Cafe Aden Bomun Lake — Restaurant in Gyeongju-si

Aden at Bomun Lake – Two Visits, Two Seasons

2025.03.30 (Spring) & 2022.11.09 (Autumn)

We returned to Aden at Bomun Lake this spring, two years after our first visit in autumn 2022. The place felt much more crowded this time, likely due to the season and the post-pandemic recovery. Back in 2022, things were quieter—hand sanitizer was provided at the entrance, and masks were still required.

Aden is huge. The seating areas are plentiful, and spaces between seats are wide enough to walk around comfortably, even when it’s busy. On our recent visit, we noticed a new section selling red bean bread. It was popular—there was a queue—so we didn’t check it out.

With such a wide variety of bread, buns, and pastries, most first-time visitors tend to go for their signature items: 긍정빵 and 달빛빵—Google Translate calls them Positive Bread and Moonlight Bread. They're made with milk bean paste and whipped cream. By coincidence, we ended up having the same Moonlight Bread on both visits. Though we're not sure if they tasted the same, they looked quite similar.

For drinks, we recommend the ones with artistic presentation—the peanut butter coffee and the Cheomseongdae coffee (not in menu) are both worth trying. If the weather isn’t too cold, the outdoor terrace is a perfect spot to relax and enjoy the stunning lake view—especially beautiful with cherry...

We were so excited to try Aden because of their wide variety of pastries. Unfortunately, I found them to be prettier than they are tasty, the biggest disappointment was the garlic cream cheese bun which was super sweet rather than savory like I was expecting. The kouign-amann was on the dry side as well. The giant cream filled pastry with a mountain of powdered sugar was very good though. I ended up getting a croissant sandwich in search of something savory to cut through all the sweet and it was just okay as well. So I'd say for the baked goods they are very hit or miss, with more miss for us.

Luckily, they do offer dairy free milk for coffees, which is a must for us. The interior is very beautiful and there is outside seating for you to look over the beautiful Bomun Lake which was...

We visited here around 11 am but still cleaner was mopping the floor.(not ready yet even the operating hour starts from 10 am) It was very annoying as i expected a high end hygiene.

I asked the staff the cleaner can do her job later but the reply was very diappointing that this place needs to be cleaned thus please sit somewhere else in cafe ???. They definitely need to improve the standard of hygiene, and aim to get ready for customer before it opens.

The bakery was great and the place is gorgeous as...