Gangnam Station dessert café after dinner: mango cake, Upper and Under

What kind of café is Upper and Under near Gangnam Station?

Upper and Under (어퍼앤언더) is a big dessert café that uses an entire building in the back alleys behind Gangnam Station. After a light dinner with Hani, I searched for cafés near Sinnonhyeon and found this place, and it was a nice choice!

Where do you order at Upper and Under, and how do you get a seat?

If you head for the 1st floor entrance, the setup is that you take the stairs on the right up to the 2nd floor to order. There are tables on the 1st, 2nd and 3rd floors, so my tip is to secure a seat first! Even with all those seats, there were even more customers, so we had to wait a bit.

At the 2nd floor entrance there were even more people. It's a dessert café with cakes and baked goods, so lots of people were ordering and lots were waiting. I decided to grab a seat first and then browse the desserts. Hours are daily from 11 AM to 10 PM!

It was so crowded that I couldn't photograph the inside of the 1st floor. Looking at the menu, Hani told me to pick my drink first, and since I love coffee, I agonized over the signature cream lattes (I'm hopeless at deciding) and ended up with the pistachio cream latte that's so trendy right now! Spoiler: it was a great choice!

What desserts does Upper and Under serve?

The moment we walked in, the madeleines, financiers and canelés I'd already spotted from the window were tempting us, and right next to them, a little fridge held Basque cheesecakes that looked so good. Looking back, I regret not trying the vanilla Basque cheesecake or the yogurt one. There are also ube cheesecake and yellow cheese (hwangchi-jeu) cake.

Slice cakes in the Upper and Under showcase

The showcase holds slices of cream cake in tiramisu, lemon, raspberry, the currently trendy yangzhi ganlu (a mango-pomelo-sago dessert flavor) and mango. Hani picked mango!

Financiers, madeleines and canelés

On the window side opposite, baked goods like madeleines, financiers and canelés are lined up neatly. It was so crowded that I shyly took a video, haha. There are lots of financier flavors.

• Salted choco financier
• Hojicha pecan financier
• Plain financier
• Pistachio financier
• Nuts financier
• Yellow cheese (hwangchi-jeu) financier

There are also sweet corn madeleines, lemon madeleines, and Earl Grey, salted caramel, double vanilla and vanilla canelés. I picked the salted choco financier!

Our after-dinner order and the 3rd-floor terrace

The 3rd floor still had seats, so I grabbed one and came back down, and by then lots of people had finished ordering on the 1st floor, so I went to order there. For cakes you just tell the staff and they bring them out, while for madeleines, financiers and the like you put what you want on a plate yourself. I took a salted choco financier and ordered the mango cake. For coffee I chose the pistachio one from the cream lattes, and Hani ordered the iced milk tea.

The 3rd floor also has a terrace with tables. It was hot, so we just looked and went back inside to sit. After getting our order, we moved from the window side to a seat further inside.

How does Upper and Under's pistachio cream latte taste?

Upper and Under's pistachio cream latte is a pistachio version of an Einspänner (coffee topped with cream), my all-time favorite coffee, and it makes you go "wow~" from the look alone. It was so pretty that I took overhead shots and made a total fuss.

The mango cake and salted choco financier were plated so prettily too, which made me happy.

I scooped a little cream first and tasted it, then sipped the coffee. The soft, lightly sweet cream with the espresso went down smoothly, and it was soft, rich and delicious!

How were the salted choco financier, mango cake and iced milk tea?

Even as someone who has eaten quite a few financiers, I found Upper and Under's salted choco financier delicious, though I was full. As you'd expect from a dessert café, the desserts were all good.

From its color I expected the iced milk tea to be weak, but it was rich and tasty. It's Hani's favorite iced milk tea!

The mango cake, with restrained fresh mango and a sponge that was just sweet enough, soft and moist, was easy to eat without feeling heavy. Hani raved about how good it was!

What are the downsides of Upper and Under?

The only downside of Upper and Under is that it's a bit noisy because there are so many customers. Still, with so many people and such good coffee, it seems like a solid dessert café. The crowd was all quite young, which felt a little awkward, but the staff were friendly, and I stubbornly finished everything, then filmed the 1st-floor footage I couldn't get earlier on my way down.

A fun dessert time with Hani in the lively back alleys of Gangnam Station, after such a long while!