Hopo, Yangsan bakery café: weekend wait, sweet potato bread at Choi

Today I visited Choi, a big café in Hopo, Yangsan with a huge range of bakery items and drinks, plus a gorgeous Nakdong River view. It's a brand-new bakery café that took over the old Haewoldang in Hopo! I'd noticed it many times passing between Busan and Yangsan and was curious, so when I got the chance to visit, I figured I'd write it up 🙌🏻 If you're looking for a café near Busan or a large café in Yangsan, save Choi for a drive-out visit.

What kind of café is Choi Main Branch in Hopo, Yangsan?

Choi (CHOI) Main Branch is a large bakery café at 83 Yangsan-daero, Dongmyeon, Yangsan, Gyeongnam, open daily from 09:00 to 21:50. Haewoldang was famous as Hopo's signature large café, and it has now become the Choi bakery café, so it seems lots of people are visiting. We were curious about the fresh makeover and the bakery lineup too, so we made it a weekend outing 😌

I often drive along the Nakdong River in Hopo to enjoy the view, and Choi is a great large café in Yangsan to stop at for a rest mid-drive. It's not far from Busan's Buk-gu either, so it's popular with people from Yangsan and Busan alike haha.

There are already plenty of big cafés near Hopo Station, but I doubt any has a bakery café this large! Of all the Hopo cafés I've been to, Choi is the biggest, most comfortable, with the best view, and the bakery quality is superb too, so it's the one I'd recommend most around here.

Weekend wait at Choi Main Branch: how to get a seat

On the weekend, both the parking lot and the seats were full, so a wait was a must. The trick is to go up to the 2nd floor and claim a seat before you pick your bread. I'd heard a weekend opening-time rush is urgent, and there really were a lot of customers.

The tempting bakery items on the 1st floor caught my eye first, but securing an empty seat comes first. Head straight upstairs and grab a table.. haha. We were lucky and a window seat was free right away, so we reserved it and trotted back down to the 1st floor 🚶🏻🚶🏻‍♀️

How many kinds of bread does the Choi bakery display have?

Choi's 1st-floor bakery display has so many varieties that just browsing took forever. Looking over the display, I wondered how much better this place could possibly get, with bakery this high-quality!

Honestly, I think I spent more time circling the 1st floor looking at bread than sitting in the café 🫢 Everything looked delicious, which was a real problem, and there were so many kinds that browsing took ages.

I'd definitely eaten a meal before, yet my dessert stomach was totally empty~ It was a happy dilemma, but my mouth kept watering the whole time and I nearly fainted 🤤

Our picks: sweet potato bread, pain au chocolat and babka

At Choi I picked sweet potato bread and pain au chocolat, and my husband picked babka. Watching me wander around unable to decide, he matched my dessert taste and brought the sweet potato bread first 🍠✨

Of course~ I can't resist chewy, sweet sweet potato bread! Nobody knows my taste but my husband, not even me, hahaha.

With my mix of grandma taste and elementary-schooler taste (?), I ended up with the sweet potato bread along with

a pain au chocolat (chocolate croissant), with its impressive layers of pastry packed with sweet chocolate. The flavor you know is the scary one, so I went with familiar breads.

My husband, who shares my taste but has a much stronger adventurous streak, picked something new. It's called babka, loaded with cocoa powder and walnuts for a rich, nutty flavor! Apparently it's a bread everyone loves, young or old, and he seemed to pick it right up on hearing that. Lots of people were grabbing it, so we gave babka a try too🤍

Can't decide? Check Choi's best-seller recommendations

I only found out later that Choi has a best menu recommendation too! If the number of breads has you torn, you can use this to choose.

Next time I want to try "Haereul Pumeun Dal" (The Moon Embracing the Sun), whose one-of-a-kind look caught everyone's eye. Oh, and the cute sofa croissant with a Haribo gummy bear sitting on it too 🐻

Drinks at Choi: iced americano and strawberry smoothie

Ordering drinks at Choi involved a wait too, but you pick drinks up on the 2nd floor, so you don't have to go back and forth between floors. I ordered an iced americano and my husband ordered a strawberry smoothie.

