Customers wait to enter the Jayeonbyeolgok branch at E-mart in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, which opened July 30. [Eland Eats]
Customers wait to enter the Jayeonbyeolgok branch at E-mart in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, which opened July 30. [Eland Eats]

Jayeonbyeolgok, the hansik buffet brand operated by Eland Eats, is pushing for a revival this year — opening new stores and renovating existing ones — as persistently high food prices draw fresh attention to value-driven dining.

Eland Eats opened a Jayeonbyeolgok branch inside the E-mart in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, on July 30. Weekend foot traffic at the new store has reached roughly 800 visitors a day since opening. The company said sales in the first two weeks were about 38 percent higher than those recorded during the same period after the Yatap branch opened in January.

"This store is the most up-to-date model of Jayeonbyeolgok and best reflects the direction the brand is pursuing," an Eland Eats official said. "It shows our shift from a buffet people visit on special occasions to an everyday hansik dining space that is easy to drop into."

Eland Eats now operates four Jayeonbyeolgok locations. After unveiling the renovated Yatap branch in January, it reopened the Newcore Pyeongchon branch following a makeover in April, then relaunched the NC Songpa branch on July 16. The successive openings pushed the chain's average daily sales across all stores in early August up about 90 percent from the previous month — more than double the figure from a year earlier.

Eland Eats launched Jayeonbyeolgok as a hansik buffet brand in 2014. Riding a wave of enthusiasm for Korean-style buffets, the company expanded aggressively, and the store count peaked at 46 in 2016. As the trend faded and the COVID-19 pandemic compounded the damage, however, locations plunged — falling to just two by last year.

Other major hansik buffet brands exited the market altogether. CJ Foodville's Gyejeolbapsang closed all its stores in 2022, and Shinsegae Food's Olban brand withdrew entirely in December 2021.

Against that backdrop, Eland Eats' renewed push into hansik buffets is driven by persistently high food prices. According to the Korea Consumer Agency's price-monitoring service, the average price of a single serving of samgyeopsal in Seoul in June was 21,321 won ($15) per 200 grams — up 4.3 percent from a year earlier and 27.8 percent higher than five years ago. Samgyetang averaged 18,154 won, a 29.0 percent increase over five years, while bibimbap came in at 11,769 won, up 30.8 percent over the same period.

Jayeonbyeolgok charges 15,900 won on weekdays and 19,900 won on weekends and public holidays — relatively affordable for a buffet. The recent renovation brought prices down from the previous structure of 19,900 won for weekday lunch, 25,900 won for weekday dinner, and 27,900 won on weekends and holidays. The new rates match those of Eland Eats' standard Ashley Queens stores.

The menu has also been streamlined, cut from roughly 100 items spanning Korean, Chinese and Western dishes to 60 items centered on hansik. The focus is now on the core components of a Korean meal — rice, main dishes, banchan and seasoned vegetables. Crowd-pleasing categories such as bossam and spicy stir-fried pork have been given particular prominence. The tighter, more focused menu is intended to keep prices low and broaden the restaurant's appeal.

The changes to pricing and the menu have also shifted the customer mix. "Our core customers are still families dining out," an Eland Eats official said, "but since the renovation, we are seeing growing demand for everyday meals — office workers at lunch, shoppers grabbing a bite, and solo or two-person visits."

Eland Eats says it will approach new store openings far more carefully than it did in the past. "The renewed Jayeonbyeolgok model is still at the stage of gauging customer response and operational efficiency," an official said. "Rather than expanding aggressively as we did before, we plan to thoroughly verify customer response, profitability and operational stability before carefully deciding whether to scale up."


korean@heraldcorp.com