'Culinary Class Wars' sparks reservation frenzy at Napoli Matfia, other restaurants
Chef Kwon Sung-jun who appeared on Netflix's "Culinary Class Wars" answers questions during a press conference at a hotel in Mapo District, Seoul, Monday. Yonhap
The success of the Netflix show "Culinary Class Wars" has sparked a reservation frenzy, making it nearly impossible to secure a table at the restaurants owned by the competing chefs.
In particular, the restaurant run by the show's winner, Kwon Sung-jun, known as Napoli Matfia, has seen reservation prices skyrocket to as much as 700,000 won ($525) on the black market.
Chef Kwon addressed the issue Thursday on his Instagram account, sharing an image of the scalped reservation and warning, "Anyone caught reselling reservations will face a permanent ban from the app, and deposits will not be refunded."
He also said that upon arrival, they would verify if the reservation holder was the one who made the booking.
The image Kwon shared showed a post offering to purchase a reservation for his restaurant priced at around 700,000 won for two people.
On the same day, reservation system Catchtable also crashed due to an overwhelming influx of 110,000 users when slots for Oct. 16 to Oct. 31 became available.
All October reservations were quickly filled, with over 100 people on the cancellation waitlist. The surge in demand has since led to the rise of black-market reservation sales.
"We've received reports that the server crashed due to high traffic. The app became unresponsive due to physical limitations," Kwon said, apologizing to users. He added, "I'll work to restore it as quickly as possible. This is the first time I've experienced something like this, and I’m sorry."
He also said that he was considering reducing the number of courses and lowering the per-person price to increase the number of available reservations.
A post offering to buy a reservation for Chef Kwon Sung-jun's restaurant for 700,000 won has been shared online. Captured from Kwon's Instagram
It is not just Kwon's restaurant that is facing reservation chaos. Other chefs from the show are also experiencing a surge in demand.
Chef Jung Ji-sun’s restaurant is fully booked for October and November, with no waiting list available. Chef Kim Tae-sung's restaurant is booked until mid-November, with only waitlist options available.
Even Chef Cho Kwang-hyo’s restaurant, which takes reservations every four days, has both the next available slots and the waitlist fully booked.
Chef Lu Ching Lai's restaurant has been overwhelmed with reservation requests, making it difficult for customers to even reach the restaurant by phone.
According to Catchtable, following the airing of the show, searches for restaurants run by the featured chefs surged by 74 times compared to the previous week, with the number of saved restaurants increasing as high as 1,900 percent. The average reservation rate for the featured chefs' restaurants increased by nearly 150 percent.
This article from the Hankook Ilbo, the sister publication of The Korea Times, is translated by a generative AI system and edited by The Korea Times.