I’ve stayed in Myeongdong on almost every Seoul trip over the past decade, and there’s always been a pastry shop located around the corner of Skypark Central Myeondong. They used to be called You Are Here, but has since been replaced by a new bakery called Myeongdong Yanggwa.

It’s easy to spot and frankly very difficult to miss because the window is full of Korea’s most trendy pastries and desserts. There are glossy yakgwa-inspired desserts, trendy salt bread variations, pistachio-heavy Dubai chocolate creations, and rows of oversized cookies dusted in cocoa powder or stuffed with rich fillings.The selection itself is genuinely impressive.

The yakgwa pastries are especially interesting if you have been noticing Korea’s recent obsession with modernised traditional desserts. Yakgwa itself is a centuries-old Korean honey cookie traditionally associated with holidays and ceremonial occasions, but it has become unexpectedly trendy among younger Koreans in recent years. At Myeongdong Yanggwa, you can see how that trend gets reinterpreted into more contemporary bakery-style products aimed directly at café culture and Instagram-friendly dessert browsing.

It’s safe to say that we were drawn in primarily because of the window display, and decided we might as well have breakfast here since the menu also offered drinks and they had seating upstairs.

While the shopping experience was certainly exciting, the actual eating & dining experience was a little more mixed. I thought it might have been just me, but I read their online reviews and they pretty much aligned with what we felt.

It is undeniable that the bakery excels at variety and visual appeal, but the quality can vary noticeably depending on what you order. Some pastries are actually pretty good, while others lean more heavily into trendiness than execution.

We ordered a lot of pastries to share so I think we had a pretty good selection to review from, including their salt bread, Lotus S’more Cookie, Dubai Chocolate S’more Cookie, Strawberry Fresh Cream Croissant. Their salt bread was pretty decent, their strawberry croissant actually rather delicious, but everything else that was clearly ‘trendy food’ seemed to be rather lacking.

I personally felt that the salt bread from Fresh Bread Factory (also nearby!) was much better. A good salt bread should be sufficiently buttery and crispy with a nice tinge of salt, whereas the one from Myeongdong Yanggwa felt like it was just scraping the barrel to meet the definition of ‘salt bread’.

Another thing to take note of is if you are planning to come here to eat with a baby or toddler. The stairs (only upstairs seating was available) and lack of baby chairs is a clear sign that Myeongdong Yanggwa is not meant to be a family-friendly establishment.

So, is Myeongdong Yanggwa worth trying?

Still, despite those inconsistencies, the bakery remains enjoyable for what it is. It works best if you approach it less like a “must-eat famous bakery” and more like a fun trend-sampling stop during a Myeongdong walk.

The appeal is not necessarily that every single pastry is perfect or amazing. I think the best part about it is that you can experience several current Korean dessert trends in one place without traveling across different neighbourhood cafés in Seoul.

Would I call it the best bakery in Seoul? I think far from it. Unfortunately, that seems to be the case for many of the eateries in Myeongdong, which are clear tourist traps.

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