My wife and I had heard about Dosan Park for years and had never actually been. On Thursday 1 October 2026 we finally went, by subway like most visitors, and spent a late morning walking Apgujeong Rodeo (압구정로데오, also written Apgujeong Rodeo Street) toward it, with coffee and lunch on the way. This guide covers the route, the brand buildings, London Bagel Museum, where to stop for coffee, Dosan Park, and the questions people search about the area.
Apgujeong-ro 56-gil, a minute from exit 6.
What Apgujeong Rodeo is
Apgujeong Rodeo is a grid of side streets in Sinsa-dong, Gangnam, between the Galleria department store and Dosan Park. Despite the name, most of it is not in Apgujeong-dong, which confuses Koreans too.
It was named after Rodeo Drive in the early 1990s and became the hangout of Seoul’s rich kids, then went quiet for most of the 2000s. Around 2021 local landlords cut rents to bring shops back, and it worked: today it is Seoul’s fashion-brand and dessert district, and a 2025 KB bank analysis ranked it third in Korea for foreign visitors, after Myeongdong and Hongdae. We noticed plenty of foreign visitors ourselves, even on a weekday.
It is not a bargain-shopping area. The pleasure is in the walking: quiet lanes, unusual brand buildings, and a park in the middle of it all.
Getting there: use Rodeo, not Apgujeong
Take the Suin-Bundang Line to Apgujeong Rodeo Station (압구정로데오역). Exit 6 puts you at the top of the main Rodeo street, and exit 5 is signposted for Dosan Park. From Gangnam Station it is two stops, about five minutes. We came by subway too, and it is the easiest way in.
Do not confuse it with Apgujeong Station on Line 3, which is 15 to 20 minutes’ walk away along a wide road. If your map app shows “Apgujeong” without “Rodeo”, check before you go. And do not drive: there is almost no street parking. Galleria has paid parking if you must.
Exit 6, signposted in English as “Apgujeong Rodeo Street Entrance”.
Exit 6, the Galleria, and the old blocks
Come up exit 6 and across the eight-lane road is the Galleria West Hall, the department store covered in thousands of glass discs (designed by UNStudio in 2004, lit up at night). Use it as your landmark. Everything below is on your side of the road. If you want a sit-down meal rather than cafe food, Galleria’s basement food hall, Gourmet 494, is the easy option.
Galleria West, the disc facade, from the exit 6 side of Apgujeong-ro.
The other side of the Galleria. The apartment blocks behind it are Apgujeong-dong proper.
Turn your back on it and walk into the side streets. The first blocks are the older layer: a large Olive Young, hair salons, a Starbucks, and nail and skin clinics with Chinese and Japanese in the windows. This is the part “beauty tour” groups come for. If you are thinking about a manicure, see our guide to getting your nails done in Korea.
The Olive Young on the corner, a useful stop for sunscreen and sheet masks.
Further in: a white-brick corner cafe with arched windows, and a tree-lined lane heading south.
One of the one-way lanes off 56-gil. Most of the walk looks like this.
Honest Seoul tips, once a week. Get the newsletter →
Coffee: take your pick
Apgujeong Rodeo is full of good-looking cafes, and you will pass a dozen on this route alone: the famous ones with queues (London Bagel Museum, Nudake), brunch spots like Hergé and Dalmatian, and smaller places in converted houses. At 11am on a weekday the famous ones had lines, so we sat down at Crestown Coffee, a corner cafe five minutes from exit 6 with a back terrace of camping chairs. It opens at 07:00, earlier than almost anything else here, which makes it a good first stop.
Crestown Coffee from the street, and its camping-chair terrace.
One tip that applies to many Seoul cafes: check the menu board for two price columns. At Crestown every drink is 1,000 won cheaper to take away (an Americano is 4,300 won to sit down, 3,300 to go), so on a dry day you can carry it to Dosan Park.
Table and takeout prices side by side, and our two lattes.
Toward the park: Hergé, the rock wall, and London Bagel Museum
Keep walking south and the buildings change. Hergé Dosan Park is a corner cafe with pavement tables, and it had empty seats when we passed. Opposite, a Jeju-themed restaurant called 제주옥탑 (Jeju Oktap) has built its whole entrance as a gray rock face with cactus and palms. Almost everyone stops to photograph it.
