If you live near a university or big corporation, there is a high chance you can get some cheap meals.
In general, eating out in Korea isn’t that expensive, No, actually it is quite cheap since wages are so low in service industries. However meals at most universities and corporations are even cheaper.

I live near a corporation which is one of the biggest steel exporting companies in the world.
Sometimes when I don’t feel like cooking, I just drag my husband there. It’s open to the public as well. Dinner is 2500 won. (Lunch is 3000 won).

This is what I had couple of days ago.

The menu from the top left is: Fish cutlet with tartar sauce, Jeyuk-Bokkeum (Marinated pork with Gochujang sauce), Seasoned Cucumber, White rice, Squid and tofu mixed stew.
It was quite nice, especially for that price. Where else could you get this meal for 2500 won (About 2.60 US dollors)?

-How to buy meals at the cafeteria-

1. There is usually vending machines or a person who sells coupons. So you pay money to get a coupon. There are more choices of menus at universities. (At corporations you can’t choose the menu most of the time.)

2. Follow the crowds. (Not the food rubish emptying line )
If you can help yourself, like a buffet system, then you choose what you’re going to get (Kimchi is unavoidable). If you want some more, you can refill freely. (If they let you of course. Where I go it is very common.)

3. Enjoy the meal.

4. Make sure you empty your food scraps at the end in the bins provided (or put the tray in the place provided) – just follow everyone else.

I like planning for meals before hand. Or it might be a Korean thing. (According to my husband)
From last night I tried hard to think of what to have for lunch today. One thing was clear. We needed to go grocery shopping. But I didn’t want to go shopping early morning for that.

When I got up in the morning, I still hadn’t decided what we were going to have for lunch. I tried hard to think of something, then I decided to have pizza for lunch.

Pizza Hut pizza in Korea is quite expensive compare to other countries. So we don’t eat it very often. However I’ve been collecting some coupons from Pizza Hut since November last year, so I had 12 coupons in my hand. Which means I can order pan or thin medium pizza (for 2 people) for free. -It is not a discount coupon.

This is what the coupon looks like.

You can get this coupon whenever you order home delivery pizza, it is in the right edge of the box lid. So if you didn’t realized about this, don’t forget to cut it out from next time.

It says

- Box coupon-

If you collect this coupon, we will exchange it as follow.

• 10 coupons – One pan or thin pizza (for 2 people size – medium)
• 15 coupons – One cheese crust or bistro pizza (for 2 people size – medium) or One pan or thin or potato pizza (for 3-4 people size – large)
• 20 coupons – One cheese crust pizza or pan or thin pizza (for 4-5 people size – family size) or One rich gold pizza (for 2 people size – medium) or One bistro pizza (for 3-4 people size – large) or One big 4 pizza (large square)
• 25 coupon – One rich gold pizza (for 4-5 people size – family)

Coupon expire date : valid to xxxx.xx.xx
Order number : Tel) 1588-5588

So we ordered pizza, and it got delivered. (Of course there is no delivery fee.)

One thing you need to remember is, there is no coupon in the free pizza box.
So don’t get your hopes up too high.

We found that we can order any types of pizza even with free coupons, so we ordered the most expensive pizza (for 2 people) “Extrema” – 14,900 won (US $15.70)

This is a picture of the thin Extrema pizza.

However super supreme pizza which we usually get is 13,900 won (US $14.65). Anyway it was really yummy.

Related Posts

Extrema Cheese Bite Fondue Pizza (from Pizza hut, Korea)