How Many Street Stalls Are Left in Seoul, and Where to Find Them

Seoul still has thousands of street stalls, but the number is shrinking steadily. The city's own series shows about 1,300 fewer stalls between 2020 and 2024, a drop of roughly a fifth, while its policy since 2019 has been to license stalls that fit on the pavement rather than simply clear them.

A second misconception is that every stall on the street is illegal. Before 2019 the city described most stalls outside a few designated streets as unlicensed; since then, stalls meeting its guideline can hold a one-year road-occupation permit, and the city calls them 거리가게 (geori gage, "street shops").

This guide sets out the numbers, explains the permit rules, names the places official sources point to for stalls and tent bars, and flags what is not counted. The figures come from Seoul Metropolitan Government pages and the Seoul Tourism Organization's Visit Seoul site, checked on 23 September 2026.

What the city's count shows

Seoul Metropolitan Government publishes a yearly count of street stalls on the page its road management division (도로관리과) keeps for stall management, last modified on 24 September 2025. The table is headed "연도별 거리가게(노점)현황", yearly status of street stalls.

Over four years the count fell by 1,338, or about 22%, an average of roughly 335 stalls a year. For scale, the same city counted 1,276 licensed pavement kiosks and shoe-repair booths in 2024, a separate category explained further down. No figure for 2025 has been added to the page, so 4,741 is the latest official number.

An earlier figure is higher still. When the permit system came fully into force, the city said in March 2019 that Seoul had 6,669 street stalls in total. That figure comes from a different page and the city does not say whether it was counted the same way as the 2020 series, so treat the 2019 to 2020 drop with some care.

If the two are compared anyway, the fall from 6,669 to 4,741 is 1,928 stalls, about 29% in roughly five years. Either way, the direction is the same.

The city's management page sets out what it is aiming for. It lists continued clearing of stalls that obstruct bus stops, crosswalks and subway exits, and of what it calls "대형・기업형" (large or corporate-style) stalls, alongside support for "생계형" (livelihood) stalls run by individuals.

The same page describes the other half of the policy: a real-name system (거리가게 실명제) for stall operators, detailed full surveys of stalls, and moving livelihood stalls in crowded areas onto designated showcase streets (명소화거리). The city frames the whole approach as a move away from enforcement and regulation towards management based on communication and coexistence.

The page does not attribute the fall in numbers to any one cause, and no official source read for this guide breaks the decline down into stalls cleared, stalls that closed and stalls that moved.

How the permit system works

Seoul announced the switch from enforcement to permits in October 2018, after an advisory group of stall operators, residents and experts set up in December 2013 had drawn up a guideline. The system took full effect in January 2019 after a six-month grace period.

The city gave two reasons for the change. Its July 2020 release said the permit system was meant to restore pedestrians' right to walk (보행권) and protect stall operators' livelihoods (생존권), and it presented legal, fee-paying stalls as a way for vendors and residents to coexist.

The guideline took a long time to agree. The city says the advisory group met 36 times, and that its operating committee approved the guideline unanimously on 28 June 2018. It had five main parts: road-occupation permits, installation standards, a ban on resale and subletting, operator training, and the setting and collection of occupation fees.

The city describes it as the first time a metropolitan government legalised street stalls. In its March 2019 release it said the system "일부 특화거리를 제외하고는 대부분 무허가로 운영되던 거리가게를" legalised: stalls that, apart from some special streets, had mostly operated without permission.

The rules are specific. A permit is a road-occupation permit valid for one year, and the holder must run the stall in person; a spouse can stand in with prior approval only if the operator is temporarily unable, for example through illness.

Operators who occupy more space than their permit allows can be fined, and stalls may not sell goods whose sale is prohibited by law. Training covers the rules stall holders must follow, and the 2019 release adds that it includes fire and safety.

Not every stall could qualify. In March 2019 the city said only 1,883 of the 6,669 stalls met the guideline and would be licensed first, with the rest to be moved gradually or have their surroundings improved so they could qualify later. No official page read for this guide says how many permits are in force today.

