Sinnonhyeon dessert café: lemon cake & corn madeleine, Upper and Under

I stopped by this café while out in Gangnam. The staff looked so busy and frazzled, but the desserts were so good that I had to write a review! It's Upper and Under (어퍼앤언더), a café near Sinnonhyeon Station. It sits between Gangnam Station and Sinnonhyeon Station, so if you've walked around the Gangnam café streets, you may well recognize its red-brick exterior.

Upper and Under location, hours and parking

Upper and Under is at 28 Gangnam-daero 102-gil, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, and uses the basement, first and second floors. It's open daily 11:00–22:00 and has no parking.

It's only a 3–5 minute walk from Sinnonhyeon Station, so access is quite good, and it's about a 10-minute walk from Gangnam Station, so it works fine if you searched for a Gangnam Station café. There's no dedicated parking, so I recommend taking public transport!

What each floor of Upper and Under is like

The building has a basement, a first floor and a second floor. The floor that meets the road is the basement, and you can't walk up to the first floor from inside the building.

Order your menu on the first floor

What's the second floor like?

Upper and Under baked goods and cake menu with prices

Baked goods menu

When I visited, many of the popular baked goods were sold out, but there were still plenty of tasty-looking pastries. Chodang corn pie (sweet corn pie) is ₩8,300, mango pie is ₩8,000, and two butter tteok (butter rice cakes) are ₩5,000.

Cake menu

• Tiramisu ₩8,500
• Lemon cake ₩8,500
• Raspberry cake ₩8,500
• Mango cake ₩8,500

The Basque cheesecakes are kept in a separate showcase.

• Vanilla Basque cheesecake ₩9,000
• Ube Basque cheesecake ₩9,500
• Hwangchiz (yellow cheese) Basque cheesecake ₩9,500

What drinks does Upper and Under have?

The drinks are divided into coffee, non-coffee, cold brew, cream, ade and tea, and an Americano is ₩6,500.

COFFEE

• Espresso ₩6,000
• Americano ₩6,500
• Hazelnut Americano ₩6,800
• Flat white ₩6,800
• Latte ₩7,000
• Cappuccino ₩7,000
• Vanilla latte ₩7,200
• Extra shot ₩500
• Switch to decaf ₩500

NON COFFEE · COLDBREW

• Milk tea ₩7,500
• Iced tea (ICE) ₩7,500
• Green tea latte ₩8,000
• Chocolate latte ₩8,000
• Mango banana sherbet latte ₩9,000
• Cold brew Americano ₩6,800
• Cold brew latte ₩7,200
• Dolce latte ₩7,500
• Scotch banana latte ₩7,500
• Vanilla coconut brown cheese latte ₩7,800

CREAM · SPARKLING ADE · TEA

• Einspänner (HOT/ICE) ₩8,000
• Salty caramel (ICE) ₩8,000
• Pistachio (ICE) ₩8,000
• Matcha cream oat latte (ICE) ₩9,000
• Matcha pistachio (ICE) ₩9,000
• Coconut matcha (ICE) ₩8,500
• Mango lemonade ₩8,500
• Shine Muscat ade ₩7,500
• Peach Earl Grey ade ₩8,000
• Hibiscus ₩6,500
• Chamomile ₩6,500
• Lemon balm ₩6,500
• Peach oolong tea ₩6,500
• Earl Grey ₩6,500

How does the Upper and Under lemon cake taste?

I ordered the lemon cake, a Chodang corn madeleine, a salty caramel cream latte and a mango lemonade. The one I most want to introduce today is the ₩8,500 lemon cake.

I'm still thinking about it and want to eat it again! The cream and sponge in Upper and Under's lemon cake are at nearly 1:1, and the cream is really fresh and bright. But it isn't just sour. It has a moderate sweetness too, and that not-too-much balance was exactly my taste.

Take a big bite, ahh! The lemon cream and sponge blend naturally in your mouth and the melt-in-your-mouth texture is so appealing. If you like lemon desserts, I absolutely recommend it.

Chodang corn madeleine

The Chodang corn madeleine at Upper and Under was totally my taste too. Kernels of sweet corn are studded across the outside, which makes it fun to chew, and there's corn cream inside, so it's clean-tasting and not sweet.

Salty caramel cream latte and mango lemonade

The salty caramel cream latte, Upper and Under's signature with a good salty-sweet balance, was pleasantly tasty. In the mango lemonade, mango is the main flavor, but the lemon reins in the drink a little and it's sweet and tangy, perfect for cleansing your palate between dessert bites.

Upper and Under overall review

• Highly recommended if you're looking for a great dessert café near Sinnonhyeon Station
• Large three-floor café, with the basement as a separate space
• The lemon cake's cream-to-sponge balance is the best
• The Chodang corn madeleine is clean and delicious too
• Big windows with a view plus a terrace make the atmosphere perfect
• One drawback: the staff looked very busy and frazzled