A Korean menu on a wall is usually a grid of short phrases and numbers with no photos and no English. It looks like something you either can read or cannot. It is actually something you can decode, because Korean dish names are built like small equations rather than invented brand names.
Almost every dish on that wall follows one pattern: [ingredient] + [cooking method], occasionally with a portion or format word attached. Learn roughly fourteen cooking words and sixteen ingredient words, and you can parse a menu you have never seen before, in a restaurant nobody recommended to you. This guide gives you those words, the portion words that cause the most confusion, and the handful of warnings worth spotting on sight. For the mechanics of the meal itself — table bells, kiosks, paying at the counter — pair this with our guide to how to order food in Korea.
Korean Dish Names Are Built, Not Named
Take 김치찌개. Split it: 김치 (kimchi) + 찌개 (jjigae, a thick stew). Kimchi stew. Take 오징어볶음: 오징어 (ojingeo, squid) + 볶음 (bokkeum, stir-fried). Stir-fried squid. Take 새우튀김: shrimp, deep-fried.
Once you see the seam, the menu stops being a wall of unknowns and becomes a list of combinations. Even long names usually break into the same two halves, sometimes with 고기 (gogi, meat) in the middle — 돼지고기볶음 is pork + meat + stir-fried. If you want to know what one of these actually tastes like before you commit, our sister recipe site walks through a home version of kimchi jjigae step by step.
This is also why translation apps sometimes produce nonsense on menus: they translate the string, not the structure.
The Cooking Words: Fourteen Endings That Name the Dish
These are the second half of most dish names. Learn to recognise the shape of each one and you will know how the food arrives — dry or soupy, raw or fried, one bowl or a shared pot.
| Hangul | Romanisation | What it means | What lands on the table |
|---|---|---|---|
| 구이 | gui | Grilled | Grilled meat or fish, often cooked at your table |
| 볶음 | bokkeum | Stir-fried | Cooked fast in a pan, usually saucy but not soupy |
| 찜 | jjim | Steamed or braised | Slow-cooked, tender, often a large shared dish |
| 조림 | jorim | Simmered in sauce | Reduced in soy or chilli sauce until glossy |
| 탕 / 국 | tang / guk | Soup | Broth-forward, usually a personal bowl with rice |
| 찌개 | jjigae | Thicker stew | Saltier and denser than 국, often shared, eaten with rice |
| 전골 | jeongol | Hot pot | Cooked at your table in a wide pan, made for sharing |
| 튀김 | twigim | Deep-fried | Battered and fried; think tempura-style |
| 무침 | muchim | Seasoned / dressed | Tossed cold or warm with seasoning, salad-adjacent |
| 전 | jeon | Pan-fried pancake | Flat, savoury, cut into pieces to share |
| 회 | hoe | Raw | Raw fish or seafood, sliced |
| 덮밥 | deopbap | Rice bowl | Rice with a topping poured over it, one person |
| 비빔 | bibim | Mixed | You stir it together yourself before eating |
| 말이 | mari | Rolled | Something rolled — egg, seaweed, meat |
Two distinctions are worth internalising because they change the shape of your meal. 국 and 탕 are soups you get in your own bowl. 찌개 is thicker and often placed in the middle for everyone to dip into. 전골 arrives raw or half-cooked and finishes on a burner in front of you, so budget time for it.
Korean food ranges from completely mild to genuinely fierce, and none of these words tell you which. The spice words further down do.