Hergé Dosan Park, with empty terrace tables while the bagel place was full.
제주옥탑’s rock entrance, and the cactus and sunflowers along the wall.
On the way south: the Fritz Hansen building, and the stone-fronted corner of tour à tour.
A few doors on is a yellow-brick building with arched windows and a fenced terrace, every table taken before noon. This is London Bagel Museum, the Korean bakery that turned bagels into one of Seoul’s biggest food queues. It opened its first shop in Anguk in 2021 and this Dosan branch in 2022, styled like a London cafe, with more than 20 kinds of bagel plus soups and cream cheese. When Korean press priced it in 2022, bagels ran from about 4,700 to 14,800 won.
The catch is the wait, which Korean media have measured in hours. Doors open at 08:00, the remote queue on the Tabling app often fills before lunch, and popular flavors sell out by the afternoon. If you want to try it, go on a weekday, get there before 08:00, and make the queue your morning plan. If you only want breakfast, Hergé is across the road.
London Bagel Museum Dosan just after noon on a Thursday.
The bagel terrace from the other side, and FOLNUA, one of the white-facade boutiques on the same lane.
Cafe Kossette and Atelier Nain share a converted white house on the way to the park.
The Gentle Monster block: Haus Nowhere Dosan and the pop-ups
The block on the north side of Dosan Park is why the neighborhood is famous. Haus Nowhere Dosan (formerly Haus Dosan) is the Gentle Monster building at 50 Apgujeong-ro 46-gil, open 11:00 to 21:00 daily and free to walk through. There is a changing installation on the ground floor, Gentle Monster eyewear on the middle floors, Tamburins perfume and hand cream at the top, and the dessert shop Nudake in the basement, whose black cone-shaped “Peak” pastry is all over Instagram.
If the frames tempt you, prescription glasses in Korea are fast and cheap; see our guide to buying glasses in Korea.
Haus Nowhere Dosan. The Gentle Monster and Tamburins signs are on the side wall.
Across the road was something we had not expected: a temporary desert on an empty lot, with red sand, cactus, a cream adobe church front and two giant hands holding poppies. It was a pop-up for Atiissu, the hat brand Gentle Monster’s parent company launched in 2025. It will probably be something else when you visit; the pop-ups here change every few weeks.
The Atiissu desert pop-up on 1 October 2026, and Atiissu’s own store nearby.
Next door is Space Dosan, a rentable brand building (Medicube had it when we visited). On the same stretch: a flower-wall pop-up with a line for the doorway photo, HDEX with a red vintage Mustang parked outside, and the bag brand Adekuver in a brick building shaped like stacked boxes.
Space Dosan with Medicube, and the flower-wall pop-up.
HDEX and its red Mustang, and Adekuver.
Honestly, we were not there for any particular shop. What we enjoyed most was walking the lanes and taking in the feel of the neighborhood. We did not go into the other stores every list names, but they are on the same blocks: Wiggle Wiggle House Dosan, Mardi Mercredi, Casetify, and Dalmatian for brunch by a fountain. If you plan to buy anything substantial, read our Korea tax refund guide first. Many of these stores refund the tax at the till, so bring your passport.
Dosan Park: the part most visitors walk through without knowing why
From the Gentle Monster block, take the east gate steps down into the park, and the noise drops away.
The east gate steps. With a stroller, use the main gate instead.
Dosan Park (도산공원) opened in 1973 and is named after Ahn Chang-ho, pen name Dosan, an independence activist and educator who died in 1938 after imprisonment under Japanese colonial rule. He and his wife are buried here together, which most people passing through with a dessert box do not realize. There is a bronze statue of him, stone tablets with his sayings, and a ring path under tall trees. It is free and open around the clock. The streets around it filled up either side of lunchtime, but inside the park it stayed calm. Having a park like this right in the middle of the shopping streets was the part that impressed us most.
The park map inside the gate, and the inner path at midday.
Banners with Ahn Chang-ho’s portrait along the main path.
The Dosan Ahn Chang-ho Memorial Hall (도산안창호기념관) is by the main gate. It is free, open 10:00 to 18:00, and closed on 1 January, Lunar New Year and Chuseok. It is small and mostly in Korean, so fifteen minutes is enough, but the photographs from his years in California and Shanghai speak for themselves.
