I recommend eating at SNU cafeteria! I know it can be kind of intimidating to go by yourself or if it is your first time and you don’t know where to go or what to do, I hope this blog post will help you! I, too, was very intimidated of the cafeteria, I didn’t go to it until one of my friends invited me to eat lunch with him. Luckily, he had already went to the cafeteria so we weren’t completely lost or confused. It is important to keep in mind that you don’t have to always go with a friend and that you can go by yourself! You will actually find that a good majority of everyone in the cafeteria are eating by themselves so there is nothing to be too scared about! While I did eat with friends occasionally, majority of my decisions to eat at the cafeteria were last minute, depending on how hungry I was, or even how much time I had left before class would start, so I often went by myself too!
The main cafeteria would be the one by the student center. I usually take the bus 5513 from where I lived (Naejari Oneroomtel) there. After you get off the bus you do have to walk up the hill towards it quite a bit. You can just follow Naver Maps (map app) to tell you where to walk. You will know it’s the cafeteria because there are also many outside table and chairs and people may be already eating too. Every usually goes inside through large glass doors by all the ATMs past all the table and chairs outside.
Once you walk in, you will see the book store on the upper left, Shinhan bank next to it, and also the SNU stationary shop in the same space. Somewhere on your right side will show what they are serving that day in a see through display. There are often 2-3 choices, lettered A, B, or C, and it will show their price as well. The cheapest would one is actually 1000 won ($0.77)! And the most expensive it could get would be around 6000 won (around $4.63). Remember the meal’s designated letter and price!
If you are choosing the 1000 won meal, you have to go to the line that has you pay by giving it to the person at the open window with a register. You need your SNU ID card (also known as S-card, SNU will send instructions on how to retrieve your SNU ID a.k.a S-card) and you can pay with either card (foreign accepted) or won bills. They will hand you a small green paper/ticket afterwards. After, you walk into the actual cafeteria and go to the line of the 1000 won meal’s letter (A, B, or C). I think the 1000 won meals are usually letter A line, but they may change it up when you are there! There will be signs of those letters at the top so you know where to go. For these 1000 won meals, while in line, the order of actions goes like this: There will be a cart of utensils, grab the utensils (usually chopsticks and spoon). Then there will be a small little clear basket/container where you put that small green ticket/paper in. Cafeteria ladies will be putting up the food in designated spots on trays. Make sure to not grab the trays that still have empty food spots (since they put the food on the trays while the line moves). Usually the ones more at right/end will have all food spaces with food in them and are ready to be grabbed. However, if you see all the trays in front of you look the same as the ones at the end/right, you can just grab it then. Usually rice, main, and sides. Then at the very end will usually have soup which you have to grab and put onto your tray yourself. I usually say “thank you” in Korean (gamsamnida) and then sit anywhere!
All of the seats indoors have clear individual front and side blockers which makes it less awkward to sit on the same table as random people. You can go to a completely empty table if you want, but if it’s a little crowded, I noticed the common etiquette is to just sit at least one chair apart from another person on your sides and you should be good to go! Once you are done eating, further down the C line area, there is a place where you can place your finished food tray on a moving conveyor belt. Sometimes there is a line for that too but it goes by very fast. There will also be designated holes where you drop your chopsticks and spoons. Next to that will be where the water is. You can grab a metal cup from the clear fridge looking thing and get water poured from the dispenser. Then you place that cup further down where the cups are all stacked upside down. After that you will see small napkin dispensers attached to the wall and a small mirror where you can wipe any food residue. The clear large doors right next to it is also where you can exit.
As for the other food offerings that are usually 5000 won or 6000 won, it is almost the same process, however, to purchase those meals, there are actually screen kiosks you have to go for them. Do not go to those screen kiosks for the 1000 won meal because it will charge you more than 1000 won! 1000 won meal, only pay to the person at the open window and get the green small paper/ticket. As I was saying, for the other food choices being around 5000 won and 6000 won, there are 3 kiosks right next to the window for 1000 won meal. The beginning screen will say SNU student or non-SNU student, tap the screen that you are an SNU student. Scan your SNU ID/S-card located around the lower corner. Pick the price of which meal you wanted (which is why I said remember the price and letter from the food display). Make sure to double check that you didn’t accidentally tap twice or anything before paying. You can then insert your card in the slot (placed above the ID scanner), wait for it to process, then get a receipt. You can’t pay with won bills at the screen kiosk, only card. That receipt will have a bar code. You have to scan that bar code in line before getting your food. So again as mentioned, go to your designated letter meal line. These meals are usually much more food than the 1000 won meal so you would have to grab the empty pink tray and utensils from the cart prior. There will be a scanner machine, hold up the bar code on your receipt, once it makes a sound, you can put it in the clear basket/container next to it. This is different because you actually have to grab each separate plate and put it on your tray while moving in line. The sides will usually be presented first, so you just grab one of each as you move forward, the main and soup will be around the end. After that again, I just say “thank you” in Korean then sit wherever! The process explained earlier for returning the trays is the same.
The reason I also mentioned not to go to the screen kiosks for the 1000 won meal because it charges you more is because the cafeteria is actually open to the public! SNU students get the actual discounted meal, while anyone not associated with SNU can still eat at the SNU cafeteria, they do have to pay a little more, hence why you need to bring your SNU ID/S-card. Which is also why in the clear food display preview, there would be another price in parenthesis, it is the public’s price. You can always assume the cheaper price is for SNU students!
There are actually a couple more cafeterias, but that one seems to be the main one! The only other cafeteria I went to was the one by the business building. It is not inside the business building, but it is in the building next to it (not the side by the main road where busses go, it is the opposite side). The entrance has clear glass doors. The first floor includes ATM machines, designated trash/recycle bins, small to-go only cafe, and 7-11 (kind of hidden by the ATM machines). You will see stairs going up somewhere in there, and it will lead you straight to the cafeteria entrance. Before the entrance, you see a display of the meal offerings, it’s designated letter, and price (again, remember the letter and price). There is only one screen kiosk, and you do the same procedures. These cafeteria however, does not have 1000 won meals. Other than that, everything basically runs the same!
You can actually view the menu beforehand in the SNU app! I tapped the cafeteria/food icon, and it will show you the menu in Korean, but I usually just screenshot then upload to translate it through Papago (translator app). The main cafeteria’s menu (with the 1000 won meals) will be the first one on the list. The cafeteria by the business school’s menu is more towards the bottom with it’s name starting out with “동원 ----”. You can also choose to view the menu for the next couple of days and times! I say “times” because, you can eat dinner at the cafeteria as well! It will be different food too! However, the cafeteria by the business building does not serve dinner. The main one always does though! I recommend trying out the dinner because sometimes they can give options they never serve for lunch. The most memorable meal they served for dinner was ribs and an omolet with fried rice. The serving was quite big too! It felt like such a deal for only around 6000 won! The times show on the app, but I believe lunch is from 11:00 A.M. - 2:00 A.M. and dinner is 6:00 P.M. - 8:00 P.M. I feel like eating SNU’s cafeteria food a good way to explore Korean food at a good price! Happy eating ~
Also, just to mention, there is also a 7-eleven inside the cafeteria (on your right by the entrance after the paying lines/screen kiosks) along with a microwave outside across from it. So if you are craving specifically convenience store food, you can eat it there too!
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