Movie-night café in East Pole, Guui: fig pavlova at Center Coffee

Where is Center Coffee Guui East Pole?

Center Coffee Guui East Pole, a dessert spot known among Guui Station cafés, sits in the basement level of East Pole. East Pole is a huge shopping-and-culture complex connected to Guui Station — it really has everything — and today my partner and I stopped by to kill some time before our movie.

• Address — Road name: 402 Achasan-ro, B1F, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul / Jibun: 870 Jayang-dong, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul
• Hours — 10:00–22:00, last order 21:30
• Parking — First 30 minutes free, ₩1,000 per additional 10 minutes, max ₩60,000 / 1 hour free with ₩10,000+ purchase, 2 hours free with ₩30,000+
• Restroom — Outside the café, inside the building (separate for men/women)

Arrived at Center Coffee, the dessert spot everyone talks about near Guui Station. It's right in front of the escalator down to B1, so it's super easy to find. It's an open-plan café, and it looked like it'd be nice and airy.

Seating and atmosphere at Center Coffee Guui East Pole

Inside there are 4-seat tables, 2-seat tables, and group tables, so it looks great for parties of different sizes. Center Coffee apparently uses high-end specialty beans and brews with real finesse. If you're someone whose taste buds fall for the coffee or tea here, you're basically doomed to lovesickness once you're home — but they sell drip bags on the side of the store, so it's fun to browse, and good for gifts too.

Menu and how to order at the kiosk

As a high-end coffee shop, Center Coffee sells not just coffee but various teas and seasonal smoothies too. The reason we came today is that word on the street says the desserts are amazing, so we rushed over. Deciding what to eat was agonizing — harder than picking a winner on Produce 101, honestly.

You order at the kiosks next to the cookie display. There are two of them, so you basically never have to wait, which is great.

How was the iced americano?

Here's what I was about to devour:

• Pavlova
• Iced americano

Let's dig in.

Since my partner and I had already eaten dinner and were just stopping by before the movie, we kept it light with one dessert and one coffee. I thought the dessert would be small, but it turned out to have decent heft.

· Iced americano — living up to its reputation as a top-tier specialty house, the coffee has deep, rich aroma from the beans. To my palate there was some acidity, but my partner kept exclaiming that the aroma and flavor were on a totally different level from the coffee at the office. It paired perfectly with the pavlova we ordered alongside it.

Fig pavlova: what does the texture taste like?

· Pavlova — the pavlova came topped with fig. With billowy, cloud-like whipped cream piled high and fig placed on top, it reminded me of the peach Son Goku stole in Journey to the West, somehow. The outside had a crisp, crumbly white meringue almost like streusel, so eating the meringue, cream, and fig together in one bite gave you crispness, chewiness, sweetness, and a touch of tartness all at once — genuinely a gasp-worthy dessert.

When you're done and heading out, just return your tray to the counter, and you're set. Parking is free for the first 30 minutes, with additional free time depending on how much you spend.

Is Center Coffee Guui East Pole worth a stop?

Center Coffee Guui East Pole, a dessert spot near Guui Station — whatever you order here, it's bound to be delicious. The texture and sweetness were so on point that I've already decided to swing by Center Coffee again every time I visit East Pole.