Dalmont Cafe

Dalmont is a nice looking cafe and restaurant next to Hakdong station. I’ve lived right around the corner from it for the past year and popped in many times for one of their tasty shrimp or salami sandwiches. Their coffee has been hit or miss for me in the past with an amazing double ristretto one time, and demitasses full of over extracted coffee on other occasions. However, I believe they’re under new management (or something) now and focusing more on proper coffee preparation given that most of the staff changed over the past month and the recent coffees I’ve tried have been more consistent.

They offer all ten of their coffees as single origin espresso based drinks. To do this, they have a bank of ten grinders behind the bar that must take a lot of effort to keep tuned for optimum extraction. When the coffee is good, it’s really good. Their beans are supplied
and roasted by Coffea, home of the current Korean barista champion, Ahn Jae Hyeuk. I’ve only tried the Brazil Cerrado and the Ethiopia Yirgacheffe for my espressos, both were enjoyable and the Brazil was especially nice as a double ristretto, with rich texture, tangy acidity and sweet milk chocolate notes.

The past few times I’ve ordered coffee there I’ve been served a nice, well prepared standard double. I should also mention that their food is pretty good as well. With the new staff and management I’m not sure how the menu might change, but I’ve always liked their shrimp sandwich (Gamberoni) and their burgers are pretty good as well.