Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tiger Beer]

Definetely the COST!!! Other Asian food can be had quite cheaply. Korean food definetely not.

I miss it like mad in the States.. but trying to bring your date or girl or family there.. $20 minimum per portion for galbi.. so with your girl plus a few drinks its upwards to $50+ plus tips as well for two people.

I'd rather take her to the Vietnamese restaurant down the street and get us both filled up for $12 total including tip.

Also the cheap Korean food kinda sucks compared to Thai, Vietnamese, etc.. who would want to go eat bibimbop for $4-5 when you can have pad thai or lemongrass chicken or something infinitely more tasty.

If Koreans really want Korean food to catch on.. charge $5-7 for a gabli portion in those restaurants!!

[jajdude]

Agreed. Ate Korean 2 or 3 times in Vancouver in 1998. It was $20 per head for galbi minus a lot of the extras you'd get here. No kimchi. It was still good and my buddies were impressed but I told 'em it's twice as good at half the price in Korea. I told the ajumma in Vancouver that too. She said she knew but had to follow business sense to make the profit there. And a soju was between 15-20 CDN dollars too! Yikes. Makes ya wonder, did they have to buy separate airplane tickets for each bottle of soju?? Oh "bibimbap" was about 8 bucks at another Korean restaurant, not too much I guess (8 CDN being 6000 won at the time)

[Son Deureo!]

It is because Korean food is too spicy, and foreigners can't handle any spicy foods. Didn't you know?

[Cthulhu]

We ate some kickass Korean food (I had jaeyukpokkum/spicy pork + rice) a few weeks ago on Bloor Street in Toronto. $4.99-6.99 for 90% of the huge menu. Just like Korea and no tip required either--the place even looked like an average no-name greasy spoon in Busan. But I agree that these places are not common and those not located in a Koreantown area are usually priced way too high. Find a Koreantown near you and just go where the Koreans go...

[wylde]

it seems to be the food i'd throw in the trash at home that's use to cook with here... I could have sold the rubbish in my restaurant to a korean restaurant and had no wastage at all. it's for damn sure that the food they use is certainly rubbish and only what starving people would eat where i'm from.

i think it is mostly vomit and i could never honestly say it is 'good'.

enjoy it all you like but i am able to have my opinion thanks..

[Cthulhu]

No problem with me. Doesn't change my opinion of it at all and it won't change my opinion of your opinion.

[mindmetoo]

[shaun k]

wylde's first post on this thread was funny. very funny...i dont understand some getting uptight about what he said -- surely a man can choose what he eats.

but if you get out of the city and on to a farm you can experience some proper home cooking here in korea. it's good country food, and i love it. it's true they dont waste anything, but it's also true that they eat the best parts as well...and there is something special about spending a few hours picking some stuff from the ground and then cooking and eating it, or eating some beef that was raised in the barn next to the kitchen. it feels right. you also have to have a passel of kids roaming around at full volume, and a few old people knocking back soju like water. for ambiance.

the american south, of course, has its own version of country food -- black-eyed peas, greens, pot liquer, chicken livers...and when you're there eating it, it's good (i do, however, refuse to eat the intestines of any animal, even if it's called "chitlins" or whatever...no matter how you spice it up, it still tastes like ass). i grew up in san francisco, and know and love a well prepared meal from a fine restaurant, but i also can appreciate the pleasures to be had from sitting with a bunch of downhome folk and digging in. as my uncle would say, "sitting with the right people makes the beans special".

[Kiddirts]

[Swiss James]

What is American food? Not trying to have a go, I've been there three times and other than hamburgers (german?) can't think of anything I had that was indigenous.
I lived in Switzerland for 6 months, the idea of that greasy starchy rubbish being better than korean food is just laughable. Laughable I tells ya!


So anyway I've eaten korean food in New York (not bad, pricey), London (below average, pricey, small portions) and Manchester (sub par, but not terrible, kim-bap style place, cheap). Whenever I've been with other people they've been pleasantly surprised at how frigging tasty everything was and wanted to go again. But the best aspects of say a kalbi meal- communally cooking it at your table, endless tasty free side-dishes, the delicious soup that comes with the rice- I've never had any of these things outside of the RoK.
Plus the price(!) Korean food may be many things but it's not got a stylish image that can justify a designer price tag.

[Haggard]

The answer isn't too complicated. Korean restaurant owners jack up their prices way out of range because they know that a flood of Korean businessmen, students, tourists, etc. will pay through the roof for subpar food. They've seen the busloads with thick wallets frothing at the mouth for some chiggye and adjusted their prices accordingly.

S&D. High demand from homesick, traveler's-checks-carrying suckers and small supply from savvy leeches who know how to take advantage of their desperate brothers and sisters.

Same reason that Korean boarding houses abroad can charge outrageous prices: Fear of whitey and his evil cultural influences combined with the nice, soothing, expensive sound of Korean all around equals a nice uri nara feeling outside of uri nara.

[Swiss James]

See also Outback steak house/ TGI Fridays etc. ?

[Haggard]

Re: Outback/TGIF

Outback isn't charging 300-400% higher prices mate. Prices for those chains in Korea are within 15-20% of what you'd pay for similar stuff in the states, and that 15-20% is equalled out when you add in the tip you dish out back home. The gap is minimal.

I don't know any whiteys so desperate for western food that they'd pay 35,000 won for a cheeseburger at TGIF in Seoul.

I do however, know plenty a Korean who'd pony up $15 for a bowl of bibimbap or $18 for a bottle of soju in Chicago.

They're the same ones whose suitcases wreak of kimchi.

[tokki]

[dogbert]