Konkuk Univ. bakery café with YouTube-praised croissants: Stack Bakery

Is Stack Bakery's croissant really as good as YouTube says?

Stack Bakery is a bakery café near Konkuk Univ. that swept up high scores and rave reviews from the panelists in a YouTube video hunting for the best croissant in Seoul. I fell for the crackly layers I saw through the screen and went to see for myself, and Stack Bakery beat my expectations.

To get straight to the point: it had the most perfect butter flavor and texture of any croissant I've eaten this year.

Stack Bakery location near Konkuk Univ. Station and opening hours

The address is 5 Ttukseom-ro 31-gil, Gwangjin-gu, Seoul, on the 1st and 2nd floors. It's open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 08:00 to 21:00. Last order is 20:00, the drinks order cutoff is also 20:00, and you can stay in the shop until 20:30. It's closed every Wednesday.

Stack Bakery sits about 600m (609m) from Exit 5 of Konkuk Univ. Station. It's slightly off the busy main Konkuk Univ. shopping area, so the vibe is quiet and relaxed. When you arrive, the cute outdoor tables on the 1st floor and the open floor-to-ceiling windows on the 2nd floor catch your eye.

What pastries are in the Stack Bakery display case?

The moment I stepped into the 1st floor of Stack Bakery, the toasty smell of baking hit me, and a display case full of bread welcomed me.

Behind the glass, a cute cat chef illustration sat alongside freshly baked pastries of every kind, and I was already getting excited just looking around.

I hear Stack Bakery kneads its dough by hand every dawn and bakes with care to offer authentic French-style pastries. Their philosophy of good ingredients and sticking to the fundamentals comes through right from the buttery aroma filling the shop.

There were lots of options, like the kaya croissant with kaya jam (coconut egg jam) and gourmet butter, and kouign-amann, but today I ordered the most basic, essential items plus a dessert my boyfriend carefully picked.

A scene from that YouTube video hunting for the best croissant in Seoul was posted on the wall at Stack Bakery. I don't watch many Shorts, but that one scene stuck in my head so much that I even looked it up.

Stack Bakery menu and prices

Besides bakery items, Stack Bakery also has sandwiches made with croissants! I had already eaten a meal before going, so I only ordered dessert pastries and drinks.

Stack Bakery's 2nd-floor window seats: good for a date?

At Stack Bakery you order on the 1st floor, then head up the interior stairs to the 2nd floor. The 2nd floor greeted me with bright interiors flooded with light from the wide floor-to-ceiling windows.

The window seats are spaced generously, so they're great for some relaxed time alone, and just as good for a comfortable date looking out the window.

In the shop at Stack Bakery we had an iced Americano, zero-sugar peach ade and egg flan, and I took the plain croissant and pain au chocolat home to go.

How does Stack Bakery's egg flan taste?

The egg flan my boyfriend picked at Stack Bakery was all about the rich custard cream flavor. The moment I took a bite with the fork, it filled my whole mouth.

The pastry shell around the filling was surprisingly thin and flaky, and the inside wasn't overly sweet, full of rich, savory egg and fragrant vanilla bean. The crisp-outside, moist-inside texture melting softly on the tongue was so lovely that the plate was empty in no time.

How were the coffee and peach ade at Stack Bakery?

The iced Americano at Stack Bakery wasn't sharply acidic, with a nutty, bittersweet flavor. I hear it's blended by a professional roaster with 15 years of experience, and it lifted the dessert even further.

It balances perfectly with the rich butter aroma of the pastries. I'm quite picky about coffee, yet this was exactly to my taste, and it paired wonderfully with Stack Bakery's desserts.

The zero-sugar peach ade we ordered with it was also refreshing and tangy, with nothing dull or artificially sweet, perfect for quenching thirst on a hot day.

Is Stack Bakery's plain croissant still good as takeout?

Even after being carried home and sitting for a while, Stack Bakery's plain croissant didn't turn soggy or chewy. After finishing tea time in the shop, I carefully packed up the plain croissant and pain au chocolat, the main purpose of today's visit, and headed home.

When I took the croissant out after dinner to share with my family, the glossy shine on the surface and the finely packed, intricate layers already showed a craftsman's skill.

In cross-section, large air pockets puffed up evenly like a delicate honeycomb stand out, showing how perfectly the dough temperature, fermentation and baking were calculated. Take a big bite and rich, top-quality butter flavor bursts across your mouth between the thin layers that shatter crisply.

The more you chew, the more the plain taste of the wheat and the pleasantly salty richness of the butter come together perfectly. Even my picky younger sibling asked where the bread came from after just one bite, and the whole family's reaction was explosive.

How is the pain au chocolat at Stack Bakery?

The last thing I tried, Stack Bakery's pain au chocolat, carried on the wow of the plain croissant at the same quality. The outside has layer upon layer of pastry crispness just like the croissant, and inside, a thick dark chocolate stick with a weighty, luxurious flavor sits snugly at the center.

Cut it in half and the chocolate sits between soft, airy layers of pastry, bittersweet yet richly sweet. It's not the unpleasant sweetness of cheap chocolate bread you find around town but the deep, lingering taste of real cacao. It works so well with the pastry's nuttiness that it felt like eating an expensive dessert at a top hotel.

Is Stack Bakery a Konkuk Univ. bakery worth revisiting?

Stack Bakery is a solid bakery near Konkuk Univ. that focuses on the essence of bread rather than chasing trends, and it left me confident that you can't go wrong with anything you pick. From the atmosphere of the shop, where I enjoyed the green view and the calm through the big windows, to the perfect layered texture and the great coffee pairing, everything was perfect.

I plan to go back soon to buy croissants while smelling freshly baked bread. If you're looking for a café near Konkuk Univ. for a date, or you want to experience truly delicious, high-quality bread, do give it a visit!