"From Takeout to Drive-Thru"... Hotel Industry Is Changing

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Yuri] As dining culture changes due to COVID-19, the hotel industry is also making changes to keep up. In addition to food packaging services, drive-thru services that allow customers to pick up their orders without leaving their cars are also expanding.

According to the industry on the 14th, major hotels have strengthened to-go services and drive-thru services for 'home Seol-jok' during this Lunar New Year holiday. As the government’s social distancing guidelines prohibit gatherings of five or more people, more people are spending the holiday separately at home. Targeting these customers, hotels introduced 'carefully prepared meals, easy packaging' products. Considering not only traditional holiday foods but also demand for Valentine’s Day on the last day of the holiday, major restaurants and lounges also enhanced their to-go products.

Lotte Hotel Seoul has been running the 'Seol Special Drive-Thru' since the 8th, continuing through this day. Customers can choose from a total of 13 menu items according to their preferences. The 2-person set menu includes representative Seol dishes such as rice cake dumpling soup (tteok mandu guk), braised short ribs (galbi jjim), and premium jeon (shiitake mushroom, shrimp, beef jeon), along with lobster jeon. Lotte Hotel World introduced the 'Delight Box,' a lunchbox-style set of holiday foods, available through online pre-orders. The three-tiered lunchbox is filled with galbi jjim, japchae, abalone vinegar, three-color jeon, five-grain rice, steamed large shrimp, grilled yellow croaker, and four kinds of seasoned vegetables, gaining popularity.

Hanwha Hotels & Resorts also temporarily offered holiday food to-go products created in collaboration with Plaza Hotel chefs and heads of traditional Korean families nationwide. Customers can choose according to their preferences from options such as Korean beef bone soup with rice cakes (hanwoo sagol tteokguk), LA galbi barbecue, beef japchae, galbi jjim, jeon, namul, and grilled dried yellow croaker (cham gulbi gui).

Paradise City also provided the 'Paradise Gourmet To-Go Box' via drive-thru service during the Lunar New Year holiday. Since last year, Paradise City has offered signature menus from four venues?buffet, Italian restaurant, lounge, and cafe?in to-go boxes. This Seol holiday, they operated the drive-thru service to meet the increasing takeout demand, allowing customers to conveniently use the service without face-to-face contact. After making a reservation and payment by phone in advance, customers can briefly stop in front of the hotel lobby at the pickup time and receive their orders without leaving their cars.

The buffet restaurant 'On the Plate' included dishes such as lamb chops, LA galbi barbecue, king prawns with grilled vegetable garnish, flank steak, and grilled sablefish, along with desserts. The Italian restaurant 'La Scala' offered citrus-marinated octopus salad, homemade Bolognese lasagna, ribeye chop steak, and vanilla panna cotta. 'Lounge Paradise' also added to-go box menus including salads and sandwiches.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.