The Ingredient Words: Sixteen That Cover Most Menus
The first half of the name. Sixteen words is enough to recognise most of what appears on an everyday restaurant menu.
| Hangul | Romanisation | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 돼지 | dwaeji | Pork |
| 소 / 한우 | so / hanu | Beef / Korean-raised beef |
| 닭 | dak | Chicken |
| 오징어 | ojingeo | Squid |
| 새우 | saeu | Shrimp |
| 고등어 | godeungeo | Mackerel |
| 두부 | dubu | Tofu |
| 김치 | kimchi | Kimchi |
| 된장 | doenjang | Soybean paste |
| 고추장 | gochujang | Red chilli paste |
| 간장 | ganjang | Soy sauce |
| 계란 | gyeran | Egg |
| 버섯 | beoseot | Mushroom |
| 떡 | tteok | Rice cake |
| 면 / 국수 | myeon / guksu | Noodles |
| 밥 | bap | Rice |
The three pastes and sauces are the most useful of the lot, because they tell you the flavour direction before you taste anything. 된장 means earthy and savoury. 고추장 means red and usually spicy. 간장 means soy-based, salty-sweet and almost never hot.
Now Read a Menu
Put the two halves together and try it. 두부조림 is tofu simmered in sauce. 계란말이 is rolled egg. 닭볶음 is stir-fried chicken. 고등어구이 is grilled mackerel. 소고기전골 is a beef hot pot cooked at your table. 오징어덮밥 is squid over rice, for one.
You will not get every dish this way. Regional names, restaurant inventions and old compound words will still stump you. That is the honest limit of vocabulary: it decodes the structure fast, but a board with sixty lines still takes a while to work through while a queue forms behind you.
Menu only in Korean? K-OREA reads a Korean menu from a photo — dish names, spice level, and a Korean order sentence you can show the staff. See how it works →
Portion and Format Words: Where Most Confusion Happens
These are the words that make a menu price look wrong or a dish arrive in the wrong quantity. Grilled-meat restaurants in particular price per portion, not per dish, and many set a two-portion minimum.
| Hangul | Romanisation | What it means in practice |
|---|---|---|
| 1인분 | il-inbun | One portion. The listed price is for one person, not the whole dish |
| 인분 | inbun | The counter for portions — 2인분 is two portions |
| 2인 이상 | i-in isang | Two people or more; you cannot order this alone |
| 정식 | jeongsik | Set meal — a main plus rice, soup and side dishes |
| 세트 | se-teu | Set / combo, usually on chain and fast-food menus |
| 사리 | sari | An add-on, most often extra noodles, dropped into your stew or hot pot |
| 곱빼기 | gopbaegi | Extra-large serving of the same dish |
| 리필 | ripil | Refill |
| 포장 | pojang | Takeaway |
| 소 / 중 / 대 | so / jung / dae | Small / medium / large — common on chicken, jjigae and hot pot |
If a barbecue menu looks unusually cheap, check for 1인분. That number is one person’s share of raw meat, and a table of two will order at least two of them.
Warning Words Worth Recognising on Sight
Korean food spans the full range from not spicy at all to very spicy indeed. These words are how the menu tells you which, and how it flags a few common allergens.
- 매운 (maeun) — spicy. It shows up inside dish names as well as on its own.
- 아주 매운맛 (aju maeun-mat) — very spicy. 순한맛 (sunhan-mat) — mild. Many chicken and tteokbokki shops let you pick between them.
- 청양 (cheongyang) — cheongyang chilli. Genuinely hot, and worth taking seriously even if you enjoy spice.
- 젓갈 (jeotgal) / 액젓 (aekjeot) / 새우젓 (saeujeot) — fermented seafood, fish sauce and salted shrimp. These turn up in kimchi, stews and dipping sauces, which matters if you are vegetarian or allergic to shellfish.
- 땅콩 (ttangkong) — peanut. 우유 (uyu) — milk. 밀 (mil) — wheat.
Photograph these on your phone before you travel. Showing the Hangul to a staff member is far more reliable than explaining an allergy in English.
How Prices Are Written
Prices are in Korean won, written 원. A menu line reading 9,000 means nine thousand won. Many handwritten menus drop the last three zeros, so a column reading 9 / 12 / 15 means 9,000 / 12,000 / 15,000 won. Some write 9.0 or 12.0 with the same meaning.
The rule of thumb: if the number is small and there is no comma, mentally add three zeros. If it has a comma, it is already the full price. Prices are inclusive — there is no tipping and no service charge to add on top.
