The short answer
- The burger chain with the most stores in Korea is not McDonald's. Under the Korea Fair Trade Commission's 2025 franchise disclosure, franchise store counts are Mom's Touch 1,444, Lotteria 1,209, and McDonald's 55 — putting McDonald's at 6th.
- But that 55 counts only franchise stores. Including company-owned outlets, McDonald's Korea had 398 stores at the end of 2024, 86.2% of them company-run. The single most important thing when reading Korean stats is this distinction.
- The real star of Korean fast food is not the burger — it's fried chicken. As of 2019 there were roughly 87,000 chicken restaurants, more than double the 42,477 McDonald's stores worldwide in 2024.
October 25, 1979, Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul.
A line formed in front of the stairs leading down to the Lotte Department Store basement. It was the day Korea’s first burger franchise opened its very first store. In the early days, that single location sold about 2,200 burgers a day and pulled in 30 million won a month. The shrimp burger that sat on its menu board is still on sale in 2026 — 47 years later, renamed Ria Shrimp but otherwise unchanged.
McDonald’s arrived nine years after that. On March 29, 1988 — the year of the Seoul Olympics — it opened its first Korean store on Apgujeong Rodeo Street.
And 38 years later, in 2026, McDonald’s is still not No. 1 in Korea.
Mom's Touch franchise stores — No. 1 in Korea (2025 FTC disclosure)
Lotteria franchise stores — No. 2 (2025 FTC disclosure)
McDonald's franchise stores — 6th. Including company-owned outlets, 398 total (end of 2024)
Estimated chicken restaurants in Korea (2019). Double the 42,477 McDonald's stores worldwide (2024)
Why is McDonald's only 6th in Korea?
Half of it is the definition, half of it is the actual business.
The Fair Trade Commission requires every franchisor to register a franchise disclosure document. What gets counted in it is franchise stores — outlets opened with someone else’s money. Company-owned stores run by the head office are not included. McDonald’s is a company that runs 86.2% of its Korean stores itself. So on paper, McDonald’s has just 55 franchise stores.
Mom’s Touch is the mirror image: 99.5% of its stores are franchises. Put the two brands on the same chart and McDonald’s looks 1/26 the size. That’s not the truth.
🍔 Franchise store counts from the Korea Fair Trade Commission's franchise disclosure (company-owned stores excluded), 2025 disclosure
| Rank | Brand | Operator | Franchise stores | Avg. monthly sales per franchise | Closure rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mom’s Touch | Mom’s Touch & Company | 1,444 | ₩45.42 million | 2.04% |
| 2 | Lotteria | Lotte GRS | 1,209 | ₩78 million | 2.66% |
| 3 | Isaac Toast | Isaac Co., Ltd. | 894 | ₩18.49 million | 4.39% |
| 4 | Frank Burger | Frank F&B | 622 | ₩30.76 million | 9.06% |
| 5 | No Brand Burger | Shinsegae Food | 189 | ₩47.7 million | 5.97% |
| 6 | McDonald’s | McDonald’s Korea LLC | 55 | ₩256.06 million | 23.61% |
The number worth staring at in this table isn’t the store count — it’s the average monthly sales. A single McDonald’s franchise store averages ₩256.06 million a month, more than eight times the fast-food industry average of ₩31.82 million. Sixth in store count, yet utterly dominant in per-store power. McDonald’s Korea is a company that bets on a small number of massive locations; Mom’s Touch is a company that plants a small store in every neighborhood. Different strategies.
What is the FTC disclosure, and why are there two numbers?
Any company that wants to recruit franchisees in Korea must register a franchise disclosure document with the Fair Trade Commission. It's a system that lets would-be owners check store counts, average sales, closure rates, and contract terms before signing. Because the document is written for prospective franchisees, it counts franchise stores only.
The "store count" figures the media report, meanwhile, usually combine company-owned and franchise stores. McDonald's being both 55 (disclosure) and 398 (media count) doesn't mean one of them is wrong — they're simply counting different things. Mix the two numbers when reading Korean restaurant news and you end up with absurdities like "McDonald's is smaller than an 8-store craft-burger brand."
There's also a timing gap. The disclosure publishes the previous business year's results the following year. Every disclosure figure in this article is from the 2025 disclosure (published 2026), and the FTC industry totals are as of the end of 2024.
