Hanok café in Gwangju with traditional desserts: Hoyang Horim

A Yangnim-dong roastery café with hanok atmosphere

Let me introduce a Yangnim-dong roastery café where you can enjoy house-roasted coffee and traditional desserts in a tranquil hanok.

Hoyang Horim basics

Address: 1F, 4 Uwolsoon-gil, Nam-gu, Gwangju, South Korea (전남광주 남구 우월순길 4 1층) Hours: Daily 11:00–21:00

Can you see the sign in front of the entrance? It is a roastery guide, and it also introduces barista Kim Ho-jung. Hoyang Horim roasts its own beans and offers everything from blends to single-origin coffees.

Parking at Hoyang Horim

Christian Hospital Parking Lots 1 and 2 Available: weekends and public holidays, and after 17:00 on weekdays Fee: 1 hour free; ₩400 per 15 minutes after the first hour

Yangnim History and Culture Village Public Parking Lot is available 24 hours a day. You get 1 hour free, too.

An interior where hanok and modern style meet

Once inside, I noticed a thoughtfully decorated space that preserves the charm of the hanok.

Making tradition part of everyday life

Hoyang Horim is a space that makes a traditional atmosphere easy to enjoy in everyday life today.

The old-fashioned hanok retains details such as wooden pillars and lattice doors, giving it a peaceful feel, while modern tables and lighting blend in naturally. Tradition and modernity coexist here~ There was also a floor-seating area on one side. You can take off your shoes, sit comfortably with low tables and cushions, and really soak up the hanok-café mood.

The tree beyond the window looked like a painting, with the window becoming its frame.

A passing foreign visitor was intrigued by this Korean-style café, looked in, and came inside.

Kiosk ordering and hand-drip choices

Order at the kiosk by the counter. First choose whether you are dining in or taking away, then select your coffee and dessert.

Hand-drip coffee

The hand-drip choices were divided in an easy-to-follow way.

• Nutty-flavored coffee
• Acidic coffee
• Decaf coffee

With the coffees split into these three categories, it was easy to pick one for your taste.

What I ordered

My order was:

• Sweet pumpkin injeolmi waffle (a chewy rice-cake waffle), ₩9,500
• Gaeseong juak ang-butter (fried glutinous-rice pastry with red-bean paste and butter), ₩2,800
• Ethiopia Yirgacheffe Halo Beriti Decaf Natural, ₩6,500

Hoyang Horim's desserts were as distinctive as its coffee. They are handmade in the café, so they were great to enjoy with the house-roasted coffee.

Sweet pumpkin injeolmi waffle

The sweet pumpkin injeolmi waffle, made by pressing rice cake in a waffle maker, looked delicious from its yellow sweet-pumpkin color alone. A scoop of ice cream sits on top of the generously sized waffle.

When I ate it as the cold ice cream melted slightly over the warm waffle, its soft sweetness melted right into the waffle.

There were almonds, too. Such a nice combination of sweet-pumpkin powder and injeolmi.

It was delicious because you get the coldness of the ice cream and warmth of the waffle together.

Gaeseong juak ang-butter

Round juak is topped with red-bean paste and a thick slice of butter. That glossy Gaeseong juak with an ang-butter combination, wow~

The nutty, soft butter and sweet red-bean paste made the flavor much richer together. In particular, the butter gently balanced the sweetness, so they went together better than I expected!

Coffee

I loved that they told me the coffee's name like this. Halo Beriti Natural is introduced as a bean with bright fruit flavors such as blueberry and lemon, along with acidity. It is pleasantly bitter, haha, and I recommend it to anyone who likes coffee with acidity.

Hand-drip beans sold at the café

They also sold signature blend beans roasted in-house.

• Hoyang Blend, ₩10,000: nutty almond flavor and a full-bodied sweetness reminiscent of dark chocolate
• Horim Blend, ₩12,000: a refreshing body with pleasant berry-like sweetness and acidity

If you like nutty coffee, choose Hoyang Blend; if you prefer bright acidity, choose Horim Blend according to your taste. This is a roastery café that is serious about coffee, roasting its own beans, with hand-drip coffee and handmade traditional desserts, too. I recommend Hoyang Horim, a Yangnim-dong hanok café, for a date course~