Korean Night Food Delivery Service Experience - How To Order Food Delivery In South Korea

Night Food Delivery Service Experience

They say ‘Do in Rome as the Romans do’. It’s been almost an year in Korea and I had tried most of the things that were on my bucket list to do here like going to a JjimjilBang, wearing Hanbok, spending a night in Hanok and many more. But the thing which I couldn’t experience, until last week, was ‘Night food delivery service’. No doubt I had always wanted to try food delivery, but I was too scared because of my bad Korean :) But yes I was able to order food few days ago, and here is the interesting story behind achieving this milestone.

After living in Korea for a little while, I had come to know that food delivery is a big thing here. No doubt you can find restaurants on almost every single street but still people order food when they don’t want to change their pajamas and go out or if there is raining. Every day I see lots of delivery moped parked outside of my apartment and every other day I share my apartment’s elevator with the food delivery guy. Not only that upon reaching my room, I can find food delivery flyers taped to my door. Pizza, fried chicken, pasta, Chinese food, Korean food, and so on. I never had courage to call these delivery guys and used to just enter my room with a watering mouth.

Few days ago while attending my Korean language class;the lecture was on food delivery services in Korea. Even though I am not the most attentive student in my class but at that time I started paying attention than any other guy and the reason was clear: this was my chance to achieve another milestone of my bucket list. Sooner I found out that ordering food is not a rocket science, and I could easily do it with the amount of Korean I know. I couldn’t wait to go back to my room and make a call.

After reaching my room, I started collecting all the food menus tapped to my door. Seeing the yummy ads, I wanted to order lot of the foods but my wallet wasn’t allowing me so I decided to pick one of them. Sooner a food delivery flyer got my attention and I was like ‘Waooo!! That’s my favorite Korean food’ i.e Jjimdak(Korean style braised chicken). I was feeling so happy and hungry at the same time thinking about eating Jjimdak. 달인의찜닭계대점 is one of the best restaurants I have eaten Jjimdak at and it was their food delivery flyers. So I decided to order Jjimdak for my dinner.

During the class, we had studied that the order taker would probably ask few things: What do you want to order, the size, address and will you be paying by card or by cash. The important thing to notice is that while giving your address, start at the neighborhood (동) level as most restaurants only deliver locally, so you don’t need to tell them which city you live in. One of the things I never experienced in other countries was that rather than delivering food in paper and foil takeaway boxes, delivered food often arrives in regular bowls with metal cutlery. So when you finish your meal you can put the cutlery outside your apartment and the delivery guy will come and pick them up.  Moreover you don’t have to worry about washing dishes or throwing off stuff.

Anyways, that day I started feeling hungry way before the dinner time. So with a pounding heart, I picked up my phone and dialed the number. Wao! It all went well! I started jumping that I’ve placed my order perfectly on the call. I ordered a medium size non-spicy cheese Jjimdak and the delivery guy asked me to wait for about 20 minutes, so I started waiting.

That day I found out how fast is the food delivery in Korea as my ordered was delivered within just 12 minutes. I was so happy that day, first because I was able to order the food in Korea for the first time and secondly I was eating my favorite Jjimdak while sitting at home. 

So if you haven’t ordered the food yet, pick up your phone and give it a try. Looking forward to read your experiences in comments below.

Written by: Majid Mushtaq

International Supporter For Daegu Tourism