A meal for the price of 6,500 won. When it approached noon on November 20, customers with meal tickets in hand filled the Sinpung Gosi Restaurant, located in Daehak-dong, Gwanak-gu, Seoul. From grey-haired senior citizens to students in sweatsuits and construction workers wearing dirt-covered safety shoes, everyone filled their dishes with piles of pork belly, the day’s special.

Gosi (state exam) restaurants--restaurants tailored to people studying for state examinations--in Daehak-dong provide buffet-style meals with different menus everyday including cooked rice, soup, meat dishes, various side dishes and fruit. The reputation of the gosichon--neighborhood of people preparing for state examinations--in Daehak-dong weakened when the state-administered bar examination was abolished in 2017. There used to be over a dozen gosi restaurants, but now their numbers have reduced to a handful.

However, such gosi restaurants are still welcomed by students and workers with “slim” wallets. Bak (28), who is studying to become an appraiser, said he moved to Daehak-dong to save money on food. “Here, you can enjoy a buffet for 6,000 won,” he said, adding, “I purchase a month’s worth of meal tickets in advance and eat here every day.” The forty-something seats including the one occupied by Bak filled up in just twenty minutes after the restaurant opened for lunch Monday.

At a glance, it looks like business is booming, but a dark shadow of high costs was cast over the gosi restaurants in Daehak-dong, which the Kyunghyang Shinmun visited Monday. Restaurant owners sighed saying, “We’re on the brink of going out of business.” They either raised prices or were considering raising prices this year due to the rising price of ingredients, electricity and gas.

Gim, who has been running a gosi restaurant for five years, said, “Prices rose considerably for a year and a half after Russia started the war. The price of everything has jumped. The price of ingredients rose by nearly 50%.” According to Gim, the restaurant has been in the red for over a year. “Vegetable oil, which used to cost 30,000 won, once cost up to 60,000-70,000 won. The price only recently began to fall,” he explained, adding, “We use a canister of oil to fry something, but if it’s this expensive, how can we fry anything?”

A, the owner of another gosi restaurant in Daehak-dong, raised the price of a meal from 6,500 won to 7,000 won in August. She said, “We’re saving costs by raising the vegetables in the countryside ourselves, but we’re getting fewer customers and prices are going up. So we had no choice but to raise the price.” She said she was surprised after seeing that a cup of vanilla latte cost 6,100 won in a café a few days ago. “I thought, so that’s why students are coming to our restaurant, since they could eat a buffet for the price of a cup of coffee,” she said.

Restaurant owners said they were more concerned because they were well aware that the reason gosi restaurants stood out was because of their cheap prices and generous servings.

“We have to serve fruit and meat like we used to to attract customers,” said Yu, the owner of Sinpung Gosi Restaurant, adding, “But prices including the price of gas have gone up, so restaurant owners are facing challenges in all directions.”

Gosi restaurants are one of the few places where people can enjoy a balanced meal for a relatively cheap price. Yi Eun-chae (25), who lives near Daehak-dong and is studying to join the police force, said, “Actually, 6,500 won is not small. But it’s cheaper than other places, so gosi restaurants really help in reducing food expenses.”

Restaurant owners said it was hard to simply raise prices despite losses because they were well aware of the tight circumstances their customers were in. “In the past, our customers were mostly students. But now that the economy is slow, we’re getting a lot of general customers in hard times,” Gim said, adding, “But profits have halved, so if things continue as they have, I think I’ll have no choice but to quit.”

“There’s nothing we can do, but to spend wisely on ingredients,” said Yu. “I feel a sense of responsibility as I continue to provide meals for students. I can’t just say I’ll quit tomorrow because I’m suffering losses today,” he added. The sound of pork being stir-fried continued to resonate from Yu’s kitchen all through lunch.