The city was cautious about how fast things would change. In the March 2019 release it asked the public to expect stalls to change gradually under a firm policy direction, rather than expecting stalls that had grown up over many years to move into the licensed system all at once.

Day-to-day enforcement sits with the districts. For the licensed kiosks, the city says management and enforcement powers are delegated to each district office, and it lists the responsible departments, for example 가로정비과 in Jongno-gu and 보행행정과 in Mapo-gu; complaints about illegal trading go to the district, not the city.

Where official sources point you

For pojangmacha (포장마차, tent bars), the Seoul Tourism Organization's clearest pointer is Jongno 3-ga Pojangmacha Street. Its Visit Seoul article on outdoor "yajang" dining says that around 5pm "you start noticing people setting up tents", and lists chicken feet, rolled omelet, udon and seafood pancakes with beer and soju.

The article gives the location as 132 Jong-ro, Jongno-gu, near Jongno 3-ga Station on subway lines 1 and 5, and places it near the hanok alleys of Ikseon-dong. It notes that the content is based on information as of 16 June 2026.

The same article explains the word that often comes up with tent bars. It defines yajang (야장) as "a type of business with tables and chairs set up outdoors to serve customers", and gives soju with stir-fried spicy octopus at a street food tent as one example. Not every yajang spot is a street stall: the article's other picks include a riverside barbecue restaurant, a brunch café and a pizza restaurant with outdoor seating.

Euljiro has a different outdoor tradition. Visit Seoul's entry for Euljiro Nogari Alley at 12 Chungmuro 9-gil, near Euljiro 3-ga Station Exit 3, says the alley grew rapidly in popularity during the IMF economic crisis as a place for nogari (dried pollack) and beer, and that in the evenings even its outdoor tables fill up. The listing calls it one of Euljiro's oldest food alleys.

Gwangjang Market is the third name visitors hear, and it is a different thing. Visit Seoul describes it as a traditional market that opened in the early 20th century with clothing and food stalls; its food alley is listed as open daily from 9am to 11pm, year round, while the rest of the market keeps 9am to 6pm and closes on Sundays.

Visit Seoul lists Gwangjang's popular foods as bindae-tteok (mung bean pancake), modum-jeon (assorted pancakes), mayak gimbap, sundae with head meat, yukhoe (beef tartare) and meatballs. Those are market stalls, and the city's pages do not say whether they are part of its street-stall count. The listing suggests the Jongno 4-ga Jongmyo car park for drivers and names Sewoon Shopping Center, Jongmyo Shrine and Dongdaemun Design Plaza as nearby sights.

If you are planning a full day around these areas, the three-day Seoul itinerary shows how Jongno fits with the palaces nearby.

The city's showcase streets

Seoul has rebuilt stall streets rather than only thinning them, and the projects show where stalls are concentrated. The 2019 pilots were Yeongjung-ro in Yeongdeungpo-gu (390 m, 45 stalls), the area around Taereung Market in Jungnang-gu (320 m, 106 stalls) and the stretch from Jegi-dong to the Gyeongdong Market rotary in Dongdaemun-gu (255 m, 75 stalls), 226 stalls in all.

The city chose those sites through a call for proposals from the districts, picking places where stalls most needed improvement and walking conditions were poor. It described Yeongjung-ro as a prime example of a poor walking environment, and the Taereung and Gyeongdong sites as next to traditional markets, with heavy foot traffic but poor walking conditions.

The city's 2019 budget for that work was 3.3 billion won, shared 60:40 between the city and the districts, for power and water connections, pavement repairs and new stands. Yeongjung-ro, outside Yeongdeungpo Station, was finished in 2019; the city called it the end of a residents' request that had waited about 50 years.

A special city project due for completion at the end of July 2020 covered about 1.2 km between Heunginjimun (흥인지문) and Dongmyo-ap Station in Jongno-gu, covering about 100 stalls. It described the area as busy with toy, sewing and food alleys and a hanok village, but with pavements too narrow for the stalls, which had stood there for about 40 years.

That project gives a sense of what the city hopes the rebuilt streets become: its release said the tidied stalls would link the Dongmyo-ap vintage clothing street with the Dongdaemun shopping area as a new attraction.

