➹ what to eat at lotteria?

It's interesting how local fastfood has become characteristic of a destination. It isn't at all weird to find local burger joints on a traveler's itinerary aside from the default streetfood adventures or traditional cuisine experiences. And it is (should be) 100% understandable to see foreigners taking pictures of french fries and softdrinks ~ much in the same way that it is ok for foreigners to take souvenir photos on subway stations hahaha. Hence, when you go to Seoul or anywhere in Korea, dining in Lotteria is as authentic an experience which warrants a facebook update as it is visiting a Joseon palace!



I first tried Lotteria from a small branch near Daejeon KTX station. I didn't do my research at that time so I was not sure what to order. The extensive menu is quite intimidating! For sure, they had more options than a Korean Burger King or Mcdonalds. I think I played it safe then (ignorance begets extreme caution) and just ordered a regular burger, fries and strawberry ice cream sundae for lunch. Everything tasted ok, nothing really extraordinary. I wasn't too keen on eating there again but then I heard from a friend that their Shrimp Burger is really really good …

So I had to try it out on my succeeding trips. And true enough, the Shrimp Burger warrants its own close-up picture like this.




Because I am neither a burger nor a sandwich aficionado, I can't say much about the Shrimp Burger except that it does really taste different in a really good way haha^^. My only memory of a shrimp sandwich was that from Wendy's (i think) but it was quite a long time ago. Lotteria's shrimp version is much tastier and much more memorable. The set which comes with fries and a drink is definitely a LOT filling!

My friend and I also wanted to try Patbingsoo 팥빙수 from Lotteria. So I tried to order it by saying the English name on the menu which reads "Red Bean Sherbet". But the staff didn't understand me until I pointed out the dessert from the menu ... at which she exclaimed "아! 팥빙수야!ㅋㅋ". That's when I gave up trying to be such an ignorant foreigner hahah! We ordered the fruit variety and the original one...






... not knowing how huge the servings were! This is a dish for sharing! But the cool dessert was also really good so we managed to finish out at least half of our bowls in the end.

The last time we dined at Lotteria, they also had coffee selections which were so very tempting! I imagine that a nice hot cup would go well with their cheese sticks which are also too yummy! We should come back for those just for the heck of it ~