🍔 Company-owned + franchise = total store counts, latest media/industry figures (reference dates vary)
| Brand | Total stores | Company-owned / franchise split | Reference date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mom’s Touch | about 1,400 | franchise 99.5% / company-owned 0.5% | Dec 2025 |
| Lotteria | about 1,300 | no public data | Mar 2026 |
| Subway | 622 (582 official) | effectively 100% franchise | May 2025 |
| Burger King | 522 (472 at end of 2024) | company-owned 347 / franchise 125 (end of 2024) | Jun 2025 |
| McDonald’s | 398 | company-owned 343 (86.2%) / franchise 55 (13.8%) | end of 2024 |
| No Brand Burger | about 222 | franchise 189 + company-owned | Jun 2025 |
| KFC | about 203 | mostly company-owned | Jun 2025 |
| Shake Shack | 29 | company-owned | Dec 2025 |
| Popeyes | 20 | all company-owned | Sep 2025 |
| Taco Bell | 11 | no public data | Dec 2024 |
| Cry Cheese Burger | 8 (3 Bucheon / 5 Seoul) | all company-owned | May 2026 |
When and where did Korean burgers begin?
1979 in Sogong-dong is the starting point. Before that, there were no franchises. Burgers themselves first arrived through the U.S. military during the 1950–53 Korean War, but the first brand to run as a chain was Lotteria.
The foreign chains came five years later. In April 1984, two brands opened on Jongno 2-ga in Seoul within five days of each other — Burger King on April 20 and KFC on April 25. The KFC flagship that took over the first and second floors of the Gyeongyeong Building on Jongno 2-ga still operates today.
🍔 Korea's first-store timeline — opening dates and locations by brand
| Date | Brand | First-store location | Original operator |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1979.10.25 | Lotteria (Korea’s first burger franchise) | Sogong-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul | Lotteria (now Lotte GRS) |
| 1984.04.20 | Burger King | Jongno 2-ga, Seoul | Hanam Co., Ltd. |
| 1984.04.25 | KFC | Gyeongyeong Building, Jongno 2-ga, Jongno-gu, Seoul | Hanyang Foods (Doosan Group) |
| 1984 | Wendy’s (Korea’s first foreign burger franchise) | Jongno 2-ga, Seoul | no public data |
| 1985 | Pizza Hut (Korea’s first pizza franchise) | Itaewon, Seoul | Korea Pizza Hut |
| 1988.03.29 | McDonald’s | Apgujeong Rodeo Street, Seoul | Maekim Industries + U.S. McDonald’s joint venture |
| 1990 | Hardee’s | Jongno, Seoul | Sejin Food Systems |
| 1990 | Popeyes, first entry | no public data | Poko International |
| 1990 contract / 1991.05 opening | Subway | basement arcade of the 63 Building, Yeouido, Seoul | no public data |
| 1994.05 | Popeyes, second entry | Apgujeong-dong, Seoul | TS Hae Maro (Daehan Jedang) |
| 2004.02.02 | Mom’s Touch | Ssangmun-dong, Dobong-gu, Seoul | TS Hae Maro → Hae Maro Food Service |
| 2013.03.18 | Cry Cheese Burger | Simgok store, Bucheon, Gyeonggi-do | sole proprietorship of CEO Shin Ji-woo |
| 2016.07.22 | Shake Shack | Gangnam-daero, Seocho-gu, Seoul | Big Bite Company (SPC Group) |
| 2019.08.19 | No Brand Burger | Hongdae, Seoul | Shinsegae Food |
| 2022.12.16 | Popeyes, third entry | Gangnam, Seoul | Nonluxurious Company (Shilla Trading) |
After the KFC Jongno store opened in 1984, brands crowded into a 100-meter radius. McDonald’s and Popeyes moved in toward Gwanghwamun, and Burger King toward Dongdaemun. By the late 1980s, Jongno was the battleground of America’s big franchises. Just as today’s travelers to Korea flock to Seongsu-dong or Yeonnam-dong, Seoulites back then went to Jongno.
Pizza Hut left its own mark on this era too. In 1986, Pizza Hut introduced pizza delivery to Korea for the first time. That’s the origin of the delivery culture that is today the densest in the world.
How did Mom’s Touch beat Lotteria?
The two lines crossed in the first quarter of 2021. That’s when Lotteria, No. 1 for 42 years, was overtaken in store count by Mom’s Touch. The changing of the guard at the top of Korea’s burger market happened not between American brands, but between two homegrown ones.
