Eating Out in Seoul Ain't Cheap

We aren't exactly feeling the pinch when dining out in Seoul. We're only in the city for a week. We're not picking out the 'best of' restaurants, and not doing many fine-dining meals. We eat as we go along. Even so, nothing much is cheaper than Singapore. Our food budget is similar to what we spend at home. Our meals in Seoul average S$100 per meal for three persons. Our cheaper meals (say S$60 per person) are one-dish meals of noodles or porridge. 

Seoul's tourist belts are really quite the place to fleece tourists. In Ikseondong, every cafe sells things thrice the prices of everywhere else. It's expensive. Coffee is pricey and alcohol by the glass is rather astounding. When an on-trend salt bread goes for S$12 for four pieces in a pack, and S$8-$9.50 for a coffee, we know we're in the world's ninth most expensive city as of 2023. Singapore used to be in the thirteenth place, but we're now in fifth place. LOL

According to the Korea Consumer Agency (under Korea Fair Trade Commission), food prices have gone up this March 2024, especially in Seoul. This is likely due to increases in prices of nearly all food ingredients, agriculture, livestock and fisheries industry products. 'Shrinkflation' is also a problem when vendors opt to maintain prices of food but decrease the consumers' portions. 

Journalist Yoon Min-sik flagged out the data provided by the Korea Consumer Agency and wrote in The Korea Herald on April 28, 2024, 

In a bid to provide a general understanding of the dining costs in South Korea, the agency discloses the monthly average prices of the eight most sought-after dishes here: jajangmyeon, kalguksu, naengmyeon, samgyeopsal, samgyetaeng and bibimbap. The information provided since February 2014 is categorized by dish and region, such as a bowl of naengmyeon costing an average of 11,462 won ($8.30) in Seoul in March.

Except for samgyetaeng (ginseng chicken soup), I quite likeall these one-dish meals. Hehehe. These are easy lunches and dinners for one. Or as a casual fill-tummy meal. They're by no means low on carbs, but they would do in a pinch. I'm making my way through this list in Seoul. I can ditch bibimbap because we get enough decent ones at home. 

I don't know the prices in Seoul for these foods before and after 2024. As a tourist who stays in the town areas, especially in Gangnam-gu, one is resigned to paying extra for food and such. Even within Jongno-gu, we can still find decently-priced restaurants. But we're Singaporeans doing the comparing. Food in the central business districts all over the world are similarly priced. 

The banchan in Seoul isn't necessarily eye-popping plentiful unless you go to a higher-end restaurant. Korean food at home is always expensive, so I wouldn't know the differences, except for whether a restaurant does it well or offer decent ingredients.