●■●● Part 4 of the 6-Part “What You Must Know When You Come to Korea” Series: Dining at Restaurants
▶ Dining culture varies from country to country.
→ Because of these differences, people sometimes mistakenly think they experienced racism during a meal.
→ However, restaurant service in Korea is generally friendly and high-quality. In most cases, staff will kindly help you when you need it.
A common seating layout in Korean restaurants, where tables are arranged for shared dining and efficient service.
→ Because of these differences, people sometimes mistakenly think they experienced racism during a meal.
→ However, restaurant service in Korea is generally friendly and high-quality. In most cases, staff will kindly help you when you need it.
●●🟧 How to Use Restaurants and Manage Your Meal
●🟦✓ Ordering and Paying
▶ In Korea, the dining flow is relatively simple: Order → Eat → Pay.
▶ Most places take your order after you sit down, and some restaurants use kiosks (self-order machines).
→ Recently, even small restaurants have been adopting kiosks quickly.
→ If using a kiosk is difficult, ask a staff member for help. Many Koreans—especially older adults—also ask for help when ordering.
▶ In Korea, the dining flow is relatively simple: Order → Eat → Pay.
▶ Most places take your order after you sit down, and some restaurants use kiosks (self-order machines).
→ Recently, even small restaurants have been adopting kiosks quickly.
→ If using a kiosk is difficult, ask a staff member for help. Many Koreans—especially older adults—also ask for help when ordering.
💊 In small restaurants, it’s common to order at a kiosk or pay upfront.
→ This is not because they distrust customers; it’s to minimize movement and provide efficient service.
●🟦✓ How to Order
▶ When ordering, you can simply look at the menu and wait comfortably.
→ Once you’ve chosen, raise your hand to place your order.
→ If you’re ordering at a kiosk, you can select items by looking at the photos.
▶ In Korea, many restaurants display the menu in large text on the wall.
→ You can freely choose from what’s listed there.
▶ If you’re not sure what to order, you can call a staff member and ask for a recommendation.
💊 Many foreigners misunderstand it when staff don’t come to the table right away after you sit down.
→ This is not because they are ignoring you; often they are waiting until you finish choosing your menu.
Q. Is it rude to ask for more water or side dishes?
→ Not at all.
→ In Korean restaurants, requesting water, side dishes, or small plates is very common, and it’s usually free.
●🟦✓ The Scope of Service in Korean Restaurants
▶ Korean restaurants generally have a very high level of service by global standards.
As long as it’s not an unreasonable request, it’s common for staff to kindly help with most things you might need during your meal.
→ Requesting extra forks or spoons (Utensils are often in a table drawer or on the table; forks usually need to be requested from staff.)
→ Requesting small plates for hot food (Korea has many hot dishes. Most Koreans serve hot food onto a small plate before eating.)
→ Providing aprons
→ Refilling side dishes (Aside from the main dish, most are refilled for free. Some places have a self-serve side-dish bar, similar to a salad bar.)
→ Requesting wet wipes or warm water (Korean restaurants typically serve cold water, but if that’s uncomfortable, ask for warm water.)
→ Requesting indoor temperature adjustments (If it’s too cold or too hot inside, ask. Koreans request this often too.)
→ Calling staff (You don’t need to make eye contact. You can raise your hand, or call out “여기요.” You can call a staff member even if they’re serving another table. Think of it as a common way of getting attention.)
Most of these services are provided at no additional cost, and this kind of restaurant culture—naturally responding to a wide range of requests—is one of Korea’s notable characteristics.
▶ If the portion feels too small, order a large portion (gopbaegi).
A large portion usually gives about 1.5x more food, with about a 20–30% price increase—this is part of Korean food culture. In small restaurants, some places may give you a larger portion without an extra fee.
→ If even a large portion isn’t enough, try asking for a king-size portion (wang gopbaegi). In some cases, they may provide even more than 1.5x.
Q. If I say it’s vegan or halal, will restaurants in Korea understand?
→ In many restaurants, staff may not fully understand these standards accurately.
→ If you follow Certified Vegan or Certified Halal standards, the safest option is to visit a specialized restaurant.
●●🟧 Vegan Food and Halal Food
▶ In Korea, overall awareness and understanding of vegan and halal food is still not very high.→ In major cities, there are many related restaurants, but overall it is still in an early stage and not yet at a global level.
▶ For people who follow Strict Vegan and Halal-friendly standards, choosing Korean food can be relatively easier.
→ However, if you follow Certified Vegan and Certified Halal standards, choosing Korean food can be very difficult.
▶ Even if you ask a restaurant owner, many people assume that if the main ingredients are vegan, then it is Certified Vegan.
→ Also, in many cases, restaurant owners may not clearly realize that their food does not meet Certified Halal standards.
