Veggie restaurant guide released on Seoul City website

(123rf)

The Seoul city government released a list of restaurants, cafes and bakeries in the country’s capital offering vegetarian or vegan options, making it easy for users to search for one in their own neighborhood.

A total of 948 restaurants -- 368 independent restaurants and 580 franchise chains -- were introduced, including vegetarian-only restaurants as well as others with vegetarian options.

A click on a district on the map of Seoul will bring up a list of places in the district serving plant-based food options along with their menus, addresses and contact information.

Users can check whether a restaurant’s dishes are suitable for vegans, lacto-vegetarians, ovo-vegetarians or pesco-vegetarians, based on definitions from the International Vegetarian Union. 

(Seoul Metropolitan Government)

The service is only available in Korean for now.

Among the districts in Seoul, home to some 9 million residents, Gangnam had the greatest number of restaurants offering vegetarian options, 110. It was followed by Jongno with 70, Songpa with 68, Mapo with 57, Yongsan with 54 and Seocho with 52.

The majority of the eateries, 418, served Western food. Korean food was served at 322 of the establishments, coffee and dessert at 69, and Indian or Middle Eastern food at 38.

The average price of a vegetarian dish was 9,500 won, with some 67 percent of the options priced lower than 10,000 won. Some 28 percent of the dishes were priced between 10,000 won and 20,000 won.

Of the dishes offered, 64.3 percent were vegan, followed by lacto-vegetarian (12 percent), pesco-vegetarian (9.9 percent) and ovo-vegetarian (4 percent).

The list can be found at news.seoul.go.kr/welfare/public_health/status-of-vegetarian-restaurants

“This list has been made to provide greater choices for anyone, vegetarian or non-vegetarian, who wants a healthy meal,” said Park Yu-mi, head of Seoul’s public health department.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)

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