Tong-in Market: Dosirak Cafe

#wildchildinkorea #day1

We headed to Tong-in Market for some dosirak (lunchbox) lunch!! Yeesee and I went there once and we were so late they were closed by then : ( i was so disappointed!! I really wanted to have some japchae (Korean glass noodles - I LOVE IT) and jeons (Korean pancakes) and omg ddeokbokki (spicy rice cakes) so a trip back there was needed. And what better time to go when Shan was in Korea too. In my opinion, this is a rather touristy thing to do even though there were loads of Koreans there enjoying their dosirak lunches hahaha

So basically, you go to the dosirak cafe (that's where you buy your coin tokens and get your trays and also where you go to to sit and eat at afterwards), pay 5000won and you're given a string of coin tokens, each token is 500won. Armed with this string of coins, walk around the market and purchase foodstuffs, the vendors will be marked out with red signs that read 도시락 (Dosirak) cafe but most of the stalls at the market take part in this dosirak cafe thing.

Coin tokens that are used to purchase food from stall vendors in the market

Clockwise from top left: Ddeokbokki, some kimchi, tofu, eggs, japchae (!!!!!!), dumpling (steamed) and mandus (also a dumpling, but fried)

There are loads of food choices, although some are repeated so it's up to you which stalls you want to patronize. We struggled to finish our coin tokens but don't do what we did!! When you get back to the cafe, you can purchase rice + soup for a certain amount of money (also using the coin tokens). But since we finished all our coin tokens, we purchased the rice and soup with cash. We realized later that filling our trays up meant having too much food and we couldn't finish it all. Also, we realized that we were the only ones with abundantly filled trays ahah everyone else either 1) shared, 2) have half-filled trays.

Opening hours: 11am to 4pm, closed on Sundays

Address: Seoul Jongro-gu Tongin-dong 10-3 서울 종로구 통인동 10-3번지

How to get there: Seoul Subway Line 3, Gyeongbokgung Station, Exit 2

Walk straight for about 10minutes and you will see the entrance for Tong-in Market on your left. Enter the market and walk straight, look out for the cafe entrance on your right - there are toilet signs nearby too. The cafe is on the second-floor so you have to take the stairs up!

Happy us and happy tummies~~ Oh the things I'd do for some japchae right now :'(