→ Many Korean dishes use seafood stock or meat-based broth as secondary ingredients.
→ Even kimchi, which is well-known worldwide, often contains shrimp or other seafood.
▶ In Korea’s major cities, there are a fair number of Certified Vegan restaurants and Certified Halal restaurants, and they are growing quickly.
→ However, overall, there are still not enough options yet.
💊 Korean food often combines many ingredients into a single dish, so seafood or meat-based ingredients are frequently added to many foods.
→ This creates a diverse and healthy food culture in terms of taste and nutrition,
→ but under vegan and halal standards, even small ingredients like these can be an issue.
💊 To live comfortably in Korea, you should prepare thoroughly if you follow Certified Vegan or Certified Halal standards.
▶ Food is one of the most basic parts of living abroad.
→ Living overseas can be stressful in many ways, and if food also becomes stressful, it becomes even harder to adapt to life in Korea.
▶ Even young Korean friends may say, “It’s okay, just try it,” and some people may not understand if you refuse.
→ In those situations, smile and clearly explain your standards.
→ Young Korean college students are also in the process of learning these cultural differences.
Pajeon may look vegetarian, but many versions contain seafood or egg.
© Korea Tourism Organization, Photo Korea – Pajeon (orcb9a)
▶ There are not many Korean dishes that can meet Certified Vegan standards.
→ This is because Korean seasoning and broth-making methods often rely on stock and seafood as secondary ingredients.
▶ In theory, restaurants could make vegan food if they pay a little extra attention.
→ However, many Korean restaurants operate with free side dishes, low prices, and high-volume sales,
→ so it is difficult for them to prepare and sell separate Certified Vegan meals for a small number of customers.
▶ For these reasons, if you follow Certified Vegan standards,
→ cooking your own food rather than eating out becomes, in practice, the only solution.
▶ Relatively safer types of vegan food
→ Temple food: traditional vegetarian cuisine that does not use meat, seafood, or the “five pungent vegetables”
However, this applies only to specialized temple food restaurants (not regular restaurants), and temple food restaurants are not common.
→ Bibimbap: check the broth/stock, and ask to remove meat and eggs.
→ Tofu dishes (excluding stews): grilled or pan-fried tofu tends to be relatively safer.
Soft tofu stew and soybean paste stew can be risky because of the stock.
→ Gimbap: only vegetable gimbap is possible, and ask them to remove ham, fish cake, and eggs.
💊 In regular restaurants, aside from the foods listed above, the only practical option is to visit a specialized Certified Vegan restaurant.
●🟦✓ Types of Halal Foods to Avoid
▶ Pork dishes such as samgyeopsal (pork belly), jeyuk-bokkeum (spicy stir-fried pork), dwaeji-galbi (pork ribs), donkatsu (pork cutlet), dumplings, bossam (boiled pork wraps), jokbal (braised pig’s feet), and sundae (Korean blood sausage)
→ Absolutely not allowed under halal standards
▶ Fried foods
→ Hot dogs, fried dumplings, and donkatsu often contain pork-based ingredients.
→ Even if you order something else, many places use shared frying oil, so you should be cautious with other fried foods as well.
▶ Foods that contain fish cake (eomuk), ham, or sausages
→ Most of these include pork-based ingredients.
→ Budae-jjigae (army stew) and hot dogs are typical non-halal foods.
▶ Western-style sauces such as pasta sauce and steak sauce
→ These often contain pork-based ingredients or non-halal stock/extracts.
💊 About stock-based soups and seasonings
▶ Except for dwaeji-gukbap (pork soup with rice), sundae-gukbap (blood sausage soup with rice), and seonji-haejangguk (hangover soup with coagulated blood),
→ it is rare for Korean soup dishes to include pork.
▶ It is also very rare for Korean seasonings to contain pork.
▶ When cooking in Korea,
→ alcohol is used less often than in the U.S. or Europe.
→ Even when it is used, it is mainly added to pork dishes to reduce unwanted odors, and it is used relatively less in other dishes.
▶ However, for younger chefs who have studied abroad,
→ alcohol may be used more due to the influence of Western cooking methods.
→ Therefore, asking the restaurant owner directly is the safest approach.
💊 In Korea, places that perform halal slaughter are virtually nonexistent.
▶ Recently, some businesses import and sell halal-slaughtered meat,
→ but it is often more than twice the price of regular meat,
→ and buying it online is the most common method.
●🟦✓ Strict Vegan and Halal-friendly
▶ Because you mainly need to avoid certain main ingredients, for people who enjoy Korean food, choosing meals can actually be relatively easier.
→ A food culture like Korea’s—where you can eat many different vegetables in a single meal—is rare, and it can provide a well-balanced diet in both taste and nutrition.
