Mountain-view café in Yuseong, Daejeon: plain chimney bread at Luonto

📍Address: 37 Sutonggol-ro 71beon-gil, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon, South Korea (Café Secret Garden) ⏰Hours: Daily 11:00–21:00 / Last order 20:00 / Closed Mondays and Tuesdays 🅿️Parking: Dedicated parking available

Hi everyone! It's Dodo~

After Sunday lunch, I was looking for a café to grab a cup of tea and stumbled onto Luonto Sutonggol Branch by chance.

I hadn't planned to go there at all, but the road into Sutonggol already had me in a great mood.

Driving through the scenery slowly turning autumn colors, it felt like I was on a trip somewhere far away even though I was still in Daejeon, haha.

The former Secret Garden café is now running under the new name "Luonto," and once I got there in person, the space was too pretty to just have coffee and leave.

Luonto Sutonggol Branch's outdoor atmosphere and parking

Luonto Sutonggol Branch is a café you find by driving deep into Sutonggol. Mountains surround it and green scenery stretches out, so the first impression was great.

It has a much more relaxed vibe than cafés in the middle of the city, so it felt like a great stop for a Sutonggol outing or a drive. There's also parking available, so visiting by car wasn't a hassle at all.

There's a small lot inside the building, and a large outdoor lot outside the building too.

Touring Luonto Sutonggol Branch floor by floor

Luonto Sutonggol Branch has a different mood on every floor, which makes exploring it fun. The 1st floor has huge floor-to-ceiling windows looking out at the scenery, with a variety of table setups.

Café Luonto is a place where you can pick from top-grade, in-house roasted beans to your taste.

A 2nd-floor terrace like an outdoor wedding hall

But the space I loved most was the 2nd floor! Going upstairs, you find a space that brings to mind an outdoor wedding hall. The outdoor terrace, garden, and surrounding mountain scenery all come into view at once.

Is this really Daejeon? I even felt for a moment like I'd gone on an overnight trip somewhere far away and stopped by a café, haha. On a nice autumn day, just sitting outside here would feel like healing.

The 3rd floor can also be rented as a space

There are seats on the 3rd floor too, which looked great for visits with family or a group of friends. And apparently the 3rd floor can be rented out as a space, which would be nice for events.

Luonto's indoor atmosphere — who should come here?

The indoor space at Luonto Sutonggol Branch was pretty relaxed overall, and thanks to the floor-to-ceiling windows showing the Sutonggol scenery, it never felt stuffy.

It seemed good to visit with friends, and just as fine for a family visit or a date spot.

Especially as autumn scenery gets prettier, the drive to the café itself felt like part of the course.

So how was Luonto's plain chimney bread, tried for the first time?

Coming to Luonto, chimney bread was the one thing I really wanted to try. It's introduced as a chimney bread hotspot in Yuseong-gu, and this was actually the first time I'd ever eaten chimney bread at all.

Between plain and cinnamon, we went with the basic plain chimney bread. When it first came out, it looked pretty big — can we really finish this? I wondered, haha. But that worry didn't last long!

Fresh out of the oven, it was still warm all through, crispy on the outside and moist inside. Instead of being heavily sweet, it had a plain, savory flavor that kept me reaching for more. Pulling it apart layer by layer, the person who said 'this is too much' disappeared — it vanished in no time, haha.

It went even better paired with a cup of tea. Even as a first-timer with chimney bread, I could see exactly why this is known as a chimney bread hotspot in Yuseong-gu.

A place where I got to drive through Sutonggol in autumn air, take in pretty mountain views, and taste freshly baked chimney bread! If you want to feel like you're on a short trip without going far, I think it'd be lovely to spend some relaxed time over a cup of tea at Luonto Sutonggol Branch^^