Mom’s Touch started on February 2, 2004, in Ssangmun-dong, Dobong-gu, Seoul. It arrived 25 years later than Lotteria.
🍔 Store-count trends of the six major burger brands (year-end, industry figures) — ranking shifts around COVID-19
| Brand | End of 2019 | End of 2020 | End of 2021 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mom’s Touch | 1,243 | 1,314 | 1,352 |
| Lotteria | 1,342 | 1,330 | 1,330 |
| McDonald’s | 409 | 408 | 407 |
| Burger King | 383 | 408 | 440 |
| KFC | 191 | 188 | about 190 |
| No Brand Burger | 9 | 69 | 170 |
Reading it is simple. Lotteria stalled (1,342 → 1,330), while Mom’s Touch kept growing (1,243 → 1,352). The point where the two lines met was Q1 2021. It wasn’t a dramatic overtaking — one side stopped, and the other simply walked past.
Look at No Brand Burger in the same table and a different story appears. In two years it went from 9 stores to 170 — a 19-fold jump. It’s the brand Shinsegae Food built by extending E-mart’s No Brand private label into restaurants.
Mom’s Touch’s signature menu item, the Cy Burger, arrived in 2005. The name comes from “thigh,” the cut of chicken. Instead of grinding the meat, the brand used a whole chicken thigh as the patty — that became its identity — and passed 300 million sold in December 2020.
But the company’s ownership has been turbulent. In November 2019, founder Chairman Jeong Hyeon-sik sold his 57% stake to private equity firm KL & Partners for about 190 billion won, and in May 2023 the company was delisted from KOSDAQ. In between, a hoped-for sale fell through when the seller’s asking price of 1 trillion won and the buyer’s offer of 600 billion won couldn’t be bridged. Owning Korea’s No. 1 burger brand, it turned out, didn’t automatically make it an easy sell.
Where did the burger brands that vanished from Korea go?
Wendy’s was the first casualty. It entered in 1984 as Korea’s first foreign burger franchise and grew to as many as 80 stores, but withdrew during the 1998 IMF financial crisis. The reason reported at the time was clear: it couldn’t bear paying 4% of sales in royalties. It renamed itself Winners Burger and hung on for a while, then faded away — its last store changed its sign to Mom’s Touch in 2013.
🍔 Brands that withdrew or struggled — entry, peak size, and exit
| Brand | Entry | Peak size | Exit | Reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wendy’s | 1984 | about 80 stores | 1998 | 4% royalty burden on sales during the IMF crisis |
| Hardee’s | 1990 | 20-odd stores in the early 2000s | full exit in 2004 | quality issues + junk-food stigma amid the wellness trend |
| Popeyes, 1st entry | 1990 | no public data | 1992 (after 2 years) | no public data |
| Popeyes, 2nd entry | 1994.05 | 200+ stores | 2020.12 (26 years) | intensifying competition + COVID-19; about 10 stores at exit |
| Popeyes, 3rd entry | 2022.12 | 20 stores as of Sep 2025 (all company-owned) | operating | closed 5 of 12 within two years of re-entry, then re-expanded; targeting 200 stores within 5 years |
| Pizza Hut | 1985 | passed 300 stores in 2004 / about 380 in 2021 | operating | flagged as endangered 40 years after entry (2025) |
Hardee’s is a case that marks a turning point in Korean consumer trends. It arrived on Jongno in 1990 with a star-shaped logo and burgers and chicken at 900 won, but couldn’t survive the early-2000s wellness wave that branded burgers themselves as junk food. It exited completely in 2004. The same year Hardee’s disappeared, Mom’s Touch opened its doors.
The brand with the most ownership changes is KFC Korea. Hanyang Foods (Doosan, 1984–2014) → CVC Capital (2014–2017) → KG Group (2017–2023) → Orchestra PE (2023–2025) → Carlyle Group (December 2025–). Five owners in 40 years. Along with the acquisition, Carlyle announced plans to add about 200 more stores.
Subway also changed hands recently. In December 2025, its Korean operating rights were transferred to Cheongo SW, an affiliate of Domino’s Pizza operator Cheongo DPK. McDonald’s Korea, for its part, was acquired in full by Kamal Al Mana of Qatar on September 30, 2024.
Why is the sales leader different from the store-count leader?
McDonald’s is No. 1 in sales. The same company that’s 6th in store count.
