Believe Us, This Stuff Is Free in Korea

From healthcare system to public transportation, Korea is well-known for providing great services in general.

UoH hopes that our friends can enjoy some of the stuff for free when they visit Korea. Please read below!

1. Side Dishes

Korean meal places serve side dishes along with the main dish we order. Fully enjoy them with the rice and soup. Feel free to ask the server for more, because they are no extra charge. Koreans often tell the quality and authenticity of the restaurant by eating the store’s kimchi.

Typical side dishes range from kimchi, stir-fried fish cakes, stir-fried bean sprouts, to seaweed, stir-fried zucchini, spicy stuffed cucumber kimchi. It will be interesting to find out one’s taste by trying out all sorts of side dishes in Korea.

2. Water

Water at the Korean restaurants is free of charge. Koreans usually serve cold water at the restaurants, so do ask for the hot/warm water! Some of them have self-bars, where you need to pick up your own water. Stay hydrated yourself! ????

3. Lettuce to Wrap Meats (Ssam)

‘Ssam’ is specifically served at Korean BBQ places (with pork belly, beef, etc). Koreans have this culture of wrapping meat with the lettuce. Just like every food, some Koreans enjoy while others don’t. But please try it when you visit Korea – you might love it! Those Ssam are free of charge – you can order more when you are out of it.

⬇️ Quick Tip on How to Use Ssam ????
1. Prepare your lettuce in one hand.
2. Get a bit of sauce, bit of meat, bit of Kimchi, bit of rice, and wrap it all up.
3. Enjoy every food in all-in-one!

4. Coffee

Not everywhere, but still many Korean meal places have this kind of coffee machines. Those are free of charge, so please feel free to take your coffee after your amazing meal. Sometimes, the machine needs 100 won (10 cents), and the coins are usually on top of the machine so people can use it. More of the new restaurants tend not to have such machines, though.

5. TIP

Korea has no tipping culture! If you ask us, ‘what if I want to tip them?’ – we’d say ‘go ahead, who wouldn’t appreciate it?’ ???? But it’s always good and convenient to know that there’s no tipping culture, so you do not have to worry about % and all that!

6. Public Restrooms

Public restrooms in Korea are free to use. You can usually find those in the subway stations, near Han River parks, highway rest areas. If you are in a hurry, either go to use Starbucks restrooms (there are so many Starbucks in Seoul) or use Korean map app and search for the restrooms!

???? Discussion for Today’s Topic :

What kind of stuff/services are free of charge in your country?

Please share your thoughts and opinion with us. ????

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