Daejeon Highlights: Sung Sim Dang Bakery
Part of my new series, Daejeon Highlights, which highlights what interesting parts there are for you in the 5th largest city—whether you’re moving here, wanting to visit, or simply just curious about life outside of Seoul.
Cause, yes, there is a life outside of Seoul.
Daejeon is a sleepy city. By way of unique culture, Daejeon doesn’t seem to have much. Except for this! People from all over Korea come to Daejeon to eat here—Sung Sim Dang, the Michelin-starred bakery.
Most well known for its deep-fried saboro buns stuffed with sweetened red bean paste, this place has been around for over sixty years. It’s a Daejeon exclusive and in my humble opinion, blows every other bakery anywhere in Korea out of the water.
There’s three different locations in Daejeon. One is in Smart City near Expo Park, another is in Daejeon Station and the last is in its original location in Eunhang-dong, near subway exit 2.
Just down the street is also Sung Sim Dang’s cake boutique. This is where you can get more elaborate desserts, like cakes, tarts, tiramisus, etc. They have a restaurant upstairs of that, called Flying Pan, if you want pasta or pizza.
But the real main attraction is Sung Sim Dang’s main building. In there, you’ll find all their signatures: flakey fruit pastries, chocolate-dusted desserts, crusty sandwiches, long sausage rolls, and fried croquettes. You can also get loaves of freshly baked bread.
Before COVID, there were lots of opportunities to sample the treats. Maybe later this year we can get back to that?
Speaking of, this place is almost always packed with a line out the door. Before COVID, that was just a minor inconvenience. These days, they take the require precautions you see everywhere in Korea: taking temps, scanning QR contact-tracing codes, and distancing the patrons, so you can grab your bread and go. That’s another thing—they are FAST. I’ve never seen cashiers as fast as Sung Sim Dang’s.
Each treat is really cheap, usually anywhere from 1,500-3,000 won. This makes it really easy to end up buying a huge pile of bread (…good or bad? you decide).
My go-to is any of their chocolate creations or walnut breads, but I also should recommend their saboro buns and fresh caprese sandwiches. Honestly, just pick whatever looks good to you. It’s all delicious.
Behind the really good bread is a great message.
My coteacher is friends with the daughter of the Sung Sim Dang family, who are kind of celebrities in Daejeon. So here’s some ~insider info ~ (kidding. Not really—most foreigners just don’t know about it):
The Sung Sim Dang story comes from hardship. The family escaped North Korea on the USS Meredith Victory, the ship that was the last salvation for refugees out of NK—and the same boat President Mun Jae-in’s parents escaped on.
President Mun came to celebrate his birthday here in 2019 due to their family’s shared history
Their motto is “Love Comes First”—love for each other, then love for bread. Maybe that’s why the bread is so damn good.
The Sung Dim Dang family is well-respected because of their humanitarian efforts. They give fresh bread (not leftovers) to orphanages and unhoused people. They offer free water and their restrooms to the street vendors outside. Their generosity has built an entire community around it, with the bakery at the epicenter.
The Sung Sim Dang family being awarded the Order of the Cross by Pope Francis and the Catholic Archdiocese of Daejeon in 2019. /Photo from Catholic Archdiocese of Daejeon
I more than recommend Sung Sim Dang. In fact, there’s nothing else in Daejeon I’d say is worth coming exclusively from Seoul for, but the bread is that good.
Thanks for reading!