A noodle restaurant in Yeosu City, South Korea, recently became the topic of a heated online debate after openly turning away single diners with a poster that offered four possible options – “1. Pay for two servings, 2. Eat two servings, 3. Call a friend, 4. Come back with your wife next time,” – and a speech bubble that read “We don’t sell loneliness. Please don’t come alone.”

The plight of solo diners in South Korea has become an irrefutable fact in recent years, as most brick-and-mortar eateries try to offset the rising cost of food and energy by using their seating capacity as efficiently as possible. A four-seat table is best used for four people, so many restaurants prefer to turn away single patrons even if they have available tables.

“I waited over an hour in line, only to be told solo diners weren’t allowed,” one person complained online. “Even though there were empty tables, they refused to seat me.”

“At a gukbap [soup with rice] place, they suddenly said they were out of ingredients when I told them I was alone,” someone else wrote.

Restaurant owners argue that accepting solo diners is challenging because of the rising costs of food, energy, and labor, and South Korean law states that selecting customers falls under the business owner’s discretion and is not a violation of fair trade principles.

Of roughly 170,000 restaurants nationwide, only about 10.4 percent offered single-person meals as of March 2025, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily reports.

In July, a South Korean YouTuber went to a restaurant to eat alone and was scolded by the staff, even though she ordered two portions. She was told to eat faster, and rude waiters openly asked how long she would take to finish her meals.