Hadong has been growing tea longer than anywhere else in Korea, and The Road 101 (더로드101) is the easiest place to taste it.
It sits at the end of the famous Simni Cherry Blossom Road in Hwagae, a big two-story bakery cafe with a landscaped garden, a koi pond indoors, and green tea fields climbing the hillside across the road.
You can drink a latte made from Hadong green tea at a window table and look out at the fields it came from.
The basics
- Name: The Road 101 (더로드101)
- Address: 357 Hwagae-ro, Hwagae-myeon, Hadong-gun, Gyeongsangnam-do
- Hours: Mon-Fri 10:00-18:00 / Sat 10:00-20:00 / Sun 10:00-19:00
- Last order: 30 minutes before closing
- Closing days: none (open year-round)
- Parking: free lot across the road
- House rules: one drink per person, no pets
📍 View The Road 101 (더로드101) on Google Maps →
Weekday closing has crept earlier over the years and now stands at 6 pm, so plan this as a daytime stop.
During cherry blossom season it sometimes stays open until 8 pm — which is also the most crowded time of year.
Getting there
The cafe is on the road between Hwagae Market and Ssanggyesa Temple, about a 30-minute drive from Hadong-eup.
If you are traveling without a rental car, take an intercity bus to Hwagae Bus Terminal; from there it’s a five-minute taxi ride, or take a local bus to the Chimjeom stop and walk three minutes.
Taxis are easiest through the Kakao T app.
One caveat that applies anywhere in Korea: Google Maps cannot handle walking or transit directions, so navigate with Naver Map or Kakao Map.
Temple first, coffee after, market on the way out — the cafe sits right between them.
The space
The garden is the main event.
A gentle slope leads from the parking area up to the building, past lawns, a fountain, rose arches in early summer, and pine bonsai that look like they cost more than the building.
Staff seem to groom them full time.
Inside, the ceiling is high and one wall is a vertical garden.
An actual koi pond sits in the middle of the first floor.
The best seats are the second-floor window tables, looking out over the Hwagae valley and the terraced tea slopes across the road.
The stepped, amphitheater-style seating by the pond is the most atmospheric spot, but it is a designated no-kids zone.
Families usually settle upstairs or outside, where there is a sandbox.
High chairs are available.
An annex building that used to be open to customers is now staff-only, but the main hall and garden give you plenty to wander through.
What to order
Anything with “Jirisan” in the name is made with Hadong green tea, and that is what to order here.
Jirisan latte 8,000 won, cream latte 8,500, choco-forest (matcha and chocolate) 8,500, green tea ice cream 7,500, affogato 8,000.
The drinks are served cold only, even in winter.
Start with the Jirisan latte.
The tea is ground to order in a mortar, and it comes out bitter and fresh rather than sugary — closer to real matcha than the sweet green tea lattes most chains pour.
The green tea ice cream is dense without being bitter, and the affogato pairs it with a low-acidity espresso.
The americano (6,000 won) is smooth and nutty if you would rather have coffee.
Ordering is simple even without Korean.
You pay first at the counter, take a pager, and pick up at the bar; the menu is a big board you can point at.
Staff may speak only limited English, but pointing works fine, and foreign cards go through here without trouble.
Nobody tips in Korea.
The bakery
Bread comes out at 10 am, and the cafe sells only what it baked that morning, so the popular items are gone by late afternoon.
The house favorite is the garlic bread (7,000 won): a big loaf brushed with Jirisan honey and garlic sauce, filled with cream cheese.
It is a sweet dessert bread despite the name, not the savory kind.
Salt bread (4,000 won) comes in plain, green onion cream cheese, and Emmental versions, and there are things made with local produce, like chestnut madeleines and a crumbly rice-cake bread.
For souvenirs, the Hadong sandwich cookies (하동샌드) come in green tea and cherry-blossom-raspberry.
Bread comes on paper, not a plate.
A self-service corner has a microwave and bags, so leftovers can be packed up to go.
Most pastries are sweet and cream-heavy; one loaf is plenty for two people with drinks.
Cost and crowd strategy
Prices are high for rural Korea: most drinks run 7,000-8,500 won, and two drinks and a loaf come to about 20,000 won.
What you are paying for is the garden upkeep and the view.
On weekends and through cherry blossom season the whole building fills up.
Window seats turn over slowly, and the restrooms are undersized for a place this big.
Come on a weekday just after they open at ten, when the bread racks are full and the window seats are still empty.
Korean domestic travelers can get 10% off through a regional digital tourist-pass app, but signing up needs Korean identity verification, so visitors from abroad should budget full price.
Verdict
Do not come here for single-origin espresso or a quiet corner to read in.
It is loud on weekends, the service is efficient rather than warm, and the drinks cost city prices.
But as one stop on a day in Hadong, between the temple, the market, and the tea fields, it does the job.
Drinking Hadong green tea while looking at the fields it grows in is not something you can do anywhere else.
The garden deserves a slow lap, and families get a sandbox, the koi, and a gift shop without moving the car.
Most people end up stopping again the next time they pass through Hwagae.
