Michelin-starred restaurants are fully booked after Monday release

“Sorry, we’re fully booked on that day.”

The phone rang non-stop. A staff member of Keunkiwajip, a restaurant specialized in gejang, raw crab marinated in soy sauce, said on Tuesday, “We’re bombarded with calls after getting a star from Michelin.”

A day after Michelin Guide Seoul 2017 was unveiled, 24 selected restaurants are happy with exploding customers and calls. Their line is mostly busy.

“Even before we were selected by the Michelin Guide, all seats were fully occupied during lunch hours," said an employee of Balwoo Gongyang, a temple cuisine restaurant. "But we get twice or three times more phone calls than usual.” So do other restaurants. “Our reservations have more than doubled. We’re almost fully booked in November both for lunch and dinner,” Korean restaurant Gotgan also said.

While the selected restaurants are screaming in excitement, regular customers expressed frustrations. Park Gi-seop who came to Keunkiwajip said, “It’s my favorite restaurant. I’m kind of worried that I can’t come here often because it is now a Michelin starred restaurant. A source from Poom (one star), a Korean restaurant, said, “We expect more customers will be coming. Frequent customers are making a reservation this week ahead of others.”

Though the list of restaurants was released, some say that it is only a pie in the sky. Except for Jin Jin (one star, the lowest price of 7,000 won or 6.16 U.S. dollars), Hamo (one star, the lowest price of 8,000 won, or 7.04 dollars), and Keunkiwajip (the lowest price of 22,000 won, or 19.35 dollars), most restaurants have a high price tag ranging from 50,000 won (43.98 dollars) to 340,000 won (299 dollars). Online cooking communities say, “Though the Michelin Guide recommends delicious food, this will only reinforce people’s belief that expensive cuisine is delicious. It’s regrettable that it didn’t include humble food such as sundae (Korean sausage) or Tteokbokki (sweet and spicy rice cakes).”

김동욱 기자creating@donga.com