The statue outside the memorial hall, and the main gate.
Out the main gate: Horim Art Center and Cheongdam
The main gate opens onto Dosan-daero 45-gil. Walk down to the main road and the dark curved tower opposite is the Horim Art Center, a private museum of Korean ceramics and painting, with a Starbucks at the base. From here it is ten minutes back to the station, or cross Dosan-daero into Cheongdam, where the luxury flagships start.
Horim Art Center, and Dosan-daero, where our walk ended.
After dark
We walked this in daylight, so this is the short version. The bars and restaurants are on the main Rodeo street near exit 6, not on the Dosan side. The brand buildings close around 21:00, and the park stays open but is dark.
What it costs and when to go
Nothing on this route charges admission. Budget for coffee (3,300 to 5,600 won at Crestown, more at the destination cafes) and brunch if you want it (about 15,000 to 25,000 won). Most brand stores open at 11:00 or noon.
Weekday late morning, when we went, is the best time. The streets were quiet for most of the morning; the crowds gathered around Dosan Park and its cafes either side of lunchtime. Weekend afternoons get busy from about 1pm. The district also holds a street festival on the main Rodeo street each October (in 2026, Sunday 25 October).
Quick facts
- Where: Sinsa-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul
- Subway: Suin-Bundang Line Apgujeong Rodeo Station. Exit 6 for the street, exit 5 for Dosan Park
- Time: a morning or afternoon. The walking itself is short and flat
- Dosan Park: free, open 24 hours
- Memorial Hall: 10:00 to 18:00, closed 1 Jan, Lunar New Year and Chuseok, free
- Haus Nowhere Dosan (Gentle Monster, Tamburins, Nudake): 11:00 to 21:00 daily, free entry
- London Bagel Museum Dosan: opens 08:00, remote queue on the Tabling app
- Crestown Coffee: 07:00 to 22:00, takeout 1,000 won cheaper
- Galleria West: 10:30 to 20:00, paid parking, basement food hall
- Strollers: fine everywhere except the park’s east gate steps
Frequently asked questions
What is Apgujeong Rodeo known for?
Fashion-brand flagships built like galleries (Gentle Monster, Tamburins, Wiggle Wiggle), long dessert queues (London Bagel Museum, Nudake), beauty salons and clinics, and the Galleria department store.
Is London Bagel Museum worth the queue?
Only if the experience is the point. The Dosan branch opens at 08:00 and the wait can run to hours. Go on a weekday, arrive before opening, and plan the morning around it.
Are Gangnam and Apgujeong the same?
Apgujeong is a neighborhood inside Gangnam district. Gangnam Station is a different area about 3km south. Apgujeong Rodeo is the fashionable north end of the same district.
Is Apgujeong Rodeo Station the same as Apgujeong Station?
No. Apgujeong Rodeo Station is on the Suin-Bundang Line and opens onto the street. Apgujeong Station on Line 3 is 15 to 20 minutes’ walk away.
Is it worth visiting if I am not shopping?
Yes, for the buildings, the people-watching and the park. The brand buildings are free to enter, and Dosan Park is one of the quietest green spaces in Gangnam.
How long do I need?
We spent under two hours, coffee and lunch included, and could easily have stayed longer. Add more if you queue for bagels.
Is Dosan Park a cemetery?
It holds the joint grave of Ahn Chang-ho and his wife, so it is a memorial park, but people use it as an ordinary park. Keep your voice down near the grave and the statue.
Can I combine it with Cheongdam or Garosu-gil?
Yes. Cheongdam is across Dosan-daero, about ten minutes east. Garosu-gil is 20 to 25 minutes west on foot, or one stop from Apgujeong to Sinsa on Line 3.
The bottom line
We went for the brand buildings and came home talking about the park. Apgujeong Rodeo is best taken slowly: come up exit 6, pick a cafe, wander the lanes around Dosan Park without a shopping list, then walk into the park and read whose name it carries. We liked the feel of the place so much that my wife and I agreed to come back more often, next time for brunch.
New to Seoul? Start with our First Time in Seoul guide: the airport, the subway, what to see and what to eat, on one page.
Written by WY, a Seoul-based local sharing honest, first-hand guides to Korea. Every guide here is a place I’ve actually been to, written from my own visit, my own photos. More about me →