Gangnam café plum ade and takeaway Gangnam Sand: Bakerist Brown

I was meeting a friend near Gangnam Station for a bit, so I stopped by Bakerist Brown again — a place I'd visited before. Last time I enjoyed the pastries and desserts so much it stuck with me, and coming back after a while, the sheer range of bread here is still incredible. This time though, I spotted something new I hadn't seen before: Gangnam Sand. Curious, I got the 8-piece set with all 8 flavors.

Where is Bakerist Brown and what are its hours?

• Address: 21 Gangnam-daero 102-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, basement 1 - floors 1-3, South Korea
• Hours: Monday - Sunday 11:00 - 22:30
• No parking available

This Gangnam bakery, Bakerist Brown, sits about 300m from Sinnonhyeon Station Exit 6, so it's close to Sinnonhyeon Station and still a reasonable walk from Gangnam Station. As I felt on my last visit, it's a fairly large bakery café right in the middle of Gangnam, spanning basement level 1 up to the 3rd floor. In my last post I mentioned liking the spacious layout and the slightly different vibe on each floor. This time I was meeting a friend for a bit, and since I'd already been once, it felt oddly familiar haha.

Why browsing the bread at Bakerist Brown is still fun

Walking in, the bread is the first thing that grabs your attention. Last time too there were so many kinds I spent ages deciding what to pick, and this time I went around the display case looking again first. Bakerist Brown in particular has a really wide range of pastries.

First to catch my eye were the various madeleines, the conch-shaped cream pastry, apple crumble pie, and sweet pumpkin pie. There's everything from baked cookies to crispy pastries, so it's easy to find something light to pair with a coffee.

How many kinds of salt bread does Bakerist Brown have?

And you can't talk about Bakerist Brown without mentioning salt bread. Alongside the basic salt bread and the alligator-shaped one, this time I also spotted the uniquely named fig wakppu salt bread and blueberry yogurt wakppu salt bread. I already thought there was a big selection last time, but coming back I found new combinations — it's fun browsing them one by one.

And there's another salt bread corner! Crème brûlée salt bread, chocolate kadaif wakppu salt bread, melon salt bread, and even mentaiko (pollock roe) salt bread. From sweet dessert-style ones like crème brûlée to savory ones like mentaiko, they've taken the basic salt bread we usually picture and given it a lot of variety. If you're after salt bread at a Gangnam Station bakery, there's plenty to pick from, basic to unusual.

Looking around more, there are also plenty of more familiar breads — egg tart, pain au chocolat, bear-shaped shokupan, mille-feuille, pastry sausage roll, and croissants. With both sweet breads and ones that work as a light meal, it's a good spot to visit with friends who have different tastes so everyone can pick what they like. Egg tart / pain au chocolat / bear shokupan / mille-feuille / pastry sausage roll / croissant.

There are also fruit-based French pies in several varieties — blueberry French pie, raspberry French pie, apple French pie — plus more pain au chocolat. The pastry lineup here is genuinely varied, so anyone looking for great pastries at Gangnam Station has plenty to browse.

Can't skip the kouign-amann either. There's a bomb kouign-amann and a fig kouign-amann with extra toppings, so anyone who likes crispy, sweet pastry will be drawn in!

It's not just bread, either. The chilled dessert corner had banana pudding, pistachio mugwort crumble, fig pavlova, and sweet corn cheesecake. Some of these — the banana pudding, pistachio mugwort crumble, sweet corn cheesecake — were there last time too, but seeing seasonal desserts like the fig ones change things up a little is part of the fun of coming back.

The new Gangnam Sand 8-piece set instead of bread this time

Last time, after browsing all this bread and pastry, I'd picked a mango croissant and a very berry pie and enjoyed them. So I thought about picking another bread again this time... but a menu I definitely hadn't seen last time caught my eye. Gangnam Sand! I came back because this place is known for great bread, and now there's a new dessert too — impossible not to try haha. So instead of bread this time, I decided to get the Gangnam Sand 8-piece set to try all 8 flavors at once.

