Icheon bakery café with lemon pound cake and salt bread: Cafe Arc

Wrapping up a family trip, we'd been slowly making our way around the country and ended up in Icheon. On the way home, a brunch café caught my eye and I wanted to check it out.

It's called Cafe Arc, and the reviews looked decent, so we tried the coffee and bread. It was delicious, so let me introduce it to you!

Cafe Arc's location and business info

Cafe Arc is located near the Mojeon-ri Hyundai Apartments. It's right on a fairly big street, so it's not hard to find.

• Address: 67 Cheongbaekri-ro, Baeksa-myeon, Icheon-si, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea
• Hours: Mon–Sat 10:00–19:30 (last order 18:30)
• Closed every Sunday
• Other: high chairs, delivery available, group rooms (3–6 people), terrace, bar seating
• Parking: free parking available

Exterior and parking

This time we visited Cafe Arc, known as an Icheon bakery spot, and its standalone building gives it that unmistakable café look right away.

There's another building attached right next to it, and there's parking space beside that. Park as much as you like!

First floor interior and bread display

The first floor interior was smaller than I expected — probably because baking and brunch prep happen right inside. There's a table for six on the first floor, and I spotted high chairs too, so it seems a lot of families come here.

On one side, you could see the bread shelves packed full.

There's quite a variety, but only a few of each, so if there's something you want, it's best to come early and grab it. The lineup includes desserts like pound cakes and breads like salt bread.

Menu and prices

The drink menu wasn't as big as I expected. Apparently the brunch menu is the popular choice, so if I come back, I'll give that a try.

• Lemon pound cake ₩5,900
• Ganbutter salt bread ₩4,500
• Americano ₩4,500
• Lemonade ₩5,500
• Tomato juice ₩7,000
• Peach smoothie ₩6,500

The second floor is great for conversation

The first floor already had customers, so we headed up to the second floor. A group had just cleared out, leaving it empty — spacious with a warm atmosphere.

Seating ranged from tables for four up to tables for six.

There were group seats available too. But keep in mind sound isn't fully blocked between them.

For brunch customers, there's a corner with forks, napkins, and other essentials set up.

The coffee's great, but I want to spread the word about this Icheon bakery

About ten minutes later the bell rang, and heading downstairs, the food arrived looking beautiful. Even the colors were pretty. Let's taste them one by one.

This is my sister's peach smoothie. Honestly, at big chains I usually skip drinks like this because they taste bland, but Cafe Arc's version tastes almost like an actual white peach. The peach piece on top was more like a firm 'ddakbok' peach. It was more polished than I expected and got tastier the more I drank.

The lemonade was sharp and tangy too, with a clean finish. It might be a bit intense for kids, but it's just right as a dessert drink for adults.

This is the americano. I was curious whether the coffee would be good too, and it turned out pretty decent — a bit dark and strong.

Mom's tomato juice came out last. The tomato juice tastes vividly fresh, almost like it's 100% tomato, with no artificial sweetness — I could see it having a devoted fan base. Passed as a real fresh fruit juice!

Next, let's try the breads. Picking just the two best-looking ones wasn't easy.

We cut it with the knife they gave us, and they must swap it out regularly — it sliced through cleanly with no snagging at all.

The lemon pound cake we tried first had a pleasant texture, with sweetness plus a bright lemon zing. This is the kind of quality you'd expect from Mangwon-dong, not a café in Icheon, Gyeonggi. The owner must really have skilled hands.

This is the ganbutter salt bread. The red bean butter filling was baked well with good buttery flavor, and the amount inside wasn't overdone, so the ratio felt just right.

Next time I want to try the brunch too

I was surprised by how the bread kept tasting better the more I ate — the kind that makes you say it out loud. The drinks were great too, so if I stop by again I'd love to try the brunch menu. If you love bread, desserts, or good drinks, come check it out!