A grocery store worker puts packaged samgyeopsal (pork belly) products in a fridge at a supermarket in Seoul on Aug. 25.YONHAP
Koreans looking to escape soaring restaurant bills by cooking at home are finding little relief as grocery prices climb just as painfully and leave people agonizing over one of the most uncuttable expenses.
The average cost of preparing a one-person serving of samgyeopsal, or grilled pork belly, rose 11.8 percent year on year to 10,191 won ($7.50) in the first half of the year, according to a Korea Consumer Agency disclosure released Tuesday, up from last year’s 9,112 won.
The calculation includes 200 grams (7 ounces) of pork belly along with 70 grams of lettuce, 50 grams of kimchi, 15 grams of garlic and 15 grams of ssamjang, a seasoned dipping paste.
At that rate, a family of four would spend more than 40,000 won on ingredients alone for a samgyeopsal meal at home.
By item, the cost of 200 grams of pork belly, the main ingredient, rose 13.6 percent to 7,866 won. Ssamjang jumped 19.8 percent and garlic climbed 10.2 percent, while lettuce and kimchi rose 6.3 percent and 1.2 percent, respectively.
By comparison, the average restaurant price for a serving of pork belly rose just 2.7 percent over the same period to 17,745 won.
As grocery costs climbed far faster than restaurant prices, the savings from grilling pork belly at home narrowed. The gap between dining out and preparing the meal at home shrank by 619 won, from 8,173 won in the first half of last year to 7,554 won this year.
The surge in grocery prices is putting even more pressure on the cost of dining out in the second half of the year, as this summer's record heat fuels so-called heatflation. Poor harvests and weaker fisheries output have pushed up ingredient costs, driving restaurants to pass higher labor and rent expenses on to diners.
People walk past a gimbap (seaweed rice roll) store in central Seoul on Aug. 25.NEWS1
The average price of samgyetang, or ginseng chicken soup, in Seoul reached 18,192 won last month, up 192 won from 18,000 won in December of last year.
Demand for the seasonal dish rose during the heat wave, while the FIFA World Cup 2026 also helped drive chicken consumption, as fried chicken is known as a go-to game day food in Korea.
The average price of a bundle of fresh ginseng, equivalent to 12 to 14 roots, used in samgyetang reached 38,750 won as of last Friday, over one and a half times the 24,800 won recorded a year earlier.
Naengmyeon, or cold noodles, also became more expensive. The average price rose 192 won from last December to 12,692 won last month, as summer demand picked up and key broth ingredients, including Korean beef brisket, became more pricey. Woo Lae Oak, a renowned Pyongyang-style naengmyeon restaurant in central Seoul, raised the price of a bowl of noodles from 16,000 won to 18,000 won in April.
A roll of gimbap (seaweed rice roll) is also approaching the 4,000 won mark. The average price rose 146 won from December of last year, from 3,723 won to 3,869 won. The increase was driven by higher prices for ingredients such as dried seaweed and spinach, along with rising operating costs, including labor, rent and gas.
"Restaurant prices are likely to continue rising at a moderate pace in the second half of this year, even if they do not spike sharply," Lim Sang-min, head of the livelihood prices team at the Korea Price Research Center, said.
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