Based on 2025 results, McDonald’s Korea posted ₩1.431 trillion in sales (excluding franchise stores) — the first in the industry to break 1 trillion won. Mom’s Touch, with its 1,444 stores, posted company sales of ₩479 billion. One-third.
The gap isn’t a difference in skill — it’s a difference in accounting structure.
🍔 Operator sales and operating profit (2025 results, Financial Supervisory Service audit reports)
| Brand | Operator | 2025 sales | 2025 operating profit | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| McDonald’s | McDonald’s Korea | ₩1.431 trillion (₩1.564 trillion including franchises) | ₩73.2 billion | industry’s first to break 1 trillion — No. 1 |
| Lotteria | Lotte GRS | ₩1.1189 trillion | ₩51 billion | back above 1 trillion for the first time in 8 years since 2017; operating profit +30.4% |
| Burger King | BKR Co., Ltd. | ₩892.2 billion | ₩42.9 billion | best results since founding |
| Mom’s Touch | Mom’s Touch & Company | ₩479 billion | ₩89.7 billion | operating margin 18.7% — highest in the industry |
| KFC | KFC Korea | ₩378 billion | up more than 50% year-on-year | sales growth 29.3%, fastest of the five |
86.2% of McDonald’s stores are company-owned. When a customer buys a Big Mac, that ₩5,700 lands in the company’s sales. Mom’s Touch is 99.5% franchised. When a Cy Burger sells, that ₩5,200 belongs to the franchisee — the head office only takes food-supply payments and royalties.
That’s why comparing brands by company sales distorts the picture. The combined sales of Mom’s Touch’s 1,444 stores nationwide are far larger than its ₩479 billion in head-office sales. Multiply the average franchise store’s ₩45.42 million monthly sales by the store count and you get the idea.
Look at operating margins and the structure gets even clearer. Mom’s Touch’s 18.7% is the highest in the industry. That’s the margin left by a business that doesn’t run stores itself and simply collects logistics fees and royalties.
How big is the Korean burger market?
The Korean burger, sandwich, and toast market was worth ₩4.0276 trillion in 2025. It has roughly doubled in ten years, from about ₩2.3 trillion in 2015.
What's interesting is the reason for the growth. In 2025–2026, the broader Korean restaurant industry slumped under high prices, yet the five major burger brands' sales and operating profits all grew by double digits. Burgers were rediscovered not as expensive food but as a cheap meal alternative. As an ordinary restaurant meal in Korea began passing ₩10,000, a ₩7,000-range burger set started to look cheap by comparison.
Amid all this, Burger King sells a ₩89,000-per-person, reservation-only 7-course dining experience at its Flame Ground flagship in Seongsu-dong, while Mom's Touch opened its largest store in Korea — 340 seats — at Everland. Low-price competition and premium experiments are happening in the same market at the same time.
What can you only eat in Korea?
The bulgogi burger. Made with a sweet soy-based sauce, it’s sold only in Korea, and nearly every brand has its own version.
Ria Shrimp (shrimp burger)
Lotteria · launched 1979
A founding menu item that debuted with the first Sogong-dong store in 1979. A patty of pollock and shrimp topped with tartar sauce. The name was changed to Ria Shrimp on July 18, 2024. It has survived 47 years even as rivals' whole-shrimp burgers were mostly discontinued. As of 2026: ₩5,000 a la carte / ₩7,300 as a set.
Bulgogi burger
Every brand · Korea only
A burger sold only in Korea. The sweet soy sauce is the key, and it usually sits in each brand's cheapest line. In 2000 the Supreme Court ruled against McDonald's for not labeling pork patties — in Korea, bulgogi basically means beef. Lotteria renamed the item Ria Bulgogi in July 2024.
Cy Burger
Mom's Touch · launched 2005
The name comes from "thigh." Its signature is a whole chicken thigh, not ground meat, fried and stuffed into the bun. Passed 300 million sold in December 2020. The menu that built Korea's No. 1 brand. ₩5,200 a la carte after the March 2026 price increase.
Rice burger
Lotteria · original is Japan's Mos Burger, 1987
Rice pressed into a bun instead of bread. Lotteria's version keeps the patty as-is. From 2001 to 2003 the kimchi rice burger was a fan favorite, and four varieties were relaunched at select stores in 2024. Not available at every store, so check before you go.
Mozza ball · fried ice cream
KFC · Korea only
The mozzarella cheese balls come in two varieties: plain and squid ink. Fried ice cream is hot on the outside and cold inside. Both are sold only at KFC Korea.
