Seongsu dessert café for vanilla caramel mille-feuille: Notldun

Notldun, a great place to choose desserts near Seoul Forest

I visited Notldun, a popular Seongsu dessert spot, while looking for a dessert café near Seoul Forest. There are so many cafés around Seoul Forest that it is hard to decide where to go, but this time I wanted to properly enjoy dessert rather than just have coffee, so I went to Notldun. We ordered vanilla caramel mille-feuille, a pistachio madeleine, an Americano, and a vanilla latte! The two of us got two desserts and two drinks, choosing two very different desserts—a mille-feuille and a madeleine—to share.

Is it easy to find in the Seoul Forest café street?

Notldun is in the Seoul Forest café street, making it a nice place to stop during a walk around Seoul Forest or in the middle of a Seongsu date itinerary. It is not difficult to reach for anyone looking for a café around Seoul Forest, and with lots of restaurants and other cafés nearby, it fits easily into a Seongsu date course. We stopped by after spending time around Seoul Forest, and it was in a location where it was nice to wander through the alleys on the way.

A variety of desserts to choose from the display case

Inside, the atmosphere was clean overall, and the dessert display case was what caught my eye first. Along with regular cake slices, there were mille-feuille, madeleines, and a range of other desserts, so it was fun choosing a menu item as soon as we walked in.

Notldun currently sells several desserts, including vanilla caramel mille-feuille, Signature Noir, Signature Blanc, and Pistachio Festival. Since each one has a different shape and composition, it felt like a place to visit specifically to enjoy dessert rather than an ordinary bakery café! Once we sat down, I noticed that many customers were getting takeout~ It looked like there were lots of regulars! Every dessert was so neatly presented that it took us quite a while to decide, but we chose the vanilla caramel mille-feuille we had been curious about from the start and one pistachio madeleine.

How was the vanilla caramel mille-feuille?

The first dessert was the vanilla caramel mille-feuille. Notldun’s vanilla caramel mille-feuille pairs pie pastry with vanilla cream and salted caramel. With its long shape and decoration on top, it also looked pretty sitting on the table! With pastry, cream, and caramel together, it is a menu item worth noticing if you love sweet desserts. It was especially a good pairing with clean-tasting coffee such as an Americano, letting us alternate between dessert and coffee.

If it is your first visit to Notldun and you are wondering what to choose besides the signature desserts, I would recommend putting the vanilla caramel mille-feuille on your shortlist too. Since it is a mille-feuille, you tend to cut it into small pieces rather than eat it in one bite, and the cross-section clearly shows the pastry and cream layers.

A pairing with pistachio madeleine

The dessert we ordered alongside it was the pistachio madeleine. The one I had was generously coated with finely chopped pistachios on the outside, as you can see in the photo, so pistachio was clearly the star at first glance. One mille-feuille did not feel quite enough, so we picked this as well; since the two desserts were completely different in style, they worked well together. Once cut open, you can clearly see the madeleine crumb inside and the pistachios on the outside.

While the mille-feuille is a dessert with cream and pastry, the madeleine is a baked treat that is nice to keep beside your coffee and nibble on, so ordering both was a good choice. If you like pistachio desserts, check this one out too.

Which drinks should you choose?

For drinks, we ordered an iced Americano and an iced vanilla latte. If you want a cleaner pairing with sweet desserts, go for the Americano; if you prefer a smooth, sweet combination right through to the coffee, choose the vanilla latte. If you visit as a pair like we did, ordering different drinks to have with the desserts is a nice combination too! With two contrasting desserts—the vanilla caramel mille-feuille and pistachio madeleine—it was fun to taste a little of everything while drinking coffee.

If you are looking for a dessert-focused café in Seongsu

There are so many cafés in Seongsu, but Notldun seems better suited to people looking for a Seoul Forest café where choosing desserts is part of the fun, rather than simply a café with a pretty space. It is especially a nice place to visit when you want to try varied desserts like mille-feuille and madeleines instead of standard café cake! Of the items I had, I would recommend trying the vanilla caramel mille-feuille first on a first visit to Notldun, then adding the pistachio madeleine if you want one more baked treat.

If you are looking for a Seongsu dessert spot to stop by after a Seoul Forest walk, or a Seoul Forest café to visit on a date, keep Notldun in mind :) There were so many kinds of dessert that I want to try other items we missed next time.