Café near Dongseoul Terminal with Ethiopia pour-over: Center Coffee

Center Coffee Guui East Pole is a café where the coffee is genuinely delicious. You have to try the coffee here!

I stopped by this Gwangjin café near Dongseoul Terminal while waiting for my parents to arrive. After wandering around doing some shopping at the NC Mall too, this is the perfect Gwangjin coffee spot to duck into when your sugar level drops. Here's my Center Coffee review :)

Where is Center Coffee Guui East Pole and how do you get there?

Center Coffee Guui East Pole is a 10-minute walk from Dongseoul Terminal, located in East Pole near Guui Station with great transit access.

Take the escalator down to the basement level and this wide, open space appears right in front of you — that's Center Coffee. It's inside a shopping mall so it's a great place to duck into for a break while shopping, but it's also seriously dedicated to its coffee haha. I actually came here on purpose after hearing about it, just for the coffee.

Inside the big basement café at East Pole

It looks pretty spacious from outside, and walking in, it really is expansive :)

The square wooden chairs and tables looked neat and cute, almost like they were built out of Lego haha.

The menu and asking the owner which bean to pick

Here's the menu. When a café has brewing coffee, meaning hand-drip coffee, I generally think you're guaranteed good coffee! Most of the coffee turns out to be delicious, right? haha

So I decided one cup would be drip coffee, and asked which had better acidity between Ethiopia and Colombia^^ They told me Ethiopia leans fruity while Colombia is more herbal, or if you had to pin it down, more like orange peel. So I went with the familiar Ethiopia haha. I'm grateful for how kindly they took the time to explain the bean notes to me :)

Beyond the coffee, the rich mugwort latte also seems to be a signature! It'll probably be popular in fall and winter too haha. You order everything at the kiosk here.

When I went to ask about the beans, the owner happened to be brewing coffee right then..! What a rare scene to catch..! I asked permission and quickly snapped a photo haha. He was completely focused on the pour-over, carefully dripping the water little by little, and I thought, ah, this is exactly why the coffee tastes so good — that kind of care.

What's in the bakery case at Center Coffee

While ordering coffee I also checked out the bakery items to go with it — plain and chocolate scones

Tiramisu, Chicago cheesecake

There was also a rich-looking chocolate cake. Since it was morning, I ordered the tiramisu, but if I'd come an hour or two later I'm sure I would have gone for the chocolate cake instead haha. It was a deep, dark cacao color that looked dense and delicious :)

What I ordered and what it cost

I ordered Ethiopia brewing coffee for ₩6,500, decaf caffe latte for ₩6,000, and tiramisu for ₩8,500.

I ordered two cups of coffee, so why are there three cups? The owner gave me a taste of the Colombian in a mini cup too! Honestly, it felt like getting a little gift in the morning. Such a generous, kind person... thanks to him, my time at Center Coffee was so enjoyable :)

Colombia: more aroma than flavor

Curious, I took a sip first~ The Colombia actually had less acidity, and hmm, not that strong of a nutty flavor either? It was a bean where the aroma was more intense than the taste. I immediately understood why they described it as herbal haha.

The first sip hits with a strong herbal aroma, then in the middle a very faint acidity and nutty flavor lingers softly, and at the end you catch a light hint of fruitiness.

It was definitely coffee, yet it felt like a fresh experience that didn't taste like typical coffee — a bean worth trying at least once.

Ethiopia brewing coffee: complex aroma and taste

Still, Ethiopia suits my taste more^^ Maybe because it's familiar, but even so, it has this rich, high-quality feel where both the aroma and taste are full. It's not just a simple 'oh, there's acidity, there's nuttiness' kind of taste — it's genuinely complex, and you can taste everything all at once. The first sip brings a refreshing peach-like fruit aroma, followed by that fruity brightness, then a light nuttiness afterward.

Ethiopia is a bean I always enjoy drinking, but it's been a while since I experienced this kind of depth in flavor and aroma. I'm officially calling this a Gwangjin coffee must-visit haha. I think I'll make a point of coming back to Center Coffee whenever I'm near Dongseoul again :)

How the tiramisu paired with the coffee

Bright, light acidity, a fresh aroma. Imagine how well that pairs with a rich, heavy tiramisu haha.

Tiramisu really has to be eaten with an Americano haha. Center Coffee doesn't have a huge variety of bakery items, but it seemed like they focus intensely on each one. Bottom line: the tiramisu was delicious too :)

Layers of bread, cream, and cocoa powder stacked up like roof tiles on a hanok — such a neat, tidy visual.

The fork sinks right in, already soft and fluffy. The most important part, the mascarpone cream, drops off the fork just right — not too heavy, not too light — and melts in your mouth like something artistic!

Honestly I worried the caffeine might be too intense since it was coffee with coffee, but the coffee flavor in the tiramisu wasn't that strong. Drinking an Americano and taking a bite in between actually brings out the coffee flavor even more — I really recommend this combo :)

The decaf caffe latte was good too

This is a real Gwangjin coffee spot that shatters the prejudice that decaf tastes bad. The decaf caffe latte still had a rich coffee body with strong nuttiness and none of that distinctive bitterness — everyone enjoyed it :)

Lastly, the hand-drip was really delicious, so I got to watch the owner's pour-over technique^^ I brew drip coffee at home every morning myself, but a professional barista's skill is really on another level. I learned a lot^^

Is Center Coffee Guui East Pole worth the trip?

• A real Gwangjin coffee spot with genuinely delicious hand-drip coffee
• A large café that's great for a break while shopping at East Pole