●🟦✓ Maintaining Certified Standards in Korea
▶ Among people living in Korea who follow Certified Vegan or Certified Halal standards, it is common to see them struggle significantly with food issues during the early settlement period.
▶ Because of Korea’s restaurant structure, the characteristics of Korean cuisine, and the reality that access to halal-slaughtered meat is very limited, some people end up considering different dietary choices depending on their personal circumstances and how they interpret their faith.
▶ Especially in smaller cities and rural areas, the number of vegan and halal restaurants is very small, so it is true that there are more restrictions than in major cities.
💊 This blog is written for informational purposes and does not recommend or judge any diet or choice. We respect each person’s decisions based on their faith and values.
●●🟧 Points That Tourists or Foreign Residents in Korea May Find Confusing at Restaurants
●🟦✓ Seafood Dishes
▶ Because seafood can be difficult to store, in many countries people either do not eat seafood often or have a limited range of seafood they eat.
→ Korea has well-developed seafood storage and distribution systems, so there is a culture of eating a wide variety of seafood.
▶ In particular, restaurants often cook live seafood to ensure freshness.
▶ Foreigners who have lived in Korea for about 2–3 years often naturally come to enjoy seafood, but for people visiting Korea for the first time, seafood dishes may feel unfamiliar or even uncomfortable.
▶ Haemul-jjim (spicy braised seafood) is known for its spicy flavor, so if you do not handle spicy food well, eat it carefully.
●🟦✓ Automatic Doors and Things to Watch for When Entering a Restaurant
▶ Many small restaurants have automatic doors.
→ The door-open button is usually around waist height.
▶ Many restaurants in Korea use doors that are manual from the outside and automatic from the inside to help maintain indoor heating and air conditioning.
→ Because of this, if the door does not open automatically, some foreigners may misunderstand and think the restaurant is closed, then turn around and leave.
●🟦✓ When Entering a Restaurant
▶ When you enter a restaurant, staff may guide you to a seat, but in many places they will let customers choose any seat they feel comfortable with.
Q. Is it rude not to leave a tip?
●🟦✓ Korean Restaurants Do Not Have a Tipping Culture
▶ In Korea, it is normal not to leave a tip after a meal.
→ Some Koreans may leave a tip of about 5,000 to 10,000 KRW when the service is exceptionally good, but this is very rare.
→ Staff will not treat you unfairly or act unfriendly just because you did not tip.
▶ Especially if you are a tourist, you do not need to worry about tipping at all.
→ You can simply think of Korea as “a country without tipping.”
●🟦✓ Feel Free to Use the Restroom
▶ Many restrooms use a keypad lock, and foreign tourists may struggle with how to use it.
→ In that case, ask a staff member, and they will explain how to use it.
→ In many places, you only need to enter the code when you go in, and it often locks automatically when you leave.
💊 In Korea, not only restaurants but most places do not charge you to use the restroom or get water. Everything is free.
(However, bottled water sold in supermarkets is an exception.)
●🟦✓ If You Ordered Too Much Food, Ask for It to Be Packed
▶ Most Korean restaurants offer a service to pack up leftover food.
→ Koreans also often pack leftovers to take home.
→ It is okay to smile and ask them to pack the side dishes as well.
→ (Tourists may feel inconvenienced at hotels because they do not have utensils. You can buy utensils at a convenience store, or some restaurants may pack disposable utensils together with your food.)
A typical local restaurant in Korea where people share tables and enjoy everyday meals with side dishes.
Q. Are there other informational posts about living in Korea?
●🟦 This guide is Part 4 of a 6-part series on what foreigners coming to Korea for the first time should prepare.
In addition to this series, the blog also includes a wide range of information about life in Korea—such as transportation, health information, seasonal living tips, and ways to enjoy your free time—so please refer to those posts as well.
Q. Are there other informational posts about living in Korea?
●🟦 This guide is Part 4 of a 6-part series on what foreigners coming to Korea for the first time should prepare.
In addition to this series, the blog also includes a wide range of information about life in Korea—such as transportation, health information, seasonal living tips, and ways to enjoy your free time—so please refer to those posts as well.
▶ If you still haven’t prepared for entering Korea yet
→ What You Must Know When You Come to Korea (Part 1): Pre-Arrival Preparation
▶ If you’re curious about the process from arriving in Korea to finding a place to live
→ What You Must Know When You Come to Korea (Part 2): From Arrival to Housing
▶ If you’re curious about the Korean food that Koreans actually eat (not tourist food)
→ What You Must Know When You Come to Korea (Part 4-2): Understanding Everyday Korean Food
(Coming soon)
→ Korea Life & Settlement Guide
https://www.koreavisa.guide/2025/11/korea-transportation-guide-1-1-en.html