Paju bingsu café in October: whole-mango bingsu, not fig, Fruit Forest

Fruit Forest Paju Direct Store is a fruit bingsu specialty shop that newly opened this summer at Simhaksan in Paju. A new bingsu place had popped up, so I went to check it out, and the mango was so fresh that now when I think of mango bingsu in Paju, I think of Fruit Forest 🍨🥭

Fruit Forest Paju Direct Store opening hours and parking

Fruit Forest (FRUITS FOREST) Paju Direct Store is open daily from 10:00 to 21:00, with last order at 20:30. Parking is free, and you can pay with Paju Pay too.

• Free parking
• Paju Pay accepted
• Pets allowed (terrace)
• Private rental available

Fruit Forest is in the Simhaksan food alley in Paju. I looked it up and there are a few chain branches around Busan. In the Seoul metropolitan area, the Paju direct store seemed to be the only one!

On one side of the parking lot they were selling winter snacks, bungeoppang (fish-shaped pastry with sweet filling) and roasted sweet potatoes. When I'm craving bungeoppang in winter, I'm going to come here for it 🍠🐟

How good are the mangoes at Fruit Forest?

The first thing that grabs your eye when you walk into Fruit Forest is the mango... mangoes piled up like a mountain, as you'd expect from a mango bingsu hotspot 🥭🥭 I've never seen so many mangoes,,

The refrigerated showcase next to it has even more!!! And the thing is, old mangoes always get those black spots, but Fruit Forest didn't have a single one like that 😮 The quality all looked really good 🥭👍

Besides mango, there's all kinds of fruit: pineapple, watermelon, melon, blueberries, oranges, Shine Muscat grapes, dragon fruit, peaches, kiwi and more. You can actually buy just the fruit, too.

Fruit Forest bingsu menu and prices in mid-October

Fruit Forest is a fruit bingsu specialist, so the bingsu menu changes a little by season. I actually wanted to eat the fig bingsu, but fig season was over and it wasn't on the menu 🥹

As of mid-October they were selling fresh mango bingsu, peach bingsu, melon bingsu, injeolmi (rice cake) red bean bingsu, and mixed fruit bingsu. The peach bingsu says ₩32,000 on the menu board, but the staff told me it had come down a bit to ₩28,000!

What else is on the menu? 1+1 fresh mango juice

Besides bingsu, Fruit Forest sells coffee, fruit lattes, fresh juices, yogurt, Greek yogurt, lassi, cakes, croffles (croissant waffles), sweet potatoes, bungeoppang and more. And what I want next time is the fresh mango juice 1+1 !!!

It's 100% fresh mango juice for ₩8,000. With 1+1 that's really cheap, so I'd love to try it sometime. Just in case, I asked the staff whether the 1+1 is a limited event, and they said it stays 1+1 unless there's a mango supply problem.

The Basque cheesecake in particular caught my eye: ₩6,000 and it looked delicious. Isn't that price really nice? These days Basque cheesecake at cafés is all 9... 8... thousand won, so this is a real bargain.

There's also a review event with no limit on participants, so definitely join in and try the coffee too!

What is the atmosphere and seating like at Fruit Forest Paju?

The terrace at Fruit Forest Paju Direct Store has folding doors, so the big plus is how open it feels. That makes it perfect to visit in nice spring or autumn weather. The tables are widely spaced and the place feels clean, so it's a great spot to drop in when you're craving bingsu.

There are sofa seats too, so if chairs aren't comfy for you, you can sit back on a sofa and enjoy 🛋️

How does Fruit Forest's fresh mango bingsu taste?

Fruit Forest's fresh mango bingsu has neatly sliced mango wrapped all over the snow bingsu (fine shaved ice). Ice cream and cheese toppings sit on top.

The mango purée on top is for when you're eating and think, "I need a bit more mango aroma~". Eat it together and it tops up the mango fragrance and sweetness, kind of a mango bingsu booster sauce? haha

The mango isn't finely chopped but one whole connected piece, so it looks even more delicious. And the taste was amazing 🥭🎇🥭 Since mango is fresh fruit, the flavor can be inconsistent, but the mango I had at Fruit Forest was fragrant and sweet.

The bingsu underneath is really fine snow bingsu too, definitely not old-school chunky ice, it melts in your mouth, so it's easy to eat and tasted really good.