Namhansanseong café with Mont Blanc and a quiet 2nd-floor latte: Sum

Sum (카페 숨) in Gwangju, Gyeonggi, is a great spot for tasty desserts near Namhansanseong. It's a hugely popular, truly gigantic café, and I had a sweet, happy time there on a Namhansanseong drive.

How to get to Sum near Namhansanseong

You'll find Sum by driving 800 meters in from the Ojeon-ri farm produce direct market in Namhansanseong. If you're using navigation, go straight 400 meters from the Ojeon-ri community center entrance, make a U-turn at the farm produce direct market, and head up the hill road. The building is huge and the entrance is marked with a red ribbon, so it's easy to spot.

The figure of a person lost in thought with a cup of coffee in hand is a striking sight at Sum. There are passages to the annex on both the 1st and 2nd floors.

Size and atmosphere at Sum

The phrase "large café in Gwangju, Gyeonggi" is no exaggeration: Sum is enormously big.

Maybe because it's so large, there are lots of people and plenty of group visitors, so the inside feels really lively.

Sum's menu and signature drink

Sum requires one drink per person, so it's worth picking a drink that suits your taste. I'd guess Mother's Jujube Tea (어머니 대추차) is the signature drink, haha. They say they pick good-quality jujubes and mash them one by one with care, so it must be sweet and delicious!!

Sum's showcase desserts and bottled drinks

The desserts and cold bottled drinks are easy to see at a glance in the showcase beside the counter.

There's black sesame gâteau chocolat, strawberry cream square, honey cake and walnut cake,

plus cookies and cream, chocolate mousse cake and all sorts of drinks.

Glass-bottled drinks in lovely colors are lined up neatly.

What breads does Sum have?

Breads that need refrigeration are at the front of the fridge. The chocolate éclair looks so good..!! haha

You line a tray with wax paper and pick the breads you want. The first thing that caught my eye was the Mont Blanc!! It rises up high, and the look of tearing it apart layer by layer is so appealing, haha.

The other sliced breads look good too, and the mammoth bread (a giant, hefty bread) has real weight. Nice!

Salt bread and all kinds of sweet breads are displayed prettily, and they look and taste so good that I kept agonizing over which to pick, haha.

They sell Shanghai butter tteok (rice cake) too!! The financiers are individually wrapped, so they'd make a nice gift.

The cheese ball bread looks like it has a lovely soft, squishy texture, the palmier (flaky pastry) a crisp pastry bite, and the injeolmi (roasted soybean powder) cream salt bread, well, what can I say, it can't possibly be bad! haha

The basil cheese green onion bread and the matcha cookies and cream fresh cream doughnut look sweet and slightly bitter in a good way.

The croissants have beautiful layers. Nice! With such a wide variety of breads, Sum is a good place to choose by your own taste.

How were the Mont Blanc, whole chestnut red bean bread and café latte?

I ordered a variety of coffee and bread at Sum and settled into a quiet seat on the second floor.

I got the Mont Blanc and the whole chestnut red bean bread, and both were so good. The breads themselves are quite big!!!

The whole chestnut red bean bread has a big chestnut inside, whole, so you get that distinctive chestnut sweetness.

The café latte at Sum was good too, and I got to spend a sweet, happy time in that big café.

Sum location and opening hours

• Address: 108-11 Ojeon-gil, Namhansanseong-myeon, Gwangju-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• Hours: weekdays 10:00 - 20:30, weekends 10:00 - 21:30