Seoul Forest Dessert Boutique Review: NOTRE DON Cakes in Ttukseom
I’m sharing a dessert spot I found while out for a little stroll around Seoul Forest with my daughter—a great place to stop if you’re craving beautiful cakes near Seoul Forest, Seoul, South Korea.
The café is called NOTRE DONand it’s not your typical coffee shop dessert case. This is a high-end pastry boutique where professionally trained pâtissiers create elegant desserts that feel truly special.
Basic Info
Address: 11 Seoulsup 2-gil, Seongdong-gu, Seoul
Contact: 010-7351-1125
Hours: 11 a.m.–10 p.m. (Fri–Sun until 10:30 p.m.)
No parking available. They may allow a quick stop in front of the shop, but as you can see in the photo below, there’s often already a car pulled over there, so I’d recommend using a nearby public parking lot.
NOTRE DON isn’t a loud, oversized café—it’s a small, stylish Seoul Forest café with a calm atmosphere and beautifully refined desserts.
I visited with my baby, so I just picked up desserts to go. There wasn’t any official no-kids notice, but the space felt so quiet and serene that takeaway seemed like the better choice for us.
Inside the Café
The interior is bright and polished, with a clean white-and-wood palette. That simple backdrop makes the desserts in the display case stand out even more.
If you’re looking for a minimalist Ttukseom dessert café, this one really nails it. The interior is sleek and uncluttered, and there seemed to be about six tables total.
I also noticed plenty of people stopping by just to grab desserts to go, like I did.
High-End Dessert Cakes
NOTRE DON in Ttukseom is a pastry boutique run directly by two professional pâtissiers, and you can tell at a glance—this Seoul Forest dessert boutique is filled with polished, high-end cakes and pastries.
They also have easy coffee-pairing baked treats like madeleines and financiers,
along with gorgeous mini cakes that look like something you’d find at a luxury hotel pastry counter. If desserts at this level were sold in a hotel, they’d easily cost three times more, but here the mini cakes are all in the $7 range, which feels like a great value for the quality.
Honestly, everything looked so pretty and so delicious that I stood in front of the display case for quite a while trying to decide.
My husband and I never finish a full-size celebration cake, even on anniversaries, so this felt perfect. If you need a small occasion cake or an elegant gift dessert, NOTRE DON is such a smart pick.
The only downside? The desserts are so beautiful you almost feel bad sticking a candle into them.
I also spotted desserts labeled “Guanaja,” which I hadn’t heard of before, so I took a closer look. It turns out Guanaja is the name of Valrhona’s iconic dark chocolate.
I usually love dark chocolate, so I picked the Guanaja 40 dessert out of curiosity. They also had a Guanaja madeleine collection, which looked perfect for gifting.
The madeleines are about $3 each, so they’re easy to pick up without overthinking it. They’re also a pretty generous size. There were five flavors: Earl Grey, vanilla, raspberry, lime, and pistachio, and every single one looked tempting.
Once I actually tried them, I was happy to find that the flavor lived up to the presentation. The next time I need a simple but polished gift, I’m definitely coming back for a NOTRE DON dessert selection.
You can even see the desserts being made in the back.
If you buy individual desserts, the box and shopping bag are sold separately, but the packaging itself is elegant and beautifully done.
They also have a Naver Smart Store, where you can order financiers and madeleines for delivery anywhere in Korea. So if you live farther away and still want to try them, it’s worth ordering online.
Coffee & Drinks Menu
Of course, this Seoul Forest café also serves coffee and drinks.
An Americano is about $4 and a café latte is around $5. They also carry Mariage Frères tea, which felt like a nice touch. I used to be obsessed with Wedding Impérial for a while, so I was excited to see it on the menu.
But Wedding Impérial Ade was new to me—I’d never seen that before. I didn’t notice it while I was there, but I caught it while writing this post, and now I want to try it next time.
As a bonus, they were running an event where buying a Guanaja 40 dessert came with a complimentary Valrhona dark chocolate latte, so I unexpectedly ended up with a chocolate drink too, which was such a nice surprise.
If you’re not getting separate gift wrapping, they’ll pack your desserts in an insulated bag. If you’re not eating them right away, make sure to keep them refrigerated.
Final Thoughts
The man who helped us seemed to be the owner-chef, and he was incredibly kind. Between the warm service and the desserts that were both stunning and delicious, NOTRE DON was one of those Ttukseom dessert spots that felt like a treat for both the eyes and the palate.
The dessert on the left was the Valrhona 40 dessert. It got a little squished during transport, but the chocolate flavor was intensely rich and seriously delicious. If you love chocolate, I highly recommend it. I’d absolutely buy it again the next time I’m near Seoul Forest.
Even the madeleines were on another level compared to the ones you’d find at a regular neighborhood bakery. I don’t know all the technical pastry terms, but all three flavors I bought tasted refined and genuinely premium.
If you need a cake in Seoul Forest or Ttukseom, or you’re looking for a dessert gift in Seoul, South Korea, I really don’t think you can go wrong with NOTRE DON.