Stair-climb entrance and pumpkin ice tea at Suwolgyeonghwa, Songjeong

Basic information about Suwolgyeonghwa

• Address: 188 Songjeong-jungang-ro 6beon-gil, Haeundae-gu, Busan, South Korea, 4th floor
• Hours: 11:00–23:00
• Break time: None
• Parking: Double parking possible under the 1st-floor pilotis; otherwise use nearby paid lots (not covered)
• Note: None

I visited Suwolgyeonghwa while looking for an ocean-view café near Songjeong Beach. It's known for sitting right in front of the beach, so you can enjoy tea and dessert while looking out at the sea. What really drew me in was that, unlike a typical café, it has a hanok (traditional Korean house) atmosphere paired with traditional desserts.

Suwolgyeonghwa is a 15-minute walk from Songjeong Station on the Donghae Line.

From the entrance to the 4th floor: climbing the stairs

You climb a staircase set beside the building. There's no elevator — you have to walk up — but the stairway itself is decorated to give you a taste of Suwolgyeonghwa's signature atmosphere, so it made for a fun photo walk on the way up.

You order on the 4th floor, then take a seat wherever you like on the 3rd or 4th floor.

4th floor — Songjeong ocean views through wide windows

Walking onto the 4th floor, the first thing that catches your eye is, of course, the ocean view of Songjeong. Songjeong Beach spreads out through the wide windows, so even sitting indoors there was no sense of feeling closed in at all.

The interior is a bit different from the modern cafés you commonly see these days. Wood materials and traditional props create a hanok-like feel, and with the high ceilings and wide windows, the space felt quite spacious.

Besides window seats, there are tables for groups, plus a variety of spots that are good for sipping tea while looking at the sea.

When I visited, there were quite a few foreign visitors too — probably because the space blends Korean-style interiors with traditional desserts, which seems to appeal to international guests as well.

3rd floor — a cozy space with floor seating

The 3rd floor has a calmer, cozier mood than the 4th. There are various seat types here — straight-line tables, larger group seating, and even floor seating with cushions.

The floor seating in particular is something you don't see in a typical café, so it really showed off Suwolgyeonghwa's own character. Teacups and traditional props are placed here and there, and the heavy use of wood made it feel like a good, quiet spot to sip tea while looking at the sea.

If the 4th floor's strength is its open, wide ocean view, the 3rd floor felt closer to a quiet, comfortable retreat.

What's the menu like at Suwolgyeonghwa?

Suwolgyeonghwa isn't a typical café that just sells coffee — it's a tea café centered on tea, with a wide range of drinks and traditional desserts. There's a good variety of blended teas, along with hojicha (roasted green tea), rooibos-based teas, and fruit-and-herb teas, so you can pick based on your taste.

For coffee, there's American-style gabae and gabae-au-lait, and for those who'd rather skip tea, traditional drinks like chestnut sikhye (sweet rice punch) and sujeonggwa (cinnamon-persimmon punch) are also available. The desserts, too, lean heavily on Korean ingredients — things like the Dalbodeure box and monaka — giving the menu a clearly different feel from a regular café.

*Ordered: Shuring Pumpkin Ice, Chestnut Louigureum Ice, Dalbodeure box

Dalbodeure box

This box packs in a bunch of desserts — black rice sulbbang (steamed rice bread), injeolmi (rice cake) skewers, a ganache monaka made with Valrhona chocolate, a whole red bean and butter monaka, and gamtae (seaweed) mentaiko financier — so you get to try a lot of different flavors in one go.

It's not all sweet, either — the gamtae mentaiko financier brings a savory note, which was great to alternate with sips of tea. A really impressive reinterpretation of Korean-style desserts in different forms.

Shuring Pumpkin Ice

This drink had that gentle sweetness and nuttiness that's characteristic of pumpkin. Served cold, it was clean and not at all heavy.

Chestnut Louigureum Ice

This one had a subtle, nutty-sweet chestnut flavor. True to its name, it had a soft, cloud-like quality that paired well with dessert — not overly rich or aggressively sweet, so it was easy to sip slowly.

Hanok-style interior and windows with beach train views

What personally struck me most about Suwolgyeonghwa was the interior decoration. Wood is used generously throughout, and traditional props and teacups are placed here and there, preserving that quiet, hanok-style atmosphere.

That said, it doesn't feel like an old-fashioned teahouse either — the big windows looking out at the Songjeong sea also give it the openness of a modern café. Having the sea and a hanok-style interior share the same space made the mood clearly different from your typical ocean-view café.

Through the windows, you can see not just Songjeong Beach but also the beach train passing by, which made for a fun little photo opportunity whenever a train went past.

Final thoughts

If you're looking for a café near Songjeong Beach that gives you both an ocean view and a distinctive atmosphere, I'd recommend Suwolgyeonghwa. Unlike a plain ocean-view café that only offers the sea, this place combines hanok-style interiors, traditional desserts, and a wide range of teas — its own identity really came through.

Sitting by the window, Songjeong Beach comes fully into view, and with the beach train passing by too, it was a relaxing spot to take in the scenery. With so many kinds of tea on offer, I'd recommend it to tea lovers, and also to anyone like me who wants to spend time with dessert in a café with real atmosphere.