bakery café, the bread selection was quite varied — honestly, just choosing what to get took some time.

From basics like plain bread and salt bread to various desserts and baguettes, the display had a wide range.

La Cuesta also sells brunch items like pasta and sandwiches alongside its bakery, so you can just come for coffee and dessert, or make a full meal of it too.

The indoor seating was spacious too, so it looked like a good place to visit with a group. There was a nice mix of table sizes and seat types, so you could pick whatever spot you liked.

What we ordered at La Cuesta that day

Here's what we ended up ordering:

• La Cuesta latte
• Chocolate tree forest
• Corn bread
• Injeolmi cream bread
• Cod roe baguette
• Croissant

That's what we picked. There were so many kinds of bread that we initially planned to get just a couple, but looking at the display got us curious about everything, so we ended up choosing several.

La Cuesta latte and Choco Namu Sup chocolate drink

First we ordered the La Cuesta latte, which you could consider the café's signature menu item. Since it has the café's name in it, I'd been wanting to try it. It had the soft, smooth feel typical of a latte, which paired well with bread, and it was a great choice to enjoy with dessert at a bakery café. It's confirmed to be one of the café's representative drinks.

We also ordered the chocolate tree forest. If you like the combination of chocolate and green tea, this will feel familiar — the name itself brings chocolate and green tea to mind, and it went nicely with bread. Ordering one latte-type drink alongside the chocolate tree forest was great because we got to enjoy two very different-feeling drinks.

Addictive corn bread and injeolmi cream bread

Among the breads, we also picked the corn bread — its name stood out on La Cuesta's bakery menu. With corn baked in, it had a nutty, sweet flavor that went really well with coffee. Since we ordered a variety of breads, we had savory ones like the cod roe baguette and sweet ones like the corn bread, which made picking through them all the more fun.

The injeolmi (sweet rice cake) cream bread was another must. With the combination of injeolmi and fresh cream, it had a nutty yet soft texture. Especially when ordering several breads, I think it's better to mix different flavor profiles rather than picking similar ones.

Paired with a sweet drink, it felt like a proper dessert, and paired with coffee, the nutty flavor really worked well.

Cod roe baguette at La Cuesta

The cod roe baguette. Personally, when I pick out several types of bread, I like to include at least one savory option, and this time it was the cod roe baguette. With the baguette's signature chewy texture plus the salty flavor of cod roe, it was clearly different from the sweet breads. Switching between sweet breads like the injeolmi cream bread and corn bread and this savory baguette made it fun to work through the whole lineup.

Taking the croissants home from La Cuesta

We planned to eat some croissants right away, but decided to take part of them home. La Cuesta has packaging available in store, so we wrapped the croissants up ourselves to bring along. Being able to set aside leftover bread from the café, or bread you'd like to enjoy at home, is one of the convenient things about a bakery café like this. Setting aside some bread to eat in the café with coffee and some to take home meant we got to enjoy it all over again after the visit.

La Cuesta seating, outdoor space and hours

What stood out most while looking around La Cuesta was, again, just how spacious it is. You order and pick up bakery items on the first floor, then head upstairs to a wide seating area, so it never felt cramped. Official tourism info also describes it as a place with generously sized floors and a variety of table sizes spread out comfortably.

There's also parasol tables and a lawn area outside the café, so you can choose between an indoor or outdoor vibe depending on your mood. The parking lot is spacious too, making it a good stop if you're driving around Gonjiam or near Hwadam Botanic Garden.

Current confirmed hours are daily 10:00–22:00, with both takeout and parking available. That said, menu and operating details can change depending on when you visit, so it's worth checking before you go.

Is La Cuesta worth it as a large Gonjiam café?

On this visit to La Cuesta, we had the La Cuesta latte and chocolate tree forest drink, and tried a variety of bakery items — corn bread, injeolmi cream bread, cod roe baguette, and croissants. Unlike a typical café with just one or two kinds of bread, the wide bakery selection made choosing genuinely fun, and it was a great place to enjoy coffee alongside bread.

With its large scale and roomy indoor seating, it also looked like a good spot to visit with friends or family and just hang out talking for a while. On a nice day, you can use the outdoor space too, so beyond enjoying coffee and bakery items indoors, there's fun in exploring the surrounding grounds as well.

If you're driving around Gonjiam or stopping by Hwadam Botanic Garden and looking for a large café where you can enjoy both bakery items and coffee, La Cuesta is worth a visit. We took our time picking out breads we wanted that day, and wrapped up the croissants in the packaging provided in store to take home — altogether it was a pretty satisfying visit.