A wait even to order drinks! Is this the hottest café in Busan right now? I was so excited about eating the bread I'd picked that waiting with watering mouth was hard, but I held out well.. good job, me 🥹

Clean coffee is the best with sweet bread! Once again my husband and I split: I went with an iced americano, and he went with the strawberry smoothie, as fresh and sweet as it gets. Then we trotted off to our seat with the bread we'd already gotten!

We got the drinks in no time〰️ Even though the shop is busy, the drink quality is very good. The strawberry smoothie was fresh and tasty, and the americano was rich and nutty, so I was satisfied.

How does the bread at Choi taste?

Choi's pain au chocolat had crisp pastry and a lively butter flavor, and the sweet potato bread was soft and chewy without being too sweet. Time to try the breads I'd been waiting for haha. I had good reason to expect a lot: the owner of Choi bakery apparently has a record of winning the Le Pain baguette and croissant championship 👏🏻

Pain au chocolat: crisp layers and buttery flavor

I bit into the layered pastry with high hopes, and the crisp texture and rich butter flavor were no joke. It's easy for the deep chocolate to bury the pastry's nutty butter taste, but the moderate sweetness of the chocolate let the butter come through properly🤎 It's the kind of place that makes you believe it can compete with bakery cafés even in Busan.

Sweet potato bread: soft, chewy and naturally sweet

And the sweet potato bread was so soft and chewy 😋 The moment I bit in, the sweetness of sweet potato filled my mouth, a natural sweetness that wasn't overdone, so it was easy to enjoy. Thanks to the sweetness and nuttiness of root-crop goodness, if you like root-crop and corn desserts, try the sweet corn bread (chodang oksusu bread) along with the sweet potato bread!

Donut: packed with red bean paste, as good as a market donut

What can I say about the donut.. it's full of sweet red bean paste! It's as delicious as the donuts sold at markets. Nothing beats a market donut, but this one can match it for taste! Because it's stuffed full of red bean paste inside. What's better is the round look, a bit prettier? Wow, a bakery café that even does fried donuts well 👍🏻

Babka: a hearty, nutty bread for a meal

The moment we cut it with a knife, it felt like hefty bread! If you ate a whole one, it would be a complete meal bread. It's a sweet, nutty bread that's worth the price✨ The nut flavor is great and charming, so I think older folks would enjoy it. It goes well with coffee, so we were right to pick it.

From nostalgic donuts to trendy modern bakery items, and even cakes and desserts that need fine detail, I officially recognize it as a bakery café that does it all well!

Nakdong River view or rooftop: where to sit at Choi Main Branch?

From the 2nd-floor window seats at Choi Main Branch you can look down on the Nakdong River and the train tracks, and the rooftop terrace has a landscaped water feature. Coffee, drinks and bread are all delicious at Choi, and it's a view spot too. In Busan, ocean-view cafés are great, but around Buk-gu and Gangseo-gu the Nakdong River view spreads out refreshingly too 🖼️

You get an open view, and the roomy, comfortable space has lots of plush sofa seats, so it's good to come with kids or bring older family. The Nakdong River view and the train track view from the 2nd-floor café window are lovely, so if you can get a window seat, aim for it!

As a large café in Yangsan with this much space, the rooftop is very stylish too. They filled it with water to make a landscaped space, which feels a bit like a little Nakdong River and is great for photos. I think the rooftop is Choi's photo spot! It's a perfect Instagram angle 🤳

Who should you visit Choi Main Branch with?

On the holiday, Choi Main Branch had lots of guests on family outings and couples on dates. It was full, but thinking about it, that's the sign of a must-visit Yangsan bakery, hot café, place worth visiting in Yangsan, and café near Busan.

If you get the chance, on a drive out from Busan please stop by Choi, the Yangsan bakery specialist, haha. Tasty bread with a great view awaits~