Cheongwadae terrace café after lunch: chocolate salt bread at Respire

Where is Respire Bakery, the Seochon café near Cheongwadae?

Respire Bakery Cafe Seochon is a salt bread bakery café on Hyoja-ro 13-gil in Jongno, Seoul, just below Cheongwadae (the former presidential residence). On a weekday lunch when the weather was gorgeous, I had business near Cheongwadae and dropped into this Seochon salt bread favorite. It has a unique atmosphere that comes with being next to one of Seoul's historic sites. Around the Cheongwadae entrance and the nearby roads you can see police and security staff posted, and with the sun this hot lately, I couldn't help thinking how hard it must be for them 😭

From the Cheongwadae entrance to Respire in Seochon it's really close, under a five-minute walk. The café takes up a whole building, and the lovely exterior put me in a good mood from the moment I arrived.

Respire Bakery Seochon opening hours and parking

Respire Bakery Seochon is open 8:30–18:00 on weekdays and 9:00–19:00 on weekends, and for parking you can use a nearby paid public lot (₩3,000 per hour). They sell toast, sandwiches, coffee drinks and baked goods, so it's a perfect brunch café stop near Cheongwadae :)

The lot in front of the café is very large, but it's for Cheongwadae Presidential Security Service staff, so café customers can't park there 😭 The resident parking spots in front can be used after reserving on the Modu-ui Jucha-jang app, and the Hyoja Public Parking Lot and SinGyo Public Parking Lot charge ₩3,000 per hour :)

• Hours: weekdays 8:30–18:00, weekends 9:00–19:00
• Parking: paid public lots (₩3,000 per hour)
• Other: takeout and reservations available, groups welcome, takeout discount, free Wi-Fi

Respire Bakery's terrace and 1st- and 2nd-floor seating

At Respire Bakery Seochon you can sit on the 1st floor, the 2nd floor, or the terrace. Seriously, the weather was so good that coffee time on the Respire terrace turned into a really happy hour *.* There are paintings on the terrace walls too, which are fun to look at!

Ta-da! Brunch café time near Cheongwadae with two kinds of salt bread and signature drinks, as you'd expect from a Seochon salt bread hotspot *.*

The 1st floor had its doors wide open, so it looked cool and airy, and there are seats where you can sit right outdoors.

Head up to the 2nd floor and it's quieter and cozier. Maybe because it's such a popular Seochon café, it filled up with customers pretty quickly.

What to order at Respire Bakery Seochon

The recommended brunch items at Respire Bakery Seochon are the Respire Toast, the omelet sandwich and the garlic shrimp sandwich, and among the baked goods, salt bread is said to be the most popular signature. I heard the salt bread is made with plenty of French Gourmet butter!! With lots of customers and a brunch menu too, the three staff members were busy moving around.

So I picked two of the signature salt breads from this Seochon salt bread hotspot too, haha

How do the Salt Summer Latte and Respire Latte taste?

For drinks I ordered Respire Bakery's signature Salt Summer Latte and the Respire Latte! The latte art was so pretty *.* The café was so lovely and the weather so nice that I was in a great mood, and even a bit of latte art touched me, haha

Even the plate is pretty at Respire Bakery Cafe in Seochon!!! *.*

The coffee was excellent too and I really enjoyed it, hahaha. Respire's signature Salt Summer Latte is the signature latte topped with gelato ice cream, cacao powder and Maldon salt, so you get sweet and salty flavors together.

Is Respire's chocolate salt bread worth it after a big lunch?

Respire Bakery's salt bread is said to be aged for 12 hours at low temperature and baked fresh every morning!!!!! *.* It's crispy outside and chewy inside :)

I wanted something properly sweet, so I picked the chocolate salt bread, and of course... so good +_+ I'd actually come for dessert after a hearty lunch, so I figured I'd be too full to finish it! But... I ate it all super fast ^^

The drinks and the salt bread were both so good and the atmosphere was so pretty at this Seochon salt bread hotspot, Respire Bakery, the café near Cheongwadae!! It also looks like a great stop while strolling around Gyeongbokgung. I recommend you go at least once, haha