Tongin Market · Coin Lunchbox Cafe
Yeopjeon Dosirak (Coin Lunchbox)
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The currency isn't real money — shoppers first trade cash for old-style brass yeopjeon coins, Joseon-era replicas with a square hole punched through the middle, before 'buying' a scoop of food at each stall.
Visitors buy an empty metal tray and a set of replica brass coins at the market entrance, then wander stall to stall trading coins for scoops of banchan, japchae, or grilled fish to fill their own lunchbox. Tongin Market's 'Dosirak Cafe' concept, running since 2012, turns lunch into a build-your-own market crawl.
Why it's made this way: Tongin Market dates to 1941 and, like many older Seoul markets, struggled against supermarkets and malls — its coin-lunchbox concept launched in 2012 specifically to give shoppers a reason to walk the market stall by stall again, and it became one of Seoul's most distinctive market experiences.
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