Taste of Korea series
McDonald's · ongoing
A limited-time project using regional produce. Jindo green onion cream cheese and Changnyeong garlic are among the releases. The project has consumed 130 tons of garlic and 150 tons of green onions. It's limited-time, so check what's currently on the menu when you visit.
Beyond these, Burger King’s Quattro Cheese Whopper was developed in Korea. Its four-cheese build reflects Koreans’ love of cheese. The Jalapeño Whopper answers demand for spice. Lotteria’s Shake Shake Fries put fries and seasoning in a paper box for you to shake yourself. Lotteria’s Teri Burger uses teriyaki sauce and, along with Ria Bulgogi and Ria Shrimp, is considered one of the brand’s three signature menus.
The hit of 2025–2026 is Lotteria’s Tongdari Crispy Chicken Burger. It sold 1 million units in two weeks.
Traveler tip 1 — the counter is safer than the kiosk
Korean fast-food stores lean heavily on self-service kiosks. About 80% of McDonald's stores and about 93% of Lotteria stores have them installed. Most kiosks at McDonald's, Lotteria, Burger King, and other major brands offer an English mode — tap the flag icon or the English button at the top or bottom of the screen.
The real problem isn't the language, it's the payment. Korea runs its own proprietary VAN payment network, and some note that only about 10% of kiosks support the international EMV standard. It's common for foreign-issued cards to be rejected at kiosks. Three ways to prepare:
- Carry ₩30,000–50,000 in cash separately.
- Get a WOWPASS card at Incheon Airport or in Myeongdong.
- Skip the kiosk and order at the counter. The store's POS terminal handles foreign cards far more often.
The order flow is: touch the screen → choose language → dine-in or takeout → pick your menu → pay → insert card or cash → pick up when your number is called. Five buttons worth knowing: order dine-in takeout pay cancel.
Traveler tip 2 — skip delivery apps, and check official-app coupons
Most Korean burger brands are on their own apps and the delivery apps (Baedal Minjok, Coupang Eats, Yogiyo) at the same time. But dual pricing, where delivery-app prices are higher than in-store prices, is now the norm. The same menu costs more when you order it delivered. You're trading the convenience of eating at your hotel for a higher price, so if there's a store nearby, walking over is the better deal.
Discounts live in each brand's official app. Coupons range from 20% to 50% off, and there are lunchtime-only discount sets. Lotteria's Ria Lunch and McDonald's lunch sets are the standouts. Most apps can be browsed without a Korean phone number, but some coupons require sign-up, so on a short trip it's faster to check the promo posters at the counter.
Traveler tip 3 — homegrown brands transliterate their menu names
McDonald's, Burger King, Subway, and Shake Shack generally show English alongside Korean on kiosks and menus. Lotteria and Mom's Touch, by contrast, have an English mode on the kiosk, but menu names are transliterated, so you can't tell what's inside. It'll say "Ria Bulgogi" or "Cy Burger" without explaining the contents.
Screenshot the menu cards in this article before you go and ordering gets much easier. English-menu coverage varies a lot by store, with tourist-area locations like Myeongdong and Hongdae relatively better equipped.
The real star of Korean fast food isn't the burger
It’s chicken. The numbers are overwhelming.
According to a 2019 KB Financial self-employment analysis, Korea had about 87,000 chicken restaurants (franchise and independent combined). The number they’re usually compared against is the worldwide McDonald’s store count, which was 42,477 in 2024.
Korea has more than twice as many chicken restaurants as there are McDonald’s stores in the entire world. Divide by population and there’s one chicken joint for roughly every 600 Koreans.
🍔 Scale comparison — chicken restaurants vs. worldwide McDonald's vs. Korean burger franchises
| Item | Figure | Reference year |
|---|---|---|
| Total chicken restaurants in Korea (franchise + independent) | about 87,000 | 2019 |
| Worldwide McDonald’s stores | 42,477 | 2024 |
| Korean chicken franchises only | 28,304 | 2025 |
| All franchise stores in Korea (all industries) | 379,739 | end of 2024 |
| Chicken franchise brands in Korea (FTC disclosure) | 268 | 2025 |
| Active brands in Korea’s fast-food sector (FTC disclosure) | 49 | 2025 |
This comparison first went viral in 2015, when a KB Financial report placed Korea’s roughly 36,000 chicken restaurants next to the world’s roughly 36,000 McDonald’s stores. It has since become a symbol of Korea’s oversaturated self-employment economy. In 2025, Seoul National University statistics professor Jang Won-cheol cited the stat as an example of communication that “attaches numbers to a familiar point of comparison to make them stick in memory.”
