Cheongsudang Bakery — Restaurant in Seoul

COME FOR THE COFFEE WITH A SIDE OF RACISM

Went to this much talked about cafe on social media. My first impression was that its a beautiful cafe with quite a pleasing nature aesthetic. All the good things for me ended there.

Before the rest of the story I should make it clear that I am of Indian descent. And I was the only Indian or south Asian person in the line to place an order.

My wife and I found a spot to sit and then I got in the line to order our drinks and food.

In front of me were 8-10 people waiting to order in a line by the counter. The counter had a server, a person making drip coffee and finally a cashier for you to place the order.

As the line moved forward, people in front of me were standing next to the counter where trays were being picked up by people when their drinks/food were ready. The coffee maker guy didnt say anything to anyone standing there but as soon as I got there when their line moved forward, he sternly asked me to move. I found that odd but didn’t think much of it until I saw people behind me standing in the same spot and he didnt say anything to them.

I was, then, 4th in line to place my order. In front of me was a middle-aged white lady, 3 other Korean people. The cashier was taking their order with a full smile, being helpful and interacting with them warmly and kindly. As my turn to place an order came, I greeted her with a smile to place my order. She interjected me rudely asking me if I have picked a spot. I confirmed I have. Then once again I tried to place the order but she rudely asked me how many people. I said its for 2 persons. I ordered a souffle cake and two drinks and left the counter with a sour taste.

Once again when I went to pick up the food, the same coffee maker guy asked me to wait quite rudely while I didnt see him calling out anyone else like that.

While we were exiting, one of the other staff shouted at my wife that the exit is the other way. My wife was standing beside a bunch of other non-Indian/non-South Asian people who were also looking for the exit as it wasnt clearly marked but she pointedly talked at my wife.

We live in Toronto, have travelled to multiple countries and have seen our share of rude service so I dont say it lightly that this was the first time I felt blatantly discriminated against for the colour of my skin.

I dont use the word “Racism” lightly but I am going to call a spade and a spade and call this cafe’s staff out for blatant racism towards foreigners.

Terrible experience courtesy of the staff who work in a cafe that relies so heavily on tourism and one that serves...

Be Careful of the bathroom in this cafe!!!! Everything goes well until I went to their toilet, there’re so many holes in female‘s bathroom and i saw the documentary to say these are the hidden camera!!!!

This might be unfair review for this café because the food and environment are nice. But this is so far the first place I found in toilet that much suspicious “hidden camera” hole in Seoul. The cafe shop is in tourist place and the price range is belong to “high-end range” in Korea (around €10 for a dessert and €7 for drink), for that I have expectation for it’s hygiene and safety standard. However, on the toilet wall, there’re at least 5-6 holes, some filled by paper some not. The wall material is hard so I don’t think it’s the insect or natural damage. Apparently it’s not happened in one day, but the cafe owner didn’t do anything about it ( to repair the hole or to check the hidden camera or try to do sth to avoid this kind of action).

I asked my husband to take me to the men’s toilet, at least we didn’t find this kind of holes on the wall.

This cafe is insta-famous cafe and there’re a lot of chic girls visit as well as a lot of foreigner tourists. The cafe owner should be more responsible to solve this safety issue. I’m not sure if this kind of issue is quite general that people already get used to it? The owner doesn’t even bother to repair the wall and call the police? It’s not one hidden hole, but 7 obvious big holes that any one can notice walking into the bathroom!!!!!

Anyway, I hope that people go to this cafe see my message and be careful to use their bathroom. One star is to get more people’s attention when they search the review of this cafe. This one star is for safety issue ONLY!

To be fair, If you just want to pass by and take a afternoon tea and take some photos, this is a nice place. The cafe and food are nice, environment is also great,...

This was the most overrated cafe I visited during my visit to Seoul. I do not recommend it, especially because of the poor service. They had an issue with their toilets where the water in the toilet would splash up whenever an adjacent toilet was flushed. This really ticked me off as my son was using the toilet and it happened 3x. I wanted to speak to the manager, but the person in charge was a young guy in his 20s and did not take me seriously. He tried to brush it off like it was an issue they were already aware of and said that they were letting customers know about the toilet issue whenever a customer would go to use them. But that wasn't true as it was the same guy showed me the door into the bathroom section and didn't say a word.

MANAGER, AT LEAST POST A SIGN IN THE BATHROOM THAT THIS PROBLEM EXISTS TO NOTIFY YOUR CUSTOMERS.

"BEWARE: TOILET WILL SPLASH WHEN ADJACENT TOILETS FLUSH"

All they had to do is sincerely apologize and not make excuses.

I should have known because as soon as you walk in, you can sense that the workers are not interested in providing good service. Their café is so popular that they seem to have lost the concept of genuine service and warm hospitality. Every café I went to had sufficient service except this one.

Oh yea, and the AC unit started dripping water near us. It's generally pretty humid in this place.

And what's with not having a stroller-friendly entrance? You have to literally step over water on flat stones to get in. (Seoul, in general, is not very stroller-friendly.)

The coffee and yakgwa was not good either.

Save your money, time, and clean rear-end for the dozens of better cafés out there. I recommend the salt pond - best bread...