Passion 5 is a famous dessert cafรฉ in Itaewon area being known for its delicious desserts. I walked pass the building everytime Iโm Itaewon but never knew itโs a cafe and dessert bar till a friend of mine mentioned it.
Someone asked my friend for recommendations about where to eat in Seoul and she answered with a few names including Passion 5. In her words the cafรฉ is supposed to have delicious desserts and decent foods. I did some researches about the place and it turned out there was a bunch of blog posts about it 2 or 3 years ago. It seemed that the place got a lot of attention when it first opened.
People mostly wrote about how good their desserts are and how cool design of the building is but I totally forgot to pay attention to the design with foods in front of me. There are good and bad reviews (about their crappy service) so I decided to give it a try myself.
The building has 5 floors with the 1st floor as a bakery; 2nd floor named Lโatelier where you can enjoy brunch, lunch and dinner; and 3rd floor is an Italian restaurant. They have another cafe on the basement which serves tea, champagne, and desserts that are different from the ones sold on 1st and 2nd floor too.
Since the their 1st floor doesnโt have that much of space, desserts that you buy can be enjoyed on the 2nd floor as well.
I made reservation for December 24th which was Christmas Eve and when we got there the place was full except tables that already reserved.
We arrived, being led to our table, sat down and ordered our foods. They were fast at serving us with drinks and bread came out just a few minutes later.
The bread was good. No wonder theyโre famous for all the desserts.
Grape Ade
The waitress will instruct you to mix the drink up before drink but you donโt have to. In the end after mixing it turned into a sweet drink with this unappetising colour, just leave the drink as it is if you would want to taste different layers of it.
We got chicken salad for appetizer which was marked as the best choice in their menu. The salad came with 4 different types of dressing. They let us choose the one we like then mixed and poured it over our salad table side.
The salad was good but their avocado was way too tough. The fruit wasnโt ripe and there is only half of it on our plate of salad so I assumed there would be someone else being served tough avocado along with us that night.
My friend got Cheese Omelet which tasted fine in my opinion. It was served in a casserole dish which indicated itโs in fact an oven baked omelet.
I ordered their Brunch Burger, the patty was moist but a little too salty for me. And it was served with rice, something I saw before in Japanese restaurant.
After the meal we headed downstairs for some desserts but since it was late almost everything already sold out so we only got to try some of their tarts.
And yes those tarts were good. That tart crust was awesome!
Overall my friend gave a right review for the cafรฉ: good desserts and decent foods. I would come back again; not because of the foods of course, and not especially for the desserts also (a piece of knowledge: Passion 5 owned by SPC group which is the owner of Paris Baguette too, you can get some of the desserts that sold at Passion 5 at any Paris Baguette nears your place). But for the Parlour at the basement, I heard they serve good tea and I just canโt say no to tea.
So if youโre looking for a well decorated place to spend some time with friends or your loved one give Passion 5 a try. Itโs granted that you wonโt be disappointed by their desserts.
HOW TO GET THERE:
Passion 5
Address: 272 Itaewon-ro, Yongsan-gu, Seoul (์์ธํน๋ณ์ ์ฉ์ฐ๊ตฌ ์ดํ์๋ก 272)
Operation hours: 07:30AM โ 10:00PM
Directions:
1. From Hangangjin Station (ํ๊ฐ์ง์ญ) take Exit 3.
2. Take a U turn right when you get out of the exit and walk back for a few minutes.
3. The building will be on your left, look out for it
Not related but the flower that I got from my friend since itโs my birthday! Yay~