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$13 Korean Soup Vs. $88 Korean Soup

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Steven Lim and Andrew Ilnyckyj put a $13 bowl of jjigae up against an $88 gomtang — and only one earns the “Worth It” stamp.

“Worth It” is back with another head-to-head, and this time the hosts stay close to home in Los Angeles to settle a question every Korean food lover has asked at some point: is a soup worth nearly seven times the price of another? In “$13 Korean Soup Vs. $88 Korean Soup,” Steven Lim and Andrew Ilnyckyj — joined by cameraman and producer Adam Bianchi — visit three restaurants at three different price tiers to taste, question, and ultimately rank their way to a winner.

• The episode pits a $13 entry-level jjigae against pricier mid-tier and premium options, topping out at an $88 gomtang.
• Steven Lim, Andrew Ilnyckyj, and Adam Bianchi tour three separate Los Angeles restaurants to sample each soup and interview the people who make them.
• The trio closes the episode by naming a “Worth It Winner” based on flavor, ingredients, and value at each price point.

The $13 Bowl of Jjigae

The low end of the episode centers on jjigae, the stewed, chili-paste-based soup that shows up on tables across Korea as a side dish or a full meal in its own right. At $13, the bowl the hosts sample is built from a straightforward mix of tofu, vegetables, and meat simmered in a broth seasoned heavily with Korean chili paste — the kind of dish a restaurant can turn around quickly rather than something that needs hours of attention. It’s the everyday comfort food entry point of the lineup, and the hosts treat it as the baseline the more expensive bowls have to beat.

Climbing the Price Ladder to Gomtang

At the top of the scale sits gomtang, a beef broth soup that isn’t something most diners stumble into at a casual Korean restaurant. The $88 version Steven and Andrew try is built on premium cuts of beef slow-cooked for hours until the broth turns rich and cloudy, then finished with garnishes like scallions, garlic, and chilies. Historically, gomtang has been treated in Korea less as a quick meal and more as something eaten for its restorative qualities — the kind of slow-simmered broth culture that shows up elsewhere in dishes built around bone broth and long-cooked cuts, the same territory covered in pieces on foods worth eating consistently for their nutritional payoff.

The gap between the two bowls isn’t just price — it’s labor. A $13 jjigae can be on the table inside an hour. The gomtang the hosts taste represents hours of slow cooking just to extract the flavor from the beef, which is the entire argument the higher price tag is built on.

“Does that make you my soup daddy?”

Host Weighting Considerations Explained

Every episode of “Worth It” runs on the same tension: does spending more actually buy a better experience, or just a bigger bill? Steven and Andrew walk through each restaurant asking about sourcing, technique, and tradition — the same instinct that drives a lot of coverage of slow-cooked, ingredient-driven meals, including the kind of deep-dive breakdowns found in pieces on fermented and traditionally prepared foods and what makes them worth seeking out. For gomtang specifically, the payoff is a broth that a quick-turnaround jjigae simply can’t produce, because the flavor only develops after hours over heat.

The Worth It Winner

As always, the episode ends with Steven, Andrew, and Adam casting their votes for which soup delivers the most value relative to its price — not necessarily the most expensive bowl, but the one that best justifies its cost. That verdict, paired with the pair’s running “soup daddy” joke, is what turns a straightforward taste test into the kind of episode “Worth It” fans come back for season after season.

Season 6 of “Worth It” keeps running the same formula that’s carried the show for years — three bowls, three restaurants, one winner — and this soup episode slots right alongside the franchise’s other price-tier breakdowns on tacos, burgers, and sushi. Whichever bowl Steven and Andrew crowned this time, the format guarantees there’s already another price gap waiting to be argued over in the next installment.