The design of all the different cafes and coffee shops in South Korea can be truly overwhelming. Of course there are the chain stores such as Starbucks and whatnot that typically look very similar, but there are also a wide range of coffee shops run by individual owners that have very distinct architecture to them.
One of the places that is fairly unique is Ryu Story, located near the Ganjeolgot area in Ulsan.
Ryu Story is, from the outside, designed to look like a castle!
In fact, there is even a suit of armor to greet you when you go in the front door.
As we entered into Ryu Story, we noticed that they had a sale. With the purchase of any two drinks, you would get a slice of cake as well!
The seating areas of Ryu Story are also quite unique. There were different sets of chairs in different areas, to allow for people to choose their most preferred seating style.
We ended up going to the second floor to enjoy our coffee and cake because the view of the ocean would be better.
Before heading upstairs, we took a look at the menu and decided on two café lattes and a piece of Berry Berry Cake. We could even see the baker hard at work making another dessert that we were indeed hoping was delicious.
After looking around some more, our order was ready, and we ascended up to the ramparts of the castle (or the second floor) to try them out.
The Berry Berry Cake looked very good! It had a really nice design to it, with perfectly shaved curls of pink chocolate on top as a beautiful design.
After trying it, the cake was interesting. The icing tasted very similar to strawberry yogurt, which I thought was very unique. The cake itself was acceptable, and fresh which is very important. It was slightly sweet although there was nothing mind-blowing about it.
The café lattes were also acceptable. One of the interesting things is that the heart design in the latte art was of two noticeably different sizes! I found this very fascinating!
The café latte tasted like, coffee. Kind of like the basic beans you might buy at a supermarket. The drink was fine, but again nothing out of this world, similar to the cake.
Ryu Story is an interesting café. The building and interior are very nice and well maintained, but they are surrounded by more run-down buildings, and except for the ocean view, there is not much to be impressed about the locale.
The food was likewise good to look at and met a standard of acceptable. I think though that there might be better places to go in the Ganjeolgot area for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake.
