Incheon bakery café for a chewy white roll at soft opening: Dalgeuraem

Dalgeuraem in Gyesan-dong

What kind of bakery café is Dalgeuraem in Gyesan-dong?

Dalgeuraem (달그램) is a brand-new bakery café in a residential alley right behind Gyesan Station, and it does a great white roll and a summer whole-fruit watermelon juice. A white roll place in Incheon at last!! The café feels like warm sunlight, so it's nice for a relaxed break, and with all the baked goods and desserts made in-house it's a good spot for after-meal dessert time too.

There's an opening event right now: a free cold brew concentrate plus a butter cookie! Go before they run out. Let me tell you up front: the Dalgeuraem white roll studded with vanilla bean and the watermelon juice made only from sweet whole watermelon are seriously insanely good...🥹 I'm someone who likes plain, mellow flavors, and while the coffee and salt bread here are tasty too, the white roll (a castella roll bun) and the watermelon juice blew my mind. This new Gyesan-dong café is like a hidden pearl in a friendly residential alley, and I'll show you everything from the breads to what I ordered. Let's go~

Dalgeuraem hours, location and parking near Gyesan Station

Dalgeuraem is open 10 a.m.–10 p.m., and takeout and delivery are available. It's a 3-minute walk from Gyesan Station Exit 3, right behind the station.

It's a new café tucked among friendly residential houses, and the warm butter-colored awning and wood interior make it a comfy place to rest. It's freshly opened, so after a readjustment period (6/7–6/9) the grand opening is planned for 6/10, and I went during the soft opening.

There's no dedicated parking. I recommend the nearest one, the Gyesan Sports Park underground public car park, which is cheap at ₩300 per 15 minutes.

Inside Dalgeuraem: the café interior

Inside, a wide open glass window frames the friendly alley like a picture, sunlight pours in, and the warm wood interior matches it. It's exactly the homey vibe I love.🥹 It's comfortable and cozy, so it works for a solo café visit in Gyesan-dong, and it's great for a blind date or a date too.

There's a bakery kitchen at the back of the café. Every cake and baked good at Dalgeuraem is made in-store. And the quality is way beyond a neighborhood franchise bakery. The bread quality here is crazy. It's only because the café is new; once it gets more famous, it'll be on the Incheon bakery pilgrimage list.

Dalgeuraem drink menu and signature drinks

Dalgeuraem's signature drinks are the vanilla bean cream latte, peanut cream latte and black sesame cream latte, and there's everything from basic coffee to juice, ade and various teas (the menu photo is from Naver Place). I ordered a basic iced americano and, since it's summer, the watermelon juice.

Let me say up front: it's richer and tastier than the watermelon juice at that famous place (the one I'll only name in initials, haha). It isn't blended with ice; it's just watermelon blended on its own, with the ice served separately, so it's not a watermelon smoothie but a rich watermelon juice.👍🏻

Dalgeuraem cakes and prices

Dalgeuraem's cake slices cost ₩7,000–8,500, and the assorted whole cake is ₩48,000. I photographed all the cakes and baked goods on sale! First, the cake showcase.

• Tiramisu cake ₩7,000
• Matcha KitKat cake ₩8,500
• Sweet pumpkin cream cheese cake ₩7,800
• Mango yogurt cake ₩8,200
• Mango fresh cream cake ₩8,200
• Basque cheesecake ₩7,000
• Ojamong (pink grapefruit) cake ₩8,200
• Jeju Gujwa carrot cake ₩7,500
• Assorted whole cake ₩48,000

The prices aren't exactly cheap, but once you see the cakes, it makes sense. The sponge is thin, packed with fresh cream, yogurt cream and fruit between the layers, and each slice is bigger than an adult woman's fist.

They also sell cute birthday candles. In hot summer, carrying a cake around makes that delicious fresh cream melt, right? From blowing out birthday candles to a coffee-and-dessert break, you can do it all at Dalgeuraem in one spot.😇

Dalgeuraem breads and prices

Dalgeuraem has lots of upgraded salt bread (butter roll) versions, so I recommend it as a salt bread spot in Gyesan-dong. And!! The most important ones, my beloved breads. Are these the owner's own recipes!? Many looked like nothing I'd seen before. There's a huge variety. It's good enough that they could run purely as a bakery rather than a café.

• Egg tart ₩4,000
• Victoria cake ₩7,800
• Lemon glacé madeleine ₩3,200
• Espresso gianduja madeleine ₩3,500
• Tonka chocolate financier ₩3,500
• Plain financier ₩2,800
• Traditional baguette ₩5,000
• Chocolat baguette ₩5,200

• Chocolate-loaded salt bread ₩4,500
• Blueberry cream cheese scone ₩4,500
• Crème brûlée salt bread ₩4,000
• Chopumtal scone ₩4,500
• Buldak mayo salt bread ₩6,000
• Chili's salt bread ₩6,500
• Squid ink cheese salt bread ₩4,000

• Soft salt bread ₩3,000
• Salt ciabatta ₩3,500
• Chocolate ganache baguette ₩5,500
• Corn mayo cream cheese ciabatta ₩5,000
• Apple pie ₩4,200
• Corn cheese pie ₩3,800
• Chewy white roll ₩5,000

From plain mellow breads to savory breads that count as a meal, sweet breads for when you're feeling down, and baked sweets for gifts, the lineup is all hits, no duds. A small independent bakery café with this many kinds..!? You can tell how serious the owner is about bread.

