Tongin Market Dosirak Cafe

통인시장 도시락카페

The Tongin Market cafe where brass coins buy side dishes from the stalls into a lunchbox. It is what most visitors to the market actually come for.

Language

A yeopjeon lunchbox tray from Tongin Market. Each compartment of the black plastic tray holds jeon, sausage, fishcake, a stir-fry, pickles and seasoned vegetables, with a bowl of white rice and chopsticks beside it. A bundle of brass tokens tied with coloured cords sits at the upper left.

— Seoul Tourism Organization Archive (Seoul Tourism Archive, KOGL Type 1)

Place information

Korean name: 통인시장 도시락카페
Nearest station: Gyeongbokgung Station (경복궁역, Line 3) (Exit 2)
Opening hours: Mon·Wed~Fri 11:00–15:00 Sat·Sun 11:00–16:00
Closed: Every Tue

Accessibility and facilities

Exchanging for the brass tokens also gets you a black plastic tray; you carry it around the market and fill it. The tokens are usable at participating stores only.

Visit Seoul — Tongin Market · Aug 10, 2026

Nearby

Tongin Market

Plan around the lunchbox cafe rather than the market: it closes on Tuesdays and stops selling tokens well before the market itself shuts.

National Palace Museum of Korea

A national museum inside Gyeongbokgung's walls, at the south-west corner. It holds what the buildings alone cannot show — royal seals, the court protocol records, palanquins, the water clock. Saturdays and the last Wednesday of each month are the only nights it stays open to 21:00.

The Blue House's main hall set among autumn foliage, with Mount Bukhan behind it

Cheong Wa Dae (Blue House)

A presidential complex behind Gyeongbokgung where the president resumed work on 29 December 2025. Check official visitor announcements from Cheong Wa Dae or the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism before planning a public tour.

National Folk Museum of Korea

Attached to Gyeongbokgung's north-east side, and about ordinary households rather than the court. Its hours split by season — November to February it shuts an hour earlier — so a winter afternoon spent on the palace first leaves too little for it.

Share: X Facebook