Rainy-day Anseong brunch café: lemon tea & crumble cake, Chat Baker

What kind of café is Chat Baker?

Chat Baker (챗 베이커) is a big Anseong café in Gongdo, famous as a brunch café and a bakery and dessert hot spot. You don't have to head out to the outskirts: it's in downtown Gongdo, near Anseong Farmland, and you can enjoy good desserts right there.

• Address: 4391 Seodong-daero, Unit 101, Building 3, Gongdo-eup, Anseong, Gyeonggi, South Korea
• Hours: 9:00–23:00 (café) / 11:00–20:00 (brunch)
• Parking: available
• Special note: a bakery hot spot, brunch included!

Chat Baker is in 512 Square. It takes up a big spot in what locals call the Gongdo permanent outlet stores, using part of the 1st floor and the whole 2nd floor, a truly large brunch café for Anseong.

What breads and desserts does Chat Baker sell?

Chat Baker has huge loaves of sandwich bread, pretty cakes, and baked sweets like dujjonku (chewy Dubai-style cookie), levain cookies, butter tteok (butter rice cake) and financiers, all at reasonable prices. Before showing the interior, I want to introduce the bakery and desserts, since this is one of Anseong's best bread spots. The loaves really are huge and tempting, and the cakes are pretty too.

They sell dujjonku, levain cookies, butter tteok, financiers and all kinds of other sweets. I think that's why Chat Baker is such a popular delivery order when people talk about Anseong dessert spots.

The sweets are really good, but Chat Baker's brunch and bread are even better. They also have crookies, which are hard to find elsewhere, and Dubai chocolate salt bread.

Is the bread showcase hygienic?

I liked that Chat Baker's bread showcases are hygienic. At other places the bread sits out in the open, so you have to think about a bit of contamination, but here that's kept to a minimum and the display still looks nice.

If you're doing a bread tour of Anseong (bbangji sunrye), I recommend Chat Baker. The bread is varied and delicious, and the prices aren't heavy at all. It's also close to Farmland and in Gongdo, so it's easy to find.

What's on the Chat Baker brunch menu?

Chat Baker is famous as a brunch café in Gongdo, Anseong, because the menu is so varied! The pastas alone include pollack roe shrimp oil pasta, wild sesame oil mushroom pasta and beef belly cream pasta, and there are also risotto, gnocchi, salads and soup. Right now they're serving delicious fresh mango bingsu (shaved ice) too.

What we ordered at Chat Baker and the prices

This day at Chat Baker we ordered four drinks, sausage pizza bread (₩4,900) and crumble cake (₩4,900). The drinks are varied and delicious too: Dongan Baekseo, said to be good for skin elasticity and collagen, at ₩7,500, hot lemon tea at ₩6,500, a strawberry milk latte at ₩7,000 and an Oatly almond latte at ₩7,000. And the sausage pizza bread at ₩4,900, and

from the delicious cakes, the crumble cake at ₩4,900, and that completed the order. Sweets, cakes, bread, bingsu, brunch! They sell such a variety, but people order brunch by far the most, haha. Just what you'd expect from a brunch café in Gongdo, Anseong.

What are the space and seating like?

What I especially love about Chat Baker is the wide space and open feel. A coffee by the big windows looking outside is so nice. They also plan performances every day, so I recommend checking ahead before you visit.

From the 1st floor to the 2nd there are all kinds of prettily done spaces, so it's a place I'd happily visit again and again. It's clean and comfortable. There are so many seats that even when crowds come, no worries.

The bakery items and desserts that came out with the drinks. The look is amazing, right? They taste great too. While I was choosing bread, I noticed quite a lot of delivery orders coming in.

How did the Dongan Baekseo, lemon tea and lattes taste?

Chat Baker's Oatly latte is made with oat drink, so it's nuttier and tastier. The lemon tea wasn't too sweet, and I liked its fresh, clean taste. It was raining that day, so a hot tea was just right.

Dongan Baekseo has a slightly unusual taste. It's sour with a hint of collagen flavor, so I think opinions will divide, but I was fine with it. It's literally a baby-face drink, and good for you! And the strawberry latte, well, words are wasted on it, it's delicious, so good~

Since it's famous as a brunch café in Gongdo, Anseong, I meant to order brunch today too, but I'd already eaten, so sadly I went with bakery items!

How were the sausage pizza bread and crumble cake?

Chat Baker's sausage pizza bread (₩4,900) seems a bit pricey for a sausage bun at first, but once you eat it you can tell the quality is different. It's really good, and they must use really expensive sausage. Lots of vegetables, and the slightly sweet sauce on top is delicious.

The crumble cake goes really well with coffee too. It tastes like what you'd get if you turned a scone into a cake, haha? That kind of taste. It pairs nicely with the cream.

Chat Baker overall verdict

Verdict: Famous as a brunch café in Gongdo, Anseong, but the bakery and desserts are really delicious too. The space in particular is really pretty. Overall score: 4.8 out of 5