Evett, a two-Michelin-star restaurant in Seoul, has been ordered to pay fines that leave the owner facing a 15 million won penalty while the operating company must pay 10 million won, after staff used ants as a garnish on desserts.
The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety uncovered the practice after finding online reviews with photographs. The ministry said the restaurant sprinkled three to five ants on some dishes to add a sour note, over a period of nearly four years, amounting to approximately 49,000 ants. Most of the insects were imported from the US, and some came from Thailand.
Ants are not among the 10 insect species approved for human consumption in South Korea; the authorised list includes grasshoppers, locusts and some silkworms. Tests on the ants detected heavy metals above permitted levels, a factor the judge noted when handing down the fines and saying that the "culpability is not light." Prosecutors had sought a one-year prison term for the owner and a 20 million won fine, but the judge reduced the penalty after the owner admitted the charge and had no prior criminal record.
The owner told investigators the ants were offered on a small part of the restaurant's 15-course menu and that diners were given the option of a non-ant topping. The use of ants as food is common in several cultures, with weaver ants used in Thai and Cambodian cooking and queen ants prized in Colombia, but that local dietary practice does not align with South Korea's approved list.
The decision closes a criminal case with financial penalties rather than imprisonment, while highlighting two regulatory facts: national food-safety rules explicitly list permitted edible insects, and digital customer posts can prompt official inspections. For Evett, the ruling imposes a formal sanction and confirms that compliance with South Korea's food-sanitation standards governs ingredient choice, regardless of a restaurant's Michelin status.
