Cheonan dog café with croissant platter, ₩5,000 tent zone: Pino Cafe

On a day when autumn was just starting to arrive and the weather was gorgeous, I wanted somewhere I could eat well, take in a pretty view, and just relax. I found it — Pino Cafe, tucked inside Taehaksan Natural Recreation Forest in Pungse, Cheonan, where you can already feel a bit of autumn thanks to the yellow cosmos everywhere.

It's a large café with a sprawling 3,000-pyeong garden and views of Taehaksan mountain, offering brunch and dessert plus an outdoor terrace and camp-picnic space where you can bring your dog. Perfect for a healing date with kids, dogs, family, or a partner — let me show you around.

Parking and opening hours at Pino Cafe Cheonan

Pino Cafe has three parking lots: Lot 1 in front of the main building, Lot 2 behind the Siyudang building, and Lot 3 next to the annex. If all three are full, there's a public lot in front of the Taehaksan management office.

• Hours: open daily 10:00–20:30 (normal hours during Chuseok holiday)
• Dogs allowed on the outdoor terrace (leash required)
• Private tent zone and cabins available (book via Naver, DM, or phone)

What's on the brunch menu at Pino Cafe

Pino Cafe Cheonan has such a wide range of brunch dishes and drinks that choosing becomes a happy kind of dilemma. If you visit on a weekday between 11am and 2pm, there's the happy-hour Happy Set (sandwich + drink + salad); if you're craving meat, there's a whole pork belly steak platter; and beyond that there's pizza, pasta, and risotto too.

They also have dessert-café staples like salt bread, churros, and cookies, so this is a place where you can cover a full meal through to dessert.

They're clearly serious about their drinks too — there are tea samples so you can see exactly what kind is used in each, and they even sell bubbles for kids to play with in the garden. If it's someone's birthday, they sell candles so you can celebrate with a cake.

Dog treats and kids' amenities

True to its status as a pet-friendly business in Cheonan, they sell handmade dog treats, so even if you forget to bring some, you're covered. There's also a microwave for warming baby food, a high chair, and a self-service bar for extra plates or cutlery if you run out — the thoughtfulness was obvious even before I'd ordered anything.

Indoor seating in the main building and annex

Pino Cafe is a large café set deep inside Taehaksan Natural Recreation Forest in Pungse, and each seating area inside has a different vibe, built around wide tables that suit groups.

The space is divided by glass doors, and everything from the mirror zone onward is decorated in a charming, detailed way.

The restrooms, kept spotlessly clean and separated by gender, even have hair ties available and a diaper-changing table.

The annex

Beyond the main building there's an annex too, great for chatting indoors at your own pace — it has its own restroom and self-service bar, so it's a comfortable place to unwind.

The 3,000-pyeong garden and dog-friendly outdoor terrace

That said, the space that impressed me most at Pino Cafe was, without question, the outdoor area. Right in front of the café there's a mini terrace with a fountain, and it was full of tables with dogs at every one. Manggu got a photo too.

Pino Cafe's garden changes with the seasons — daisies in spring, green barley and hydrangeas in summer, yellow cosmos in autumn, and a Christmas garden in winter. It seems like it'd be fun to visit through all four seasons.

Walk a little further past the mini terrace and you'll reach a wide garden with a red windmill turning in the breeze. There's a little path beside the windmill for photos with the flowers, and parasol-covered seats scattered throughout the garden where you can sit and take in the scenery.

Behind the garden there's a small stream, and messing around there with Manggu really felt like being immersed in nature. There's also a small daisy patch tucked away.

How to use the private tent zone for 5,000 won

The space I liked best while wandering around Pino Cafe was the camp-picnic area set up behind the wide garden. It's called the Pino Forest Romance Private Tent Zone and Pino Cabin, where you can enjoy camping and picnicking together in nature — and dogs are welcome, so Manggu got to run around happily.

Inside the tents, both cooling and heating are set up, along with camping gear, board games, and blankets ready for you to relax — no need to bring your own gear, just show up. It's especially great to visit in weather like this, in spring or autumn.

It's 25,000 won for two hours, but with orders over 50,000 won you get a 20,000 won discount — so you can use a private tent for just 5,000 won.

There are spots to sit and rest all around the garden at Pino Cafe, and we ate at the wooden benches in the camp-picnic zone. Sitting on the bench looking out at the wide lawn park, eating brunch, gave me the relaxed feeling of having brunch outside a house with a yard.

What we ordered at Pino Cafe and what it cost

• Pastry corn cheese pizza ₩16,900
• Croissant platter ₩17,000
• Americano ₩4,000
• 100% real orange juice ₩6,500
• Pino Suffner ₩7,000

Croissant platter, 17,000 won

This platter comes with a croissant sandwich, seasonal salad, sausage, and fries. The croissant sandwich was delicious starting with the bread itself — flaky and nutty, and it paired well with the fresh sandwich fillings. With the salad, sausage, and fries alongside, one platter let us enjoy several menu items at once. The sausage was surprisingly filling and the fries were tasty, so this ended up being more filling than I expected for a brunch dish.

Pastry corn cheese pizza, 16,900 won

This is a corn cheese pizza on a crispy pastry crust rather than regular pizza dough, so it has that distinctive flaky texture, and even the edges were tasty. It's generously topped with cheese and corn, so every bite had a nutty, sweet flavor — a cheese-and-corn combo that's hard to get wrong.

Three drinks we tried

The Americano, ordered mild at ₩4,000, was nice with no sharp acidity. The 100% real orange juice at ₩6,500 let you taste the actual fruit and was refreshing alongside brunch.

The Pino Suffner at ₩7,000 is the café's signature drink, topped with a sweet-and-salty cream where the sweetness of the cream came through a bit more strongly. Drinking it after finishing brunch felt like having dessert built right into the drink.

Leaving a Naver receipt review gets you a multi-layered flaky egg tart, so we got to enjoy a little dessert on top of the meal as well.

Forest romance camp-picnic in a 3,000-pyeong garden

Who Pino Cafe Cheonan suits best

Pino Cafe was a great place to spend a relaxed day in nature. Between the good food, coffee, and the sprawling garden to explore, time flew by. I'd originally thought about hiking Taehaksan behind the café, but after wandering the garden I already felt like I'd gotten plenty of walking in.

I'd recommend this to anyone in Cheonan looking for a large café for brunch and Western food, or anyone wanting to unwind in nature with kids or a dog. It'd make a nice different kind of date on a sunny day with a partner too — good food, a pretty garden to explore. I got a proper dose of healing at Pino Cafe and I'm planning to come back.