Gapyeong dessert café for milk patbingsu with injeolmi: Cafe Imchori

Why Cafe Imchori was the first stop on a Gapyeong trip

Cafe Imchori is in Sangmyeon, Gapyeong, about an hour from Seoul, so it was perfect as the first stop of our trip and a place to rest a bit. Coffee and dessert time is a must on any trip. It was the first stop on our first trip in a long while, so we headed to Imchori, a Gapyeong dessert café.

The reason I made Cafe Imchori our first destination from Seoul is that it takes about an hour from our home to Gapyeong, so it was just right as a place to rest. If you're planning a trip from Seoul, making Imchori your first stop like we did should keep your route from getting tangled up as you visit different places. It's in a great location for Gapyeong's main attractions, pensions and so on.

Cafe Imchori parking, opening hours and dog policy

Cafe Imchori has a spacious private parking lot in front, and it's open 11:00–18:00 (Saturday only 11:00–19:00), closed every Wednesday. With open field views and a roomy lot, I don't think you'd need to worry about parking even if the café fills up.

• Address: 701 Cheonggun-ro, Sangmyeon, Gapyeong-gun, Gyeonggi
• Hours: 11:00–18:00, Saturday only 11:00–19:00
• Closed: every Wednesday
• Parking: private lot in front of the café
• Dogs allowed

A cute little one leading the way, all excited.

Cafe Imchori menu: financiers, canelés and cake slices

Cafe Imchori has a wide range of coffee, non-coffee drinks and desserts, plus financiers, canelés and cake slices. The menu is right there as soon as you walk in.

There are salt chocolate, plain, salty tonga and Dubai chocolate financiers and a vanilla canelé, plus cake slices like pure milk cake, lemon milk cake, cherry foresta nera and mango tropical.

And they say they make all of these desserts in the store, so imagine how moist and rich they must be! They also say the dairy whipping cream and whipped cream are domestic and French. If you're visiting for a birthday party, you can even buy cute candles!

Is Cafe Imchori a good Gapyeong café for kids?

Cafe Imchori has baby chairs, and of the four groups there when we visited (us included), two were families with kids. With its calm, warm mood, it was a place where both kids and parents could stay comfortably.

Tea leaves are set out so you can smell them before ordering milk tea. Every time I drink milk tea, my idea of black tea doesn't change much, so I was wondering which one to pick. The tea leaf idea is brilliant.

Courtyard natural light and seating at Cafe Imchori

Cafe Imchori has a courtyard, so you can drink your coffee in natural light. It's been ages since I came to a café with a courtyard. The mood is great wherever you sit, and photos come out well however you shoot them.

The wall-side seat where we sat had soft, clean cushions that worked properly as a backrest, so I was comfortable the whole time.

Cafe Imchori has no buzzers; they call your name when the order is ready. But I got an urgent call from my child's center and was on the phone, so I didn't hear them calling that my order was out. The person at the next table told me, while I was mid-call, that they were calling me and to hurry over, so I thanked them over and over and dashed off.

What does Cafe Imchori's milk patbingsu taste like?

Cafe Imchori's patbingsu (red bean shaved ice) is piled high with milk shaved ice rather than plain ice, with a generous load of nutty almond topping on top. The condensed milk was plentiful too, so it was very sweet.

The injeolmi (rice cake coated in roasted soybean powder) isn't the tiny rice cake used in bingsu; it's big, with a properly chewy bite. The bingsu itself has plenty of bean powder, so eating it with the glutinous rice cake feels harmonious.

Iced Americano for 6,000 won, decaf available

Cafe Imchori's iced Americano is ₩6,000 and decaf is also available. It has no acidity and is nutty and refreshing, so I almost downed it in one go.

The patbingsu is loaded with red beans, so it stayed sweet, nutty and satisfyingly chewy until the very last spoonful.

Salted chocolate financier for 4,000 won: what's the texture like?

Cafe Imchori's salt chocolate financier is ₩4,000, crisp-chewy outside and moist inside, but the outside is so chewy it goes past chewy into dense.

Unlike the fluffy, soft financiers I know, it's so dense that I wondered whether it was a brownie or butter rice cake. It stuck to my mouth in the best way.

Maybe it's the owner's hobby, but there's a display motorcycle in a corner of the shop, which makes it fun to look around.

Is Cafe Imchori a good first stop for a Gapyeong day out?

Coffee time at Gapyeong dessert café Imchori, with everything cleaned off the plate! It's a space people of all ages will enjoy, and it was just right as the first stop of our outing. If you're passing through this area, do stop by!