Good to Know
- The little dishes that appear without being ordered are banchan, and they are included in the price rather than charged as extras.
- In casual restaurants banchan are typically refilled free — press the table bell, point at the empty dish, or help yourself if there is a banchan station.
- Water is usually self-serve: look for a dispenser and a stack of metal cups near the counter, sometimes signposted 물은 셀프 (mul-eun self).
- None of it is an upsell, and none of it needs asking for in Korean.
Saying It Out Loud
Reading the menu is most of the battle. Ordering takes four phrases.
- 저기요 (jeo-gi-yo) — “excuse me”, to call staff over. In many restaurants nobody will come to your table until you do this, or until you press the call button on the edge of the table. Waiting quietly does not work.
- 이거 주세요 (i-geo ju-se-yo) — “this one, please”, while pointing at the menu. It is the single most useful sentence in Korean restaurants and it works everywhere.
- 계산이요 (gye-san-i-yo) or 계산할게요 (gye-san-hal-ge-yo) — “I’d like to pay.” In most casual places you pay at the counter on the way out.
- 포장이요 (po-jang-i-yo) — “takeaway, please.”
Pronunciation does not need to be good. Pointing plus one of these phrases is a complete order, and staff will meet you halfway.
For somewhere forgiving to practise, a street market is the easiest classroom in the country: Gwangjang Market is the standard first outing. For sit-down restaurants where a Korean-only menu is likely, our roundup of where locals eat in Myeongdong is the better test.
There is a measurement behind the sense that language is the friction point of a Korea trip. In the Seoul Tourism Organization’s 2019 Seoul Foreign Visitor Survey (n=6,000), “language communication” scored 4.09 out of 5 — the lowest-rated item of every category measured, below wayfinding at 4.24. Food itself scored 4.36. Visitors like the food; it is the reading and the asking that get in the way. Translation tools fill the same gap: in a 2024 survey by the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Korea Tourism Organization, 48.3% of visitors said they used the translation app Papago during their trip.
Korean Menu FAQ
What is the difference between guk, jjigae and jeongol?
국 (guk) is a soup served in your own bowl alongside rice. 찌개 (jjigae) is thicker and saltier, usually placed in the centre of the table for everyone to eat from. 전골 (jeongol) is a hot pot brought out raw or partly cooked and finished on a burner at your table, and is made for sharing.
Does 1인분 mean I have to order two portions?
Not always, but often. 1인분 means the price shown is for one person’s portion, and grilled-meat restaurants in particular commonly require a minimum of two portions per table. If you are dining alone, look for 2인 이상 — that phrase means the dish cannot be ordered for one.
How do I know if a Korean dish is spicy before ordering?
Look for 매운 (spicy) in the dish name, 아주 매운맛 (very spicy) or 순한맛 (mild) on menus that offer levels, and 청양 (cheongyang chilli), which is properly hot. 고추장 in the name usually means a red, chilli-based sauce. Korean food covers the whole range from mild to fiery, so these words are the reliable signal rather than the cuisine’s reputation.
Can I read a Korean menu without learning Hangul?
Yes — you can get a long way by recognising about thirty words as shapes rather than reading them phonetically. Learning Hangul properly takes only a few hours and makes the whole trip easier, but it is not a prerequisite for this system.
What should vegetarians watch for on a Korean menu?
Beyond the meat and seafood words, watch for 젓갈, 액젓 and 새우젓 — fermented seafood, fish sauce and salted shrimp, which appear in many kimchi dishes, stews and dipping sauces even when no fish is listed in the name. Showing those three words written in Hangul to staff is the clearest way to ask.
Thirty-odd words and one useful sentence is genuinely enough to walk into a restaurant with no English menu and come out with the meal you meant to order. Try them on the first evening of our 3 days in Seoul itinerary, and read up on taking a taxi in Korea before the ride home from a late barbecue.