Eating Out at Korean Restaurants

A Korean restaurant meal arrives all at once: your rice and soup, a main dish to share, and a spread of small banchan that are usually included in the price and refilled on request. It is a generous way to eat and an easy one to enjoy well. A few habits help with the things that are hardest to see, mainly salt in broths and the seafood seasonings behind many dishes.

Banchan and refills

Side dishes are typically free, and diners can ask for more of the ones they like. A Korea.net article on banchan describes this as one of the pleasures of eating at Korean restaurants. Because refills are easy, there is no need to finish everything on the first round:

• Start with a little of each, then ask again for the dishes you enjoy.
• Lean on the lighter dishes: Blanched namul, fresh salads and steamed egg are good to refill. The saltiest banchan, such as jeotgal and jangajji, are meant to be eaten in small bites with rice.
• Do not over-order refills you will not eat: Uneaten banchan cannot go back into the kitchen (see below).

Salt in soups and stews

Soups and stews are central to the Korean restaurant menu and are where much of the meal's sodium sits. A Kookmin University study of 90 broth dishes collected in Seoul, reported in 2021, found that the broth held about two-thirds of the sodium in guk and tang, nearly twice as much as the solids. Restaurant stews had higher sodium per 100 g than the home-cooked and school-meal versions in the study. The researchers concluded that eating mainly the solids and leaving part of the broth noticeably reduces sodium intake.

That fits Korea's own public advice. A Ministry of Food and Drug Safety infographic suggests three habits for cutting sodium: season with herbs and spices rather than salt, eat less broth, and when eating out, ask for food to be made less salty and for sauce on the side. In practice:

• Eat the solids, leave some broth in doenjang-jjigae, kimchi-jjigae, yukgaejang and noodle soups.
• Season at the table yourself: Bone soups such as seolleongtang are served unsalted, with salt and green onion on the side. Add a little at a time.
• Ask: "Less salty, please" (싱겁게 해 주세요, singeopge hae juseyo) is an ordinary request.

For the bigger picture, see sodium in Korean food.

Sharing the table

Main dishes such as stews, grilled meats and pancakes are often shared from the center of the table. Use serving spoons and tongs where they are provided, and take portions onto your own plate. Customs, manners and Korea's post-pandemic campaign for serving food onto individual plates are covered in sharing banchan. At a barbecue, the lettuce, perilla and garlic that come with samgyeopsal add vegetables to the meal; ssamjang adds salt, so a small dab goes a long way. See Korean barbecue culture.

Asking about jeotgal, fish sauce and allergens

Seafood seasonings are the most common hidden ingredient. The Korea Tourism Organization warns vegetarian visitors that kimchi seasoning usually includes salted seafood, fish sauce or meat broth, and suggests telling staff clearly, ahead of time, exactly which ingredients you cannot eat. That advice works for allergies too:

• Kimchi: Most cabbage kimchi contains saeujeot or fish sauce such as myeolchi-aekjeot.
• Stocks: Anchovy and kelp stock underlies many stews and noodle soups, even ones that look vegetable-only.
• Sauces: Soy sauce and pastes contain soy and often wheat; sesame oil dresses most namul.
• Write it down: A short card in Korean naming what you must avoid is clearer than a spoken explanation in a busy dining room.

See allergens in Korean food, plant-based Korean eating and gluten-free Korean eating.

Self-serve banchan bars

Many casual restaurants offer a self-serve station where diners refill banchan themselves. The same Korea.net article notes the trade-off: it removes any awkwardness about asking for more, but food left out and handled by many people can look less fresh. A few simple courtesies keep it hygienic:

• Use the bar's tongs and ladles, never your own chopsticks.
• Take a fresh small plate for each trip rather than refilling a used one.
• Take only what you will eat; nothing goes back into the shared container.

Korean regulations already bar restaurants from reusing food left by customers, as described in sharing banchan. Taking modest amounts means less waste as well.