Choco baguette, kabocha rye and pain au chocolat: Lemangdoré

I'd come over near Cheonggyecheon and was looking for somewhere to grab a coffee and rest a bit. I don't really have a discerning coffee palate, so I tend to look for places where I can enjoy good bread alongside it — and that's how I found Lemangdoré Gwanghwamun.

Between Cheonggyecheon and City Hall, a large bakery café spanning three floors

It sits between Cheonggyecheon stream and City Hall, so it's easy to drop into during a walk, and since it's a fairly sizeable bakery café using all three floors, it felt like a great fit for a Cheonggyecheon café date course.

There doesn't seem to be a dedicated parking space, so public transit would be more convenient than driving.

• Lemangdoré Gwanghwamun
• 📍 17 Mugyo-ro, 1st–3rd floor, Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea
• ⏰ Daily 08:00–21:00
• ☕ Coffee last order 20:30

1st floor seating and kiosk ordering

I liked that there was seating further inside the ground floor too, so you can settle in with plenty of room.

Looking down as I went up the stairs, the whole first floor came into view at once — people picking out bread, people ordering, people waiting for coffee. There were quite a few people around, but the space itself never felt cramped. With a large café like this, there's also the fun of wandering floor to floor deciding where to sit.

Kiosk

You order at the kiosk set up on the first floor.

What's in the showcase

Overall it had warm lighting with pops of red as an accent. Sandwiches were prepared separately too, so it looked like a good option for a simple meal — office workers around Gwanghwamun could easily do a sandwich-and-coffee combo for lunch.

Looking at the showcase, there was a really wide variety of pastries. With flaky, layered pastries lined up neatly, I wanted to try one of each.

From sweet pastries like croissants, pain au chocolat, and egg tarts, to baked goods like financiers and madeleines, to sandwich bread for a light meal — it was all there.

I'd come for a Cheonggyecheon café date and ended up getting a whole bakery experience too. Honestly, just looking at the visuals made it genuinely hard to choose. There was a pistachio croissant listed as a best menu item too, and plenty of sweet desserts including pain au chocolat.

Coffee menu and goods

The coffee menu ranged from lattes to hand-drip to non-coffee options, with a variety of beans to choose from according to preference, so coffee lovers would probably have fun just reading the menu.

I noticed there were also goods displayed along one wall, which looked good for gifts or thank-you presents. Go in for a coffee, end up buying bread, checking out the baked goods, browsing the gift items — you could easily spend a lot of time on the first floor alone. There were coffee bean-related products on display too, which was fun to look through.

2nd floor vs 3rd floor — which was better

After ordering I went up to the second floor, but it was completely full, so I headed up to the third floor. The second floor has more seats than the first and an overall calmer atmosphere.

I went up one more floor to check out the third floor, and personally, I liked the third-floor atmosphere best. It felt a bit quieter and more relaxed than the second floor, and there was fun in looking over each piece of furniture too. If you're looking for a café date spot around Cheonggyecheon or Gwanghwamun that isn't crowded, I'd really recommend going all the way up to the third floor. I settled in on the third floor and got down to serious bread time. What I picked was the choco baguette, kabocha cream cheese country bread, and pain au chocolat.

Choco baguette, kabocha cream cheese country bread, and pain au chocolat — the taste

The choco baguette looked like it would be pretty dense, but once I cut into it, it was more moist than expected. It was packed with chocolate. You could taste the chocolate flavor throughout, and it went really well with coffee.

The kabocha (sweet pumpkin) cream cheese country bread had a natural, gentle sweetness from the kabocha, softened nicely by the cream cheese, so it was easy to eat without feeling too rich. It felt a bit more substantial than the sweeter dessert breads, so it could work as a simple meal substitute too.

And since I love pastries, I couldn't walk past the pain au chocolat — the layers were visible even from the outside. Cutting it with a fork, I loved how it crackled and split into layers. The outside was crisp and the inside even more moist, with the chocolate adding a nutty sweetness — really delicious, and this kind of bread definitely needs to be paired with an americano.

How was the Cheonggyecheon café date

Alternating between the three, each one had such a different charm that it was fun picking through the variety. Next time I'd like to try the pistachio croissant I missed out on this time. Around Cheonggyecheon and Gwanghwamun there are so many cafés that it can actually be hard to decide where to go, but Lemangdoré Gwanghwamun has plenty of space across three floors, and since each floor has a slightly different mood, you can pick a seat to match your taste. Above all, the wide variety of bakery items made it a great place to spend a relaxed time with good bread. If you're looking for a Cheonggyecheon café date spot, I'd recommend giving Lemangdoré Gwanghwamun a visit.