Korean menus look intimidating until you learn a few building blocks. A handful of base words — 밥 (bap, rice), 국 (guk, soup), 찌개 (jjigae, stew), 면 (myeon, noodles) — plus a cooking style and a protein let you decode almost any dish. Learn the parts, and the whole menu opens up.
Korean dish names are wonderfully logical. Most are just a description of what's in the bowl and how it was cooked, glued together into one word.
Start with the base words
Every meal is built on a base. Spot these five and you already know what kind of dish you're ordering.
| Korean | Romanization | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 밥 | bap | rice / a meal |
| 국 | guk | soup |
| 탕 | tang | soup (heartier) |
| 찌개 | jjigae | thick stew |
| 면 | myeon | noodles |
That 밥 (bap) shows up everywhere: bibimbap (비빔밥) is "mixed rice," bokkeumbap (볶음밥) is fried rice. A 찌개 (jjigae) is thick and shared straight from the pot — kimchi jjigae (김치찌개) and doenjang jjigae (된장찌개, soybean-paste stew) are the everyday favorites.
How it's cooked
The cooking style is usually right there in the name. Once you know these four, you can guess the texture before it arrives.
| Korean | Romanization | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 구이 | gui | grilled |
| 볶음 | bokkeum | stir-fried |
| 찜 | jjim | steamed / braised |
| 튀김 | twigim | deep-fried |
Grilled meat is the star of a Korean barbecue table: samgyeopsal (삼겹살) is pork belly, galbi (갈비) is ribs. Then add a protein:
| Korean | Romanization | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 소고기 | sogogi | beef |
| 돼지고기 | dwaejigogi | pork |
| 닭고기 | dakgogi | chicken |
| 해물 | haemul | seafood |
Decode the classics
Now the famous dishes stop being mysteries. Read each one as its parts:
| Korean | Romanization | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 불고기 | bulgogi | marinated grilled beef ("fire meat") |
| 비빔밥 | bibimbap | mixed rice bowl |
| 떡볶이 | tteokbokki | spicy stir-fried rice cakes |
| 김밥 | kimbap | seaweed rice rolls |
| 삼계탕 | samgyetang | ginseng chicken soup |
Bulgogi (불고기) literally means "fire meat," from 불 (bul, fire) and 고기 (gogi, meat) — a perfect little window into how Korean names are made.
The small dishes that land on your table before you've ordered anything — kimchi, seasoned spinach, braised potato — are banchan (반찬), free