Ttukseom dessert café, two slices and coffee for ₩32,500: Notldun

Hi, it's Mudeung 😊 Seongsu has so many cafés that just picking one is a whole task in itself haha. This time I wanted something more like a proper dessert than just coffee, so I went to Notldun (노틀던, NOTRE DON) near Seoul Forest.

Notldun is described as a pastry boutique whose name carries the meaning 'we give our talent as a gift.' Looking at the desserts lined up in the showcase, it felt less like ordering a slice of cake at a regular café and more like picking out a small dessert artwork lol.

That day I ordered the Pistachio Festival, the Forêt Noire, and an iced Americano to try.

Where is Notldun? A red-brick building on Seoul Forest 2-gil

Notldun sits on the 1st floor of 11 Seoulsup 2-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul. It's a convenient spot for anyone looking for a café around Seoul Forest or Ttukseom haha. The alleys around here keep unfolding with more cafés, gift shops, and restaurants one after another, so it's also a nice area to stroll through slowly after a meal.

The exterior is the kind of red-brick building you often see in Seongsu, with a big floor-to-ceiling window. Contrasted with the yellow interior of the floor below, Notldun's clean white tone stood out surprisingly well lol.

If you're visiting for the first time, it's worth checking the sign before going in. Per published business info, it operates daily from 11am to 10pm, with last order at 9:30pm.

Inside Notldun: window seats along the full-height glass

Stepping inside, the space felt even cleaner than the exterior suggested. It's mostly white with a touch of wood tone mixed in, giving it a very tidy feel haha.

A lot of Seongsu cafés these days go for bold or hip interiors, but Notldun seemed to keep the space understated on purpose so the desserts stay the focus. What I liked most was the window seat — sitting right by the big glass window, you get a full view of the Seongsu alley below, which made it easy to just relax over a dessert lol.

We took our desserts and coffee to a window seat. The sunlight was coming in nicely at that hour, so the photos turned out pretty well too haha. Anyone looking for a café for a Seongsu date course would probably like this mood a lot.

Notldun's dessert showcase, a treat before the first bite

Walking into Notldun, the first thing that catches your eye is the dessert showcase. There's a pretty wide variety, from madeleines to cakes to baked goods. It's not just plain madeleine shapes either — pistachio, Earl Grey, raspberry, and other flavors each get a different look, so browsing was genuinely fun haha.

The pistachio madeleine was generously coated in pistachio on the outside, while the raspberry ones were finished in red — I wanted to try one of each lol. The financiers also came as a set box with several flavors, which looked like a good gift option too. The public menu also lists Pistachio Festival, Forêt Noire, and Vanilla Caramel Mille-feuille as signature items.

Notldun prices: two desserts and one coffee for ₩32,500

The prices are definitely higher than your average neighborhood café dessert. Our Pistachio Festival and Forêt Noire were ₩13,000 each, and the iced Americano was ₩6,000 with an extra ₩500 for switching to decaf. Two desserts and one coffee came to ₩32,500 total haha.

You can't really call it cheap lol. But the visuals and overall composition were clearly a step above an ordinary slice of cake.

Pistachio Festival at Notldun: a nutty, creamy slice

The first thing that really caught my eye was the Pistachio Festival. It's coated overall in a vivid pistachio-colored glaze, with cream piped around the top in a ring.

With a yellow accent dropped right in the center, it looked almost like a small jewel haha. The taste is just as rich as it looks. The distinct nutty flavor of pistachio takes the lead, and with the cream added, the texture turns out really soft.

If you're a fan of pistachio desserts, this one would score high with you lol. That said, since the flavor itself is rich and creamy, it suits pacing yourself with an Americano rather than eating a lot at once. Taking a bite of the dessert and then a sip of the cold Americano hit just the right balance for us haha.

Forêt Noire: chocolate balanced by tart cherry

And the one I personally liked the most visually was the Forêt Noire. With its deep chocolate color and a cherry sitting on top, it clearly announced itself as a chocolate dessert lol.

The Forêt Noire felt much heavier than the Pistachio Festival. The rich chocolate flavor hits first, and with the cherry-style tartness added, the finish wasn't as heavy as I expected. If it were just chocolate pushed hard on its own, it might have felt a bit much, but the tangy notes running through it kept me reaching for more haha.

That day, the store was also featuring the French premium chocolate brand Valrhona's 40th anniversary of Guanaja. Guanaja was described as a 70% cacao dark chocolate first released in 1986. If you like chocolate, this little bit of background is pretty fun to read too lol.

Worth it for a proper dessert in Seongsu?

Notldun felt less like a café you pop into for a quick coffee and more like a place to carefully pick one dessert and enjoy it slowly. The prices are a bit high, so it's not really the kind of café you'd visit casually every day haha, but there's real fun in choosing from the showcase, and each dessert looks pretty enough to make it worth a visit for a Seongsu date or a special occasion.

If you like desserts with a strong, clear flavor like pistachio or chocolate, it's worth a visit lol. Next time I'd like to try the Vanilla Caramel Mille-feuille and some of the madeleines I didn't get to this time. If you're looking for a pretty dessert café in Seongsu or Seoul Forest, give Notldun a try 😊