Sinnonhyeon café, four desserts in one order: Upper and Under

I was looking for a café near Sinnonhyeon Station and ended up at Upper and Under. The scale of this place is no joke, and the dessert variety was genuinely impressive. The menu items I ordered this time all looked amazing just from their visuals, so it took me forever to decide haha.

Salty caramel, mango bar sherbet latte, canelé, and yellow cheese Basque cheesecake! Honestly, today was a proper dessert day haha. Here's my review of Upper and Under, a Sinnonhyeon café I was genuinely satisfied with!

Where is Upper and Under, and what does the inside look like?

Upper and Under is a café located at 28 Gangnam-daero 102-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, near Sinnonhyeon Station. It's also easy to reach from Gangnam Station, so it's a good spot for meeting up with people. Above all, Upper and Under uses everything from basement level 1 to the 2nd floor, so the café is quite large.

It's not easy to find a café this spacious right in the middle of Gangnam, so I loved having the room. Each floor has a slightly different vibe too, which makes it good for chatting with friends or leisurely sipping coffee on a date.

The feel of Upper and Under, a large Gangnam café

Upper and Under has different seating on each floor, so you can pick whichever mood suits you — a big Gangnam café in every sense. If you've searched for cafés near Sinnonhyeon Station, you know how hard it is to find one with genuinely spacious seating.

Overall the vibe is clean but not too stiff, so it seemed fine for sitting a long while. It's good for chatting with friends over dessert, and also perfect for a quick break during a date in Gangnam haha. And honestly, anyone who loves dessert is going to be pretty happy standing in front of that counter haha.

How many desserts does Upper and Under have?

Upper and Under really had a wide range of desserts, from cakes to baked goods. There were baked treats like canelé and financiers, plus multiple kinds of cake, so I found myself deliberating over what to order.

I meant to just pick one dessert, but ended up catching myself piling on more and more haha. You're never supposed to eat just one anyway, right?

So this time I confidently ordered salty caramel, mango bar sherbet latte, canelé, and yellow cheese Basque cheesecake haha.

How do the salty caramel and mango bar sherbet latte taste?

First up, the salty caramel I ordered at Upper and Under! Just from the name I expected a sweet-and-salty combo, and it really delivered.

The sweet caramel flavor comes through first, followed by a subtle salty note at the end, so it wasn't as heavy as I expected. Paired with dessert, the sweet-and-salty combination really worked haha. If you like sweet drinks, this one should be right up your alley.

And then the mango bar sherbet latte I was most curious about this time! Wow, the visual alone really grabs your attention haha. The sweet, tangy mango flavor comes through along with the latte's smoothness, and the combination was more unique than I expected.

Above all, that distinctive sweet-tart mango character made it feel clearly different from a regular latte. Eating the sherbet on top along with it, it's cool and sweet, so it felt like eating a dessert while drinking.

What is the canelé like?

I also ordered a canelé (French caramelized rum-vanilla pastry), which I genuinely love haha. A canelé's charm is a crisp outside with a moist, chewy inside, and this one was tasty too.

With the first bite, you get that crisp exterior, and the inside is soft and moist, making it perfect with coffee. Baked goods like this really need a sip of coffee alongside to complete the experience haha.

Yellow cheese Basque cheesecake at Upper and Under

And finally, the yellow cheese Basque cheesecake! So many people are into yellow cheese desserts these days, right? I love yellow cheese too, so there was no way I could skip this one haha.

The rich, dense flavor typical of Basque cheesecake was layered with the salty-savory taste of yellow cheese, giving it a fairly bold flavor. It seems better suited to people who like dense, rich desserts rather than something too light. Especially eaten alongside a sweet drink, the distinctive salty note of the yellow cheese comes through even more, making it a great sweet-and-salty pairing.

Upper and Under near Sinnonhyeon Station: the verdict

On this visit, I really appreciated the spacious layout of Upper and Under near Sinnonhyeon Station, and I liked it even more for the sheer variety of desserts.

If you love desserts like canelé or cake, there's definitely fun to be had just picking your order haha. I had a satisfying spread of salty caramel, mango bar sherbet latte, canelé, and yellow cheese Basque cheesecake — honestly, I enjoyed a proper dessert time haha.

If you're looking for a large café in Gangnam with a good atmosphere, Upper and Under near Sinnonhyeon Station is worth checking out :)