There's also a wide range of drinks — coffee, ade, lattes — that pair nicely. I remember last time too there were plenty of drink options to go with the bread. This time my friend picked the best-seller salted cream coffee (₩7,800), and I went with the new plum ade (₩7,600).

There's also a corner selling cute goods in the store.

Inside the big Gangnam café: basement 1 to the 3rd floor

You order on the 1st floor, then head upstairs to find seating. There's no seating on the 1st floor itself — you can use basement 1 and floors 2-3 — and even having been before, it's still a plus that a café this large exists right in the middle of Gangnam. The 2nd floor is bright and clean, with natural light that makes for a good atmosphere.

The 3rd floor has large tables for bigger groups, so it works well if you're visiting with a group of friends. Last time I sat on the 3rd floor and chatted with a friend for a long while, and this time was just as comfortable for catching up briefly.

This time I sat on the 2nd floor, which I hadn't tried before. The Gangnam view from outside the window was really pretty.

Plum ade 7,600 won and salted cream coffee 7,800 won

The plum ade I picked was better than I expected. You get the real tartness of plum without it being too sweet, which I liked. Since the Gangnam Sand itself is filled with cream and quite sweet overall, pairing it with this tart ade rather than something too sweet worked really well.

My friend picked the salted cream coffee. Funnily enough, that's the drink I ordered last time haha. My friend had tried a sip back then, liked it, and ordered it themselves this time. It's a coffee with soft cream and a bit of salt that brings out the sweetness.

Tasting all 8 flavors of Gangnam Sand

And now, the star of this visit — Gangnam Sand! Trying them one by one, each has a different shape and color, so it's fun figuring out which flavor is which as you go. The texture is crisp on the outside and soft, crumbly on the inside. Kind of like a thicker version of those cookie sandwich snacks? Each one has a different cream inside, and the crisp shell pairs nicely with the soft cream.

Sweet Pumpkin Jack! From the color alone I thought it might be yellow cheese flavor, but it turned out to be a surprisingly mellow sweet pumpkin flavor. The pumpkin scent wasn't overpowering, so it was easy to enjoy as a light sweet treat.

Rich Ganache is exactly what it sounds like — a truly rich chocolate flavor. Deep chocolate taste with a pretty definite sweetness, so it'll suit anyone who loves a sweet chocolate dessert!

Raspberry Blossom blends the tartness typical of raspberry with the sweet, smooth taste of white chocolate. With both tartness and sweetness coming through together, it stood out clearly with its own charm among the other Gangnam Sands.

Cream Forest has a surprisingly strong matcha flavor. Rich matcha with soft cream cheese finishes off sweet. Especially good if you love matcha!

The 4 Gangnam Sand flavors boxed to eat at home

Honestly, we couldn't finish all 8 at once, so we ate 4 there and boxed the other 4 to take home.

Peanut Butter Wave has a smooth, nutty peanut butter flavor. The distinctive nuttiness of peanut butter really comes through — familiar yet delicious.

London Fog blends a strong Earl Grey scent with white chocolate. You get the fragrance of Earl Grey first, and the sweetness of white chocolate lingers at the end for a somewhat refined feel.

Black Grain adds sweetness to the nutty flavor of black sesame. The nutty black sesame flavor comes with dessert-level sweetness, and it seems like it would go well with coffee.

Golden Hour combines a crispy base with sweet caramel. Crispy and sweet, it's the kind of flavor you keep reaching for.

Is Bakerist Brown worth a second visit?

Since I'd been here once before, I expected this visit to feel familiar, but thanks to the new Gangnam Sand, I got to try something completely different. With the huge range of pastries, salt bread, and desserts like puddings and cakes, this Gangnam Station bakery still impressed me with how many options there are. Last time I focused on pastries, but this time I tried the new Gangnam Sand, and each flavor had enough personality that picking through them one by one was genuinely fun.

If you're meeting a friend near Gangnam Station and want somewhere to talk over bread and coffee, or you're looking for great pastries or salt bread near Gangnam Station, it's worth stopping by. Best of all, it's not a one-and-done kind of place — new menus keep showing up, so there's always a reason to go back. I'm already curious what new bread will be there next time haha.