Gumi café for sharing seven cream doughnuts: Otters Jisan Saetgang

The exterior and parking at Otters Jisan Saetgang Main Branch, a large Gumi café

When we arrived by car, my first thought was, “This is way bigger than I expected?”

Even just looking at it from outside, it clearly felt like a very different scale from an ordinary neighborhood café.

The building itself was so large that it stood out at a glance even from a distance, and I could feel that distinctive large-café atmosphere before even stepping inside.

Standing in front of it in person, the scale felt even bigger than it did in photos. Parking is one of those quietly important things when you seek out a large café, right?

If the building is big but parking is scarce, you are tired before getting inside on weekends. But Otters Jisan Saetgang Main Branch had a parking lot that was just as spacious as the café itself. It naturally struck me as ideal for families arriving in several cars or for a group get-together.

Are the first- and second-floor seats easy to use with children?

Once inside, the sense of scale from the exterior continued. The ceilings were high, so it did not feel cramped, and there were a lot of seats.

The space also extends to the second floor, so even with a fair number of people around, it felt less like everyone was packed into one area.

There was a variety of seating, from spots nice for two people to sit and chat, to comfortable family spaces and large tables for groups.

It looked good for a date for two, a family outing with children, or a gathering of several people. High chairs were placed throughout, too, and I could see why so many families with young children were there.

A display that drew my eye to the bakery, even though I came for doughnuts

Doughnuts were our goal from the beginning, but once we got inside, my attention kept drifting elsewhere.

As you would expect from a bakery café, there were many kinds of bread on display besides doughnuts.

We had stopped by on the way home, so this time we decided to stick to our original purpose and focus on the doughnuts. Next time, though, I would like to come a little earlier and slowly choose some of the other bakery items too.

And it was memorable that there was a Kodak four-cut photo booth in front of the counter, haha.

The seven doughnuts and drinks we chose

That day, we chose seven doughnuts in total: Tiramisu Cream (₩4,500), Mango Cream (₩4,000), Chestnut Cream (₩4,200), Blueberry (₩3,900), White Peach (₩4,000), Real Milk Cream (₩4,200), and Lotus Cream.

Looking over the doughnuts on display one by one, we somehow ended up ordering all this. ㅠ.ㅜ

For drinks, we chose a Berry Latte (₩6,800) and Brown Sugar Milk Tea (₩6,600).

The texture and sweetness of the cream doughnuts

When I picked one up and split it open, the cream was the first thing I noticed. “They really put plenty of cream in these.”

The cream-filled doughnuts in particular were packed with enough cream inside that they never felt empty. With one bite, the bread and cream did not feel separate—they came together from beginning to end.

That said, the cream was not so sweet that you would get tired of it after a bite or two. Personally, this was what I liked best: there was plenty of cream, but the sweetness was not excessive, so my hand naturally reached for the next doughnut.

Just adding lots of cream does not automatically make a doughnut delicious, right? If the dough itself is too soft, it can turn mushy quickly with the cream, but the doughnuts we had at Otters were neither too soft nor tough.

They held their shape reasonably well in my hand and had a slight chew when eaten. The doughnut's characteristic springy texture came through amid the soft cream, and the balance was better than I had expected.

We only meant to have a little, then four doughnuts disappeared

Honestly, we had not even come to have a proper meal that day. We stopped by on the way home thinking, “Should we just have a little doughnut before we go?”

But we ate one, then cut open another because we were curious about the flavor, then took out one more to try another cream—and before we knew it, four doughnuts had disappeared right there at our table. -0-

Each type had a different cream and topping, so it was fun to share little bits of several kinds.

Our drinks were the Berry Latte and Brown Sugar Milk Tea, and both paired very well with doughnuts that were not overly sweet.

The Berry Latte combined the soft taste of milk with berries' signature sweet-tart flavor, making it nice with the cream doughnuts. The Brown Sugar Milk Tea had a lovely sweet, rich brown sugar flavor, but most of all, the chewy brown sugar jelly inside was memorable. Jelly came through with every sip, making it fun to eat as well as drink. If you order several kinds of doughnuts, alternating them with a drink makes them easier to enjoy.

Overall thoughts

• A spacious large café in Gumi where parking was one less thing to worry about
• A space split across the first and second floors, with a broad selection of seating
• A place where you can choose from a wide variety of bakery items as well as doughnuts
• Satisfying doughnuts generously filled with cream
• Doughnuts with a pleasantly chewy texture that was not too soft
• Flavors that were not overly sweet, making several varieties easy to share
• A space that works well for dates, family outings, and gatherings with several people

Next time, I plan to visit a little earlier and choose the bakery items I passed over this time, one by one. On a day when you want to leisurely enjoy doughnuts, bread, and drinks, how about taking a little break at Otters Jisan Saetgang Main Branch, a large café in Gumi? ^^