Eating at Korean Restaurants: 10 Things First-Time Visitors Should Know — Part 2

Missed Part 1? Read Eating at Korean Restaurants: 10 Things First-Time Visitors Should Know — Part 1 

Eating at a Korean restaurant isn't just about trying Korean food.

The way food is served, shared and eaten can also be different from what you're used to.

Some of these things may seem a little confusing at first, but they're completely normal in Korea.

Here are five things worth knowing before your next Korean meal.

6. Banchan isn't something you order separately

One of the first things you may notice is the number of small dishes that appear on the table.

These are called banchan (반찬), or side dishes.

Depending on the restaurant, you might get kimchi, seasoned vegetables, pickles or other small dishes with your meal.

You usually don't choose each one from the menu. They simply come with the meal.

Some restaurants may refill certain side dishes, while others have a self-service area.

So if several small plates suddenly arrive at your table, don't worry — you didn't accidentally order them.

When I eat at local Korean restaurants, this is just a normal part of the meal. If a restaurant has a self-service area, I'll get more banchan there when I want it. 

Otherwise, you can simply ask the staff if you would like more of a particular side dish.

7. Sharing food is a normal part of the meal

At many Korean restaurants, not everything on the table belongs to just one person.

A large dish may be placed in the middle for everyone to share, while each person has their own bowl of rice.

You'll also often see people sharing several dishes rather than ordering one main dish for each person.

This can feel different if you're used to everyone ordering and eating only their own meal.

In Korea, sharing food at the table is simply part of the dining experience.

For me, this happens all the time when I eat with family or friends. 

A stew, grilled meat or another main dish will often sit in the middle of the table, and everyone shares it while eating their own rice and banchan.

8. Scissors at the table are completely normal

Don't be surprised if you see a pair of scissors next to your food.

Kitchen scissors are commonly used at Korean restaurants to cut meat, noodles and other foods into smaller pieces.

At Korean BBQ restaurants, for example, meat is often cooked in larger pieces and then cut directly on the grill.

It may look unusual if you've never seen it before, but in Korea it's simply another dining utensil.

9. "Spicy" can really mean spicy

Korean food has plenty of dishes that aren't spicy at all.

But when a Korean dish is meant to be spicy, it can sometimes be much hotter than a first-time visitor expects.

And you can't always judge the spice level just by looking at the color.

If you're sensitive to spicy food, you can ask:

"Maeweoyo?" (매워요?) — "Is it spicy?"

One thing I would especially keep in mind is that Korean and foreign visitors may have very different ideas about what "a little spicy" means.

If a Korean tells you a dish is "a little spicy," it may actually feel quite spicy if you're not used to Korean food. 

So if you're sensitive to heat, I would take even a mild-sounding warning seriously.

10. A Korean meal may keep changing as you eat

Some Korean meals don't arrive as one finished plate.

You might start by grilling meat or eating from a shared pan, then add noodles, rice or another ingredient later in the meal.

At some restaurants, fried rice (볶음밥) made with the remaining sauce and ingredients is often the final part of the meal.

This is something I do very often, and it's common when Koreans eat together. 

After dishes like dakgalbi (spicy stir-fried chicken), jjukkumi-bokkeum (spicy stir-fried webfoot octopus) or samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly), if the grill or pan can be used for fried rice, ordering bokkeumbap at the end is almost part of the meal itself.

So if you see other tables ordering rice after they seem to have finished the main dish, they're probably not starting a second meal. They're finishing the first one the Korean way.

These small differences are part of what makes eating in Korea interesting.

You don't need to understand every Korean dining custom before you arrive.

Try the banchan, share a few dishes, don't be surprised by the scissors, and be careful when someone warns you that something is spicy.

Sometimes the best way to understand Korea is simply to sit down and eat the way people here do.