Umu
【Foodholic Neko @ Jeju Island, South Korea】
"Umu" is a very famous dessert shop on Jeju Island that specializes in pudding. The pudding here is made from local seaweed. Although Umu is often featured by IG KOLs, online reviews are quite polarized. Many people feel it’s not worth a try, or say it doesn’t taste like pudding at all.
However, to conclude: I quite like Umu’s pudding! The texture isn’t chewy like the traditional pudding; instead, it’s more like cheese. But I love cheese, so treating it like cheese may leave you with fewer surprises or unmet expectations.
The store exterior is just a simple single-story building, with a clean color scheme of white and wood tones that makes you want to snap lots of pictures right at the entrance.
Due to the smaller shop space, only one group of customers is allowed to enter and purchase at a time. Since Umu is very popular, I thought there would be a long line, but when we arrived around 4 PM, there were only two groups ahead of us, and we barely had to wait. Plus, the pudding was already made, so we could choose our flavors and take them right away.
This is a pure takeaway shop, so we enjoyed our pudding in the car! You cannot park right outside the shop, and parking can be challenging, so it’s recommended to park in a nearby parking lot and walk over.
P.S. It’s best to consume it within 30 minutes of leaving the refrigerator.
We ordered the plain and corn flavors, both priced at ₩6800. A small pudding costs around 150 NTD, which is quite pricey, but I really liked the taste, so if I get the chance to go back, I would buy it again!
The plain flavor seems to be an oat vegan flavor, and it has a pleasant oat milk aroma. I find the plain flavor quite unique, making you want to take bite after bite.
I liked the corn flavor even more; it even had a cute little piece of corn on top! The taste is very reminiscent of a chilled corn soup, and I finished it quickly, feeling like I wanted more.
I recommend that if you visit Jeju Island, definitely try some Umu pudding!