The typical snack at a Korean bath is small and cheap: a cold can of sikhye (식혜), a sweet rice drink, and a couple of maekbanseok gyeran (맥반석 계란), eggs baked brown on hot stone. Some Koreans also remember a bottle of banana milk after a scrub. You buy sikhye and eggs at the snack counter (매점, maejeom) in the jjimjil hall, in your issued outfit, and charge them to your wristband. In early 2026 the drink and the eggs each cost about ₩1,000–3,000.
None of this is fine dining, but eating it is part of the visit. A Thai visitor told the Korea Herald in 2026 that eating ramyeon and eggs in the jjimjilbang "made her feel like a local".
Sikhye (식혜): the cold rice drink
Sikhye is a traditional sweet rice drink, usually served as a dessert. Cooked rice is steeped in malt water (엿기름, yeot-gireum) at about 62°C until grains of rice appear on the surface. Then the liquid is strained and boiled. It is sweet without added sugar. Soft rice grains float in it, sometimes with pine nuts on top. It is also called dansul (단술) and gamju (감주), both meaning "sweet wine", though it is served as a dessert drink.
In a jjimjilbang it comes as a cold aluminum can. Vilac (비락) of Busan is one of the largest producers, and Korea Yakult also makes a canned version. We found no source that explains how sikhye became the bath drink, but the Korean and foreign guides we read name it first.
Maekbanseok gyeran (맥반석 계란): the brown eggs
Maekbanseok is elvan, a type of stone. The eggs are baked in their shells on heated elvan, traditionally for three hours or more, until they turn brown. One Korean food writer first assumed the color came from soy sauce; it does not. The same writer describes the taste as nutty and smoky, "like roasted chestnuts". At the sauna they cost more than plain boiled eggs.
The stone links the egg to the building. The Public Health Control Act defines a sweat-room business as one that makes customers sweat with heat from maekbanseok, red clay (황토) or jade (옥). In popular belief elvan emits far-infrared heat and "removes harmful metals"; no source we found verifies either claim. Eat the eggs because they taste good.
On cracking the egg on your forehead: we found no written source for this custom, so we cannot say where it comes from or how common it is. We also found no posted jjimjilbang price for banana milk, ramyeon or soup.
Banana milk (바나나맛우유): the drink after the scrub
Binggrae launched 바나나맛우유 ("banana-flavored milk") in 1974. The background was a government push, from the 1960s, to get Koreans to drink more milk. Many people found plain milk unappealing or hard to digest, so Binggrae added banana flavor at a time when real bananas were a luxury. The short, wide, translucent bottle is shaped like a traditional moon jar (달항아리), and in 2024 the company campaigned to have the bottle registered as cultural heritage. More than six billion have been sold in Korea.
It still leads the market. The domestic banana-milk market was worth ₩271.7 billion in 2024, up 4.8% on the year, and Binggrae held 86.6% of it (Nielsen IQ figures, reported December 2025). It has been exported since 2004 and is sold in more than 30 countries.
The bath connection is a memory. A 2021 article in the Korean Culture and Information Service's webzine says public bathing became mainstream in the 1960s, and that people recall drinking banana milk after a scrub. It is sold in convenience stores; we did not find a jjimjilbang price for it.
The rest of the counter
| Item | What it is | Price, date |
|---|---|---|
| 식혜 (sikhye), canned | Cold sweet rice drink | ₩1,000–3,000, early 2026 (guide estimate) |
| 맥반석 계란 (maekbanseok gyeran) | Stone-baked brown eggs | ₩1,000–3,000 (₩2,000 in one guide), early 2026 |
| 라면 (ramyeon) | Instant noodles | Not priced in our sources |
| Coffee | Sold at the same counter | Not priced in our sources |
The snack bar at the Hongdae 24-hour Bulgama Sauna in Seoul lists ramyeon, eggs and sikhye. Larger places have more: Sparex Dongdaemun has a 24-hour food court. One Seoul place does something different. At Supsok Hanbang Land in Seodaemun-gu, a charcoal-kiln jjimjilbang, guests buy rice cakes (가래떡), sweet potatoes and potatoes and roast them in the kiln heat, and the restaurant serves grilled pork (삼겹살, 목살).
Jjimjilbang restaurants are regulated as food businesses. In December 2024, inspectors in Gyeonggi Province checked 91 bathhouses with jjimjilbang or sauna facilities and found 11 violations, among them expired condiments and Chinese kimchi labeled as Korean.
How to order and pay
Your wristband is both your locker key and your wallet. Snacks and extras such as seshin (세신) are recorded on it, and you pay for everything at the front desk when you leave. Some older places still want cash at the snack bar, so carry a few thousand won. See what it costs for the whole bill.
One sikhye, please. Use 계란 (gyeran, egg) or 라면 (ramyeon) for the other items, and hold up fingers for the number.
How much is it? Useful at a counter that takes cash.
Want an egg? This is what someone may offer you. 잘 먹겠습니다 (jal meokgetseumnida) is the polite thanks before you eat.
Alcohol is not part of this meal. The law bars anyone too drunk to use a bath normally, and the warning notice that every sweat room must post says people who drank alcohol in the past two hours should stay out. Sparex Dongdaemun's ticket terms refuse entry for heavy drinking. Drink water instead (see heat, cold and your body).
Outside food and house rules
Rules on bringing your own food vary, and some places ban it, so read the notice at the entrance. Sparex Dongdaemun's published terms say no outside food or alcohol.
Eat in the hall, sitting on your own towel, and clear your spot when you are done. Then, if you like, go back for one more round of the rooms.