Ttukseom cake café in the heat: collapsed Pistachio Festival, Notldun

What kind of dessert café is Notldun in Ttukseom?

Notldun (NOTRE DON) is a pastry boutique on Seoulsup 2-gil near Ttukseom Station, sharing a building with a small goods shop on the 1st and 2nd floors. I had an appointment and ended up in Seoulsup and Seongsu on a weekday for the first time in a while, so I made a full plan: while I'm here, I'm hitting every place I've wanted to visit! I walked all the way over toward Ttukseom Station, and Notldun was my very first stop 🙌

A prop shop I love and a dessert spot I love, together in one building, on the 1st and 2nd floors? Were these two places made just for me..? 🫢

Notldun is a Ttukseom café run together by a pâtissier from Cheonha Jebbang (a Korean baking competition show) and a chef from The Dessert (a Korean dessert show). I enjoyed both programs so much that I was even more eager to visit.

Is there a wait at Notldun, and what is the time limit?

Notldun gets quite a lot of waiting on weekends, so there is a waiting tablet at the entrance, and when the café is full your stay is limited to 1 hour 30 minutes. Take the stairs next to it up about half a flight and you'll see the entrance right away.

Luckily I came early on a weekday, so there were still two or three tables free and it was pretty quiet. Timing game won for once 😂🙌

Is Notldun good for a date or for going alone?

Inside, Notldun has a simple, modern white-and-wood interior. It's a small space but very clean. There aren't a lot of tables, but they aren't squeezed too close together and it felt cozy.

The mood was calmly chatty and quiet, so it looked great as a Seoulsup–Ttukseom date spot, and there was also someone sitting there on their own.

Notldun's cake lineup, with sold-out items even early on a weekday

And now, the big moment: Notldun's cake lineup 🎀🍰 Even though it was early on a weekday, quite a few desserts were already sold out, which made me sad.. 😂

The day I visited, Notldun only had the Signature Noix, Forêt Noire, Salty Caramel Mille-feuille and Pistachio Festival left. I was really curious about the Signature Blanc and Maska Berry too, but sadly they were sold out 🤣 Still, the two I most wanted to try were there, so I hurried and picked them ✔

And there were beautifully baked madeleines with plump little bellies! They had a variety of flavors.

Honestly, I wanted to take one of all four 🤣 but the Salty Caramel Mille-feuille looked like it would lose its shape very easily on the way, and I felt it would taste much better eaten right in the café, so sadly I skipped it and asked for just the other three to go.

What drinks does Notldun have?

Notldun's drink menu was varied: coffee and tea, fruit ades, and non-coffee drinks like milk tea, matcha latte, strawberry latte and chocolate latte. I'm normally an iced Americano person, no questions asked, but the Valrhona dark chocolate latte made me so curious that I swore I'd try the drinks next time 🥹 I'd already had coffee, so it was a shame, but I held back and took away just the three cakes I was curious about.

• Signature Noix ₩13,000
• Pistachio Festival ₩12,500
• Forêt Noire ₩12,000

How does Notldun pack cakes for takeout?

Notldun carefully packs the cakes in a cooler bag with an ice pack, and the staff recommended eating them the next day if I couldn't refrigerate them within 2 hours. I guess the cakes taste most true to form when they're completely chilled through-!

The kind staff member packed each cake carefully so nothing got squashed 🙏 I could see the chef across the way hard at work making cakes, and when I noticed something written on the glass window and looked closer, it was full of signatures from famous people, just like a proper Ttukseom dessert hotspot.

As soon as I got home I took the cakes out. Each one was prettily packed with care, and the cake name was written on a note on top, so I didn't have to open every box to tell them apart, which was handy.

Pistachio Festival carried around on a hot day: the shape collapsed, but the taste?

I carried Notldun's Pistachio Festival around all day in the heat, and even with the ice pack they gave me, it melted and its pretty shape collapsed. The next morning, the first one I picked to go with my coffee was the Pistachio Festival.... and? Ta-da... shock and horror + total confusion... 😂

Sob... but I have to pull myself together and review it anyway, right? ㅠㅠㅠㅠㅠ I didn't eat it the day I bought it. I kept it cold in the fridge overnight and took it out the next morning, so the shape had collapsed but it had set cold again in that state, and the taste was still the best, honestly..🥺

Pistachio Festival (₩12,500)

Notldun's Pistachio Festival is a cake made with pistachio (USA), fresh cream (France) and chocolate (France). I'd read so many glowing reviews that it was one of the desserts I was most excited about, and the moment I took a bite, the nutty pistachio flavor filled my whole mouth ✨

The stuff that ran down is chocolate syrup, and I scraped it up with my fork and ate it together 🤣 Pistachio + chocolate, how could that not be delicious 🥺 Above all, the pistachio aroma was so strong that the dujjonku (Dubai chewy cookies) I'd enjoyed before suddenly tasted cheap, which is some kind of magic..;; So this is what properly rich, nutty pistachio tastes like..😂 Everyone, don't eat dujjonku, eat Notldun's Pistachio Festival..

Forêt Noire and Signature Noix at tea time with my husband

Then in the evening I took out the Forêt Noire and Signature Noix as a tea-time snack with my husband. I'd expected it thanks to the Pistachio Festival... but these had lost their shape too 🤣

Forêt Noire (₩12,000), my No. 1 pick

Notldun's Forêt Noire is a cake made with cherry (USA), dark chocolate (France) and star anise (Vietnam), and it was my No. 1 of the three that day. The first bite was just "oh, this is good?", but the moment I took a second bite.. oh, this is my No. 1, haha

The dark chocolate is so rich it's almost bitter, and you bite into pieces of cherry between soft cream and moist cake. That bittersweet + tangy cherry combination was seriously crazy ㅠㅠ And somehow it isn't dense like a brownie, it's soft like a mousse, yet it still has this intense dark chocolate flavor, which I found amazing? It felt like eating a really luxurious dessert.

The sweetness is so deep it lifts your mood the moment you eat it, and it goes perfectly with an Americano ☕🍫 If you're a chocolate fanatic, you must try it! Notldun's Forêt Noire is my recommendation 🍒

Signature Noix (₩13,000), my husband's No. 1 pick

Notldun's Signature Noix is a cake made with milk chocolate (France), almond (USA) and whiskey (USA), and it was my husband's No. 1 🙌 It had a very soft milk chocolate flavor with a different charm from the Forêt Noire. I thought it tasted like a perfectly classic hazelnut chocolate, but the description says it's an almond combination!

Inside there's a crispy crunchy texture too, which made it even more harmonious and delicious. How to put it? Like a hotel-dessert version of a chocolate strawberry cake, made very, very fancy? haha I'm sorry I can only describe it so cheaply..

If you're serious about sweet desserts, I recommend stopping by at least once: NOTRE DON (Notldun), a Ttukseom café and dessert hotspot. If you take cakes away on a hot day, plan your route so you can put them straight into the fridge.