• Journal of the Korean Society of Food Culture
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• v.28 no.4
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• pp.348-355
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• 2013

This study intends to provide preliminary data for improving dining experience in the restaurants of Bamboo food village and help draw up guidelines for the improvement of these dining venues by surveying customer perception and satisfaction in 15-restaurants of the food village. The restaurants were surveyed mainly for satisfaction of the menu, especially, on the signature dishes of Damyang, "ddeokgalbi" (grilled short rib balls) and "daetongbab"-the grilled short rib balls and bamboo rice. The two dishes were more liked by people in the the 20- to 29-year age group with a score of 3.92 and 4.11, respectively. Although the 30-49 age group showed the highest satisfaction score on the fixed price menu, there was no statistically significant difference. The age group of 20-29 also showed the highest satisfaction on plating and table setting with a score of 4.09 and 4.04, respectively, and there was significant difference among age groups in this regard (p<0.05). All the age groups surveyed answered "time-honored taste" should be captured when working on menus, which suggests it should be the first choice for the restaurants in the food village when they develop their menus. When it comes to the restaurant environment, satisfaction on sanitary conditions was significantly different among the groups with a score of 4.21 given by 30-49 age group and 3.88 by the 50 and over group (p<0.05). In the category of service satisfaction, the two aforementioned age groups again showed significant difference in catering to customer needs with a score of 3.99 and 3.63, respectively (p<0.05), whereas welcoming customers and serving food was scored without statistical difference by age. Being asked what needs to be done to strengthen competitive advantage of the restaurants, all the age groups answered "taste" would matter the most while the 20 to 29 and 30 to 49 age groups picked "hygiene" and the 50 and over selected "table setting and ambience" next, which was statistically different with a p value of <0.05. Regarding the competitive advantage of the Korean restaurants in Damyang Bamboo food village, the first two younger groups (20 to 29 and 30 to 49) chose "table setting and ambience" and the eldest (50 and over) age group answered "location wise advantage," indicating significant difference by age. More than 80 percent of the people surveyed were willing to revisit the venues, which suggests improving restaurant environment in Bamboo food village and offering customers a better experience are very likely to build a image of culinary tourism for Damyang.