One caveat: that 87,000 is 2019 data.
🍗 Chicken franchise store counts (2025 FTC disclosure, franchise stores only)
| Rank | Brand | Franchise stores | Avg. monthly sales per franchise | Closure rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | BBQ | 2,316 | ₩42.4 million | 6.04% |
| 2 | bhc | 2,228 | ₩44.14 million | 5.91% |
| 3 | Kyochon Chicken | 1,361 | ₩60.61 million | 2.02% |
| 4 | Cheogajip Yangnyeom Chicken | 1,254 | ₩26.56 million | 5.50% |
| 5 | Goobne Chicken | 1,154 | ₩41.56 million | 2.78% |
| 7 | Nene Chicken | 869 | ₩14.35 million | 9.76% |
| 15 | 60 Gye | 665 | ₩37.82 million | 1.63% |
Chicken leader BBQ’s 2,316 franchise stores are more than 60% more than burger leader Mom’s Touch’s 1,444. Across the entire chicken sector, there are 268 brands disclosed by the FTC and 28,304 franchise stores in total. Every burger franchise in Korea combined doesn’t even reach one-fifth of that number.
So if you want to say you’ve “tried fast food” in Korea, chicken comes before burger chains. BBQ and Kyochon Chicken run large experiential stores in tourist-heavy districts like Myeongdong and Hongdae.
What do Korean fast-food prices look like in 2026?
Sets run ₩7,000–10,000. That’s where things landed after major brands raised prices across the board in the first half of 2026.
🍔 Representative menu prices (2026, in won)
| Brand | Signature item (a la carte) | Set | Reference date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lotteria | Ria Bulgogi ₩5,100 / Ria Shrimp ₩5,000 | Ria Shrimp set ₩7,300 / Teri Burger set ₩7,700 | May–Jun 2026 |
| Lotteria (full range) | burgers ₩4,700–14,100 | sets ₩7,700–16,600 | Jun 2026 |
| McDonald’s | Big Mac ₩5,700 / Cheeseburger ₩2,900 | not confirmed | after Feb 2026 increase |
| Burger King | Whopper ₩7,400 / Whopper Jr. ₩5,000 / French Fries (L) ₩2,300 | not confirmed | after Feb 2026 increase |
| Mom’s Touch | Cy Burger ₩5,200 / Fried Big Cy Chicken ₩12,900 | not confirmed | after Mar 2026 increase |
| No Brand Burger | a la carte ₩2,500–7,800 | sets ₩4,500–9,900 | 2025 |
The cheapest option starts at the No Brand Burger set for ₩4,500. The priciest mainstream item is Lotteria’s Double Hanwoo Bulgogi Burger set at ₩16,600. With an ordinary chain-restaurant meal at around ₩10,000, burger sets still count as cheap eating in Korea.
🍔 The first-half 2026 price-increase relay
| Brand | Effective date | Items | Increase | Details |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Burger King | 2026.02.12 | no public data | ₩100–200 | Whopper 7,200→7,400, Whopper Jr. 4,800→5,000 |
| McDonald’s | mid-Feb 2026 | 35 items | avg 2.8% | Big Mac 5,500→5,700, Cheeseburger 2,700→2,900 |
| Mom’s Touch | 2026.03.01 | 43 items | avg 2.8% | Cy Burger 4,900→5,200. First increase in 17 months since Oct 2024; 55 popular items frozen |
| Lotteria | 2026.05.28 | 22 items | avg 2.9% | Ria Bulgogi 5,000→5,100. Cited the high exchange rate, logistics costs, minimum wage, and delivery fees |
Four brands raised prices one after another within four months. The increases themselves weren’t huge at 2.8–2.9%, but some analyses suggest major-brand prices have risen about 35% over the past five years.
Are there vegetarian or halal options?
Limited vegetarian options, and effectively no halal.
A few products use plant-based patties or vegan buns. Shake Shack’s Shroom Burger, Subway’s Veggie Delite, and Lotteria’s Miracle Burger are the examples. No Brand Burger converted the buns on its entire menu to plant-based vegan buns in April 2023 — though its patties are meat, and it states that it uses pork-blend patties rather than pure beef.