Earlier in 2020, 21 stalls around Sillim Station in Gwanak-gu got new stands along with pavement and landscaping work. The city also listed projects near Seoul National University Station, at Yeonseo Market in Eunpyeong-gu and at Saemaeul Market in Songpa-gu for completion that year.

None of this is quick. Seoul's then head of urban transport said in the 2020 release that each project involved anywhere from dozens to about a hundred rounds of talks among the parties on site, and needed effort at every stage up to completion.

The work continues on a smaller scale. A city walking-environment plan, written before 2025 and last modified on 4 February 2025, says the city improved 71 stalls in four districts that year and planned to improve 169 in six districts the next, while continuing to clear unlicensed stalls.

The same plan launched a scheme to create five "걷고 싶은 감성거리" (streets you want to walk), with 2 billion won, and names two pilot streets improved the previous year: 돈화문로11길 in Ikseon-dong and 남대문로7길 in Sogong-dong. Visit Seoul places the Jongno 3-ga tent street near Ikseon-dong's hanok alleys.

That plan limits the upgrades to "생계형" stalls that hold a road-occupation permit and operate under the real-name system (실명제), which shows how the city now divides stalls: licensed livelihood stalls get new stands and utilities, and unlicensed ones are cleared.

Kiosks are counted separately

The permanent street kiosks and shoe-repair booths on Seoul pavements are a different category. The city calls them 보도상영업시설물 (sidewalk business facilities), licensed under a separate Seoul ordinance, and they are not in the street-stall count above.

The city says the street kiosks (가로판매대) were installed in the 1980s as part of measures to clear street stalls and tidy newspaper stands, and that redesigned kiosks carry the name "해치숍" (Haechi Shop). The other type is the shoe-repair booth (구두수선대).

That is a fall of 539, about 31%, from 2019 to 2025. The city says it bans resale and subletting of these facilities precisely to keep reducing their number, and renews permits each year only for operators whose net assets, checked every three years, are under 450 million won.

The kiosks cannot turn into food stalls. Street kiosks may not cook food, except for electric warming of some items, and shoe-repair booths may offer only shoe repair and key cutting. A walking-plan page also says kiosks past their 10-year service life are being replaced with a new design, piloted in February 2025.

Decoding the terms

Official Korean pages use several words for what English speakers call a street stall. The table sorts them out, with prices where a source gives one.

No official page read for this guide publishes typical prices at stalls or tent bars, or says whether they take cards. Carry some cash as a fallback and ask before ordering; the guide to paying by cash or card explains how payment works in Seoul generally.

How to find a stall tonight

The official sources give enough to plan an evening. Use this sequence.

If you prefer a sit-down meal before the tents, the guide to Korean barbecue menus and table rules explains how barbecue restaurants price their meat.

Evening timing matters most at Jongno 3-ga, since the tents are set up each evening. The Visit Seoul article gives no closing time, so plan on the evening rather than the small hours.

What this guide does not cover

A 2025 street-stall count is not given because the city's page stops at 2024. The number of stalls holding a permit today is also not given: the only official figure is the 1,883 stalls the city judged eligible in 2019, plus project-level counts.

No official breakdown of stalls by district, or count of pojangmacha as distinct from other stalls, was found. Searches of Seoul's open data portal for 거리가게 and 노점 turned up district-level permit datasets only for Yangcheon-gu and Gangseo-gu, and those files were not downloaded, so no district is named here as having the most stalls.

Prices at stalls and tent bars, and whether they accept cards, are not published in any official source read. The city's 2019 figure and its 2020 to 2024 series come from different pages, and the city does not say whether the counting method was the same.

Food safety rules for individual stalls, and the licensing of food trucks, are separate systems that this guide does not cover.

The kiosk figures have a data trail that the stall figures lack. Seoul's open data portal publishes datasets on kiosk operating information, road-occupation sites and kiosk complaint counts, updated as recently as 23 September 2026, but the contents of those datasets were not downloaded for this guide, and no equivalent city-wide dataset for street stalls was found.