Dalgeuraem opening event: free cold brew concentrate and butter cookie

For the opening event, each guest gets one cold brew concentrate (caffeinated or decaf) and one handmade butter cookie. I had picked my bread, ordered, and was sitting down to rest when the owner brought them as a freebie!!! Boss, if you give this much away, what's left for you...🥹

As I write this, I'm having the cold brew with the butter cookie. The cold brew has that signature chocolatey nuttiness and smoothness. The butter cookie tastes like a famous butter cookie, concentrated. It's a thin cookie, but the nutty butter aroma is so strong that I end up cutting it into candy-sized bites. The butter flavor is rich but not overly sweet, so it feels like a premium butter cookie.

How sweet is Dalgeuraem's whole-fruit watermelon juice?

Dalgeuraem's watermelon juice is made from just the watermelon flesh with no ice, so it's not a smoothie and the watermelon flavor is rich. Back to it~ this is the watermelon juice I ordered. Even the color of the diced watermelon garnish says [this is a high-sugar watermelon~~].

The sweetness isn't a [hmm~~ good buy] level you get when you buy a watermelon; it's a [wow, so sweet. Honey watermelon!!!!] level. If I'd only had the juice, the flavor and sweetness are so strong that I'd have suspected they added sugar, but the garnish watermelon is so sweet, and that exact flavor is in the juice.😋

Move over, ddaengmoban (watermelon drink). The natural cool sweetness of watermelon sends summer thirst straight down.👍🏻👍🏻 Please try this watermelon juice.

How does the Dalgeuraem americano taste?

Dalgeuraem's americano was ₩4,000, hot or iced alike. Iced americano season is back! The coffee is super nutty with strong acidity too, a truly full-bodied, expensive-tasting coffee in flavor and aroma.

There's no burnt-bean taste at all, yet the flavor is so intense that even one sip makes you go "ugh~" (meaning delicious). Dalgeuraem has lots of sweet chocolate and fresh cream desserts, and this americano is just what you pair with them. Sweet-bitter-sweet-bitter, done right.

What does Dalgeuraem's chewy white roll taste like?

Dalgeuraem's chewy white roll (₩5,000) is a roll bun with a moist, chewy skin dusted in castella crumbs and filled with vanilla bean milk cream. You MUST!!!! try it!!! This is an Incheon white roll, castella roll bun hotspot.. The chewy white roll comes hygienically in a takeout container, with one long roll cut into two half-length pieces.

The container was so deep I wondered if it held two thin rolls, but it was just one super plump, chubby roll. The outside is coated in moist, soft castella crumbs. Inside is milk cream studded with vanilla bean, and the amazing thing is you taste the nutty flavor of melting milk and the fragrant vanilla at the same time.

It's not a cream that leaves an oily film in your mouth. The cream texture is definitely fairly rich, yet it melts away lightly once it's in your mouth... And it's delicious without being too sweet!!! It's a pleasant, gentle sweetness, so even people who don't like fresh cream cake would probably enjoy the Dalgeuraem white roll. The name is well chosen too: the skin isn't like a cream bun's but a moist, chewy skin like a baby-bottom bread (a soft round bun). The chewy, moist, melt-in-your-mouth texture drove me wild. I strongly recommend Dalgeuraem, the Incheon white roll and castella roll bun spot..

Dalgeuraem soft salt bread and salt ciabatta

Dalgeuraem's soft salt bread (₩3,000) is bigger than a small plate, with a fluffy dinner-roll texture. It's my boyfriend's number one pick, and he grabs it nearly every time he sees one. First off, the salt bread is bigger than a small plate!

Cut in half, it's a proper butter cave~~ The name "soft salt bread" fits too. It isn't a chewy, crisp baguette-like salt bread but has a tender, dinner-roll-like skin. Maybe they spared no expense on good butter, because even unheated the nutty butter aroma is strong, and the salty salt cleanly cuts the butter scent. If you like crisp salt bread, I think it'd be even better warmed in an air fryer.

Even tastier than my boyfriend's pick, the soft salt bread, was the salt ciabatta (₩3,500). It's a ciabatta slightly bigger than the salt bread, with salt sprinkled on the surface, so it's tasty even on its own.

My boyfriend likes plain, basic bread with a chewy, springy, crisp texture, and this bread has every one of those elements. It's like a more tightly chewy baguette!! The outside is crackly and chewy like a baguette, but unlike a real baguette's crumbly moist inside, the ciabatta's inside is chewy and delicious. It has a dense bite like round mozzarella cheese.

I often buy baguette to go with gambas, but Dalgeuraem's ciabatta will be even better. Still chewy even after cooling..💞💞

What to order at Dalgeuraem: white roll and watermelon juice

The must-eats at Dalgeuraem are the watermelon juice and the chewy white roll. The drinks and breads are all delicious in their own ways, so picking recommendations was hard, but I give the watermelon juice and white roll my very, very, very strongest recommendation. I'm an iced-coffee-all-year person who picked watermelon juice, and a plain-bread person who picked a sweet white roll..!?!? That means the watermelon juice and white roll here are really good... Plus, the owner is giving away cold brew and butter cookies for the opening event, so there's no reason not to go. Do visit Dalgeuraem!!