The problem is the cooking line. Many Korean fast-food stores can’t guarantee that vegetarian items are cooked separately on dedicated grills or fryers. Strict vegetarians are safer asking in-store.
Halal is clearer. No major burger franchise is halal-certified. For Muslim travelers, there are two realistic alternatives: Itaewon has a concentration of Middle Eastern fast food and halal restaurants, and The Halal Guys has expanded to several Seoul neighborhoods. Subway also makes avoiding pork relatively easy since you pick your ingredients yourself.
One more note: the bulgogi burger patty isn’t always beef. That was the backdrop to the 2000 Supreme Court ruling, and No Brand Burger states outright that it uses pork-blend patties. Check the patty ingredients individually.
So what should you eat?
Eating a Big Mac in Korea is like hunting for a Starbucks in Seoul. Possible, but there’s no reason.
The recommended order goes like this. First, Lotteria’s Ria Shrimp — a chance to taste a founding 1979 menu still on sale 47 years later. ₩5,000. Second, Mom’s Touch’s Cy Burger — the whole-thigh patty that built the country’s No. 1 brand. ₩5,200. Third, any brand’s bulgogi burger. It’s a menu sold only in Korea, anywhere in the world.
That covers the core of 47 years of Korean burgers for under ₩15,000.
After that, it’s all taste. Want to try a bun made of rice? Look for Lotteria’s rice burger, but remember it’s not at every store. Fried ice cream lives at KFC. And if you want to see limited menus made with regional produce, check what McDonald’s Taste of Korea series has on at the moment.
And eventually, you’ll end up at a chicken place. One of the 87,000.
Sources
- Korea Fair Trade Commission, "2025 franchise industry statistics announcement," April 13, 2026 (store counts as of end of 2024) — link
- Korea Fair Trade Commission, "Franchise disclosure document system," 2025 disclosure — link
- Fchamall, "Franchise store status by brand (FTC disclosure aggregate)," 2025 — link
- Consumer News (Sobijaga Mandeuneun Sinmun), "Six major burger brands' store counts see-saw around COVID-19," January 20, 2022 (2019–2021 trend) — link
- Consumer News, "All five burger companies' sales and operating profit surge," April 30, 2026 (2025 results) — link
- Newspim, "McDonald's franchise share drops to 13% last year," May 8, 2025 (398 total, 343 company-owned, 55 franchise) — link
- Hankyung (Korea Economic Daily), "The 4-trillion-won burger market's three-way fight," July 21, 2026 (market size ₩4.0276 trillion) — link
- Monthly Restaurant (Food & Dining Economy), "The burger market sprints through a downturn," July 1, 2025 (Burger King 522, KFC 203) — link
- Edaily, "In search of the first store — KFC, 1984," KFC first store April 25, 1984, Jongno 2-ga — link
- Kyunghyang Shinmun, "Yesterday's today — McDonald's opens its first Korean store, 1988" — link
- Greenpost Korea, "The first place — Lotteria Sogong store, the starting point of fast food on the Korean Peninsula" — link
- Economist Korea (economist.co.kr), "That burger back then — Wendy's and Hardee's," May 12, 2023 (Wendy's 1984–1998, Hardee's 1990–2004) — link
- Hankyung, "US Wendy's withdraws with contract term remaining," May 14, 1998 — link
- Newsis, "The birth story of a long-lived brand — Pizza Hut," June 11, 2021 (Itaewon 1985, delivery introduced 1986) — link
- News1, "Popeyes joins the Yeouido burger battle — targets 30 stores by year-end," September 25, 2025 (all 20 company-owned) — link
- Invest Chosun, "Carlyle Group acquires KFC Korea," December 22, 2025 — link
- Digital Daily, "Mom's Touch to raise prices on 43 items including the Cy Burger next month," February 27, 2026 — link
- Segye Ilbo, "340-seat Mom's Touch, ₩89,000 Burger King — a store war down to No Brand," September 10, 2026 — link
- Hankook Ilbo, "How many chicken restaurants are there in Korea?" September 26, 2025 (87,000 chicken restaurants as of 2019 / 42,477 McDonald's worldwide as of 2024) — link
- Korea Locally, "How to Order Food in Korea (2026) — Kiosk Guide" (kiosk installation rates, foreign-card EMV support issue) — link
- Expat Guide Korea, "Everything You Need to Know about Fast Food in Korea" (vegetarian and halal options) — link