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Rising food, labor and logistics costs are pushing more Seoul lunch menus above 10,000 won, squeezing restaurant owners and driving diners to cafeterias and convenience stores. Just a few years ago, 10,000 won ($6.5) for a bowl of gukbap — a bowl of warm soup enjoyed with steamed rice — was considered highway robbery. In 2026, it's the new normal. Maybe even on the cheap side. However, this has brought little relief to restaurant owners, who now find themselves trapped in a no-win equation amid ever-worsening inflation: charge more and risk losing customers, or charge less and risk going out of business. Cheon Jeong-rye, the owner of Songok, a buckwheat noodle restaurant Songok in Bukchang-dong in central Seoul, is bracing for another difficult summer. The restaurant opened in 1965, with Cheon's family running it for two generations. This summer, however, is proving to be a particularly difficult one among the 65 years of history. The restaurant's signature dish, chilled buckwheat noodles, now costs 11,000 won, up 4,000 won from 7,000 won in 2016. Even its cheapest item, yubu (fried tofu) udon, has risen from 5,500 won to 9,500 won. In less than a decade, prices of both menu items have risen by 4,000 won. "There isn't a single thing that hasn't become more expensive, whether it's ingredients or labor, so we raised prices once more after Chuseok [Korean autumn harvest holiday] last year," Cheon said. "Regular customers who used to order three servings of noodles now order only two, and that's something I am concerned about." Cheon no longer employs a dining-room server during the busy lunch rush. "If I hire someone, there's nothing left over," Cheon said. "I do everything myself now. We need to earn as much as possible during the summer to survive the winter, but these days there are even fewer customers than during the Covid-19 pandemic." Soaring lunch prices are squeezing both office workers and small-business owners. On May 29, the JoongAng Ilbo revisited major restaurants in Bukchang-dong, a popular dining district in Seoul's Jung District. The on-site visit came two and three years after the previous surveys in 2023 and 2024. Of the 28 restaurants surveyed in 2023, only 15 remain in business. The 13 have gone out of business in the past three years. More than half of those remaining establishments — eight out of 15, or 53.3 percent — have raised the prices of their cheapest lunch menu items over the past year and a half. When the newspaper first conducted its survey in February 2023, 67.9 percent of restaurants surveyed — 19 out of 28 — offered at least one lunch menu item priced below 10,000 won. This year, that share has fallen to 46.7 percent, or seven out of 15 restaurants. One gukbap restaurant raised the price of its cheapest bowl from 9,000 won in 2023 to 10,000 won in 2024. The dish's price went up to 11,000 won this year. Even gukbap, once a go-to budget meal, is no longer as affordable as it used to be. As dining out becomes increasingly burdensome, office workers are turning to corporate cafeterias and convenience stores. "Although there are plenty of famous restaurants nearby, even their cheapest menu items are usually over 10,000 won," said Choi, an office worker who was dining at a company cafeteria in the Bukchang-dong food alley. "Once you add a side dish and coffee, the bill comes close to 20,000 won, which is financially burdensome." "Even gimbap [rice roll] costs more than 5,000 won a roll if it has beef [toppings inside]," Choi added. "I'd rather eat at the cafeteria, where I can get rice, soup and several side dishes for 8,900 won." "I spent nearly 20,000 won for lunch with a 15,000-won meal and a 4,000-won coffee," said Lee, an office worker in the Seocho-dong neighborhood in southern Seoul. "When I'm eating alone, I usually get by on cup noodles and a triangle gimbap from a convenience store for around 8,000 won, and I look for the cheapest coffee I can find." Triangle gimbap is a Korean versio...