Gwangjang Market's food alley is open every day from 09:00 to 23:00, so go any day, bring cash, and ask the price and the amount before you sit. The general market is closed on Sundays. We read the Visit Seoul, VisitKorea and Seoul city pages on 12 October 2026 and three Korean news reports.
Hours
Hours: Food alley: daily 09:00 to 23:00, open year round. General market: daily 09:00 to 18:00, closed Sundays. Guie Shopping Street: daily 10:00 to 19:00, closed Sundays (Visit Seoul, edited 8 Oct 2026, read 12 Oct 2026)
Address: 88 Changgyeonggung-ro, Jongno-gu, Seoul. Subway Line 1, Jongno 5-ga Station, Exit 8, 62 m. Phone +82-2-2267-0291 (Visit Seoul, read 12 Oct 2026)
| Detail | One source says | Another says | What we use |
|---|---|---|---|
| When the food alley closes | An earlier version of our shopping guide: about 10 p.m. | Visit Seoul, 8 Oct 2026, and VisitKorea (undated): 23:00 | The official 23:00. Single stalls may close earlier |
| Sunday | Visit Seoul: the market and Guie Shopping Street are closed | Visit Seoul and VisitKorea: the food alley is open | The food alley is open on Sundays |
The market's own site, kwangjangmarket.co.kr, gave us a certificate error and we did not open it.
How ordering works
We found no official ordering guide. The steps below come from our solo-dining guide and from the 2025 and 2026 news reports.
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Choose a stall and sit at its counter or on the benches. Solo diners are normal here.
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Read the menu. Some stalls post a price and no weight or amount, a news report of 27 April 2026 says. Ask "얼마예요?" (eolmayeyo, "how much is it?") and the amount.
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Look for the QR menu with portion photos in 20 languages. Merchants introduced it in July 2024 (MoneyToday, 26 Nov 2025). We did not see it.
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Pay in cash if you can. See the next section.
Cash, cards and prices
Price: Cards: "many vendors still refuse to accept card payments" (Seoul Metropolitan Government English page, registered 17 Feb 2025). Many street stalls refused cards and took only cash or bank transfer (The Fact, 27 Apr 2026). A payment service for about 70 stalls that do not take cards began in July 2024 (MoneyToday, 26 Nov 2025)
Price: A meal costs ₩20,000 and under in our own band. The yukhoe bibimbap is about ₩15,000 (our solo-dining guide, 9 Oct 2026)
Note: A video in April 2026 showed a 500 ml bottle of water for ₩2,000. Many menus list food and cola-type drinks, so water is priced on the spot (The Fact, 27 Apr 2026)
Our money guide covers withdrawing won.
The overcharging complaints, with dates
| When | What happened | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Early Nov 2025 | A YouTuber with about 1.51 million subscribers said a sundae stall charged ₩10,000 for an ₩8,000 order. The video drew over 16 million views | MoneyToday, 26 Nov 2025 |
| 26 Nov 2025 | Seoul began a one-month mystery-shopper program with about 50 Korean and foreign evaluators checking prices and service | MoneyToday, 26 Nov 2025 |
| 27 Apr 2026 | A video showed water at ₩2,000. The report says a street-stall real-name system begins in June | The Fact, 27 Apr 2026 |
| 23 May 2026 | Seoul and Jongno-gu announced a two-month inspection, with undercover Korean and foreign shoppers, price-label checks, and hygiene checks of 159 food businesses and 109 stalls | Herald Economy, 23 May 2026 |
The real-name system gives penalty points for overcharging or reusing food. A stall is removed for good after more than 120 points in a year or four violations (Herald Economy, 23 May 2026). We found no result report and no start date for the system.
| Detail | One source says | Another says | What we use |
|---|---|---|---|
| When the real-name system starts | MoneyToday, Nov 2025: within the year | The Fact, Apr 2026: June. Herald Economy, May 2026: no date | Unconfirmed |
Everything above is Korean press, not an official result. Our advice is simple. Ask first, and leave if the answer feels unclear.
What is checked here and what is not
Checked on 12 October 2026: the Visit Seoul, VisitKorea and Seoul Metropolitan Government English pages for the market, a MoneyToday article of 26 November 2025, a The Fact article of 27 April 2026, and a Herald Economy article of 23 May 2026. Prices come from our own guide of 9 October 2026.
Not checked: any single stall's menu or price, the market's own site, whether the inspections ended or found anything, the real-name system's start date, whether the QR menu is still in use, and the Sunday hours of single stalls. We did not eat or pay at the market, and we did not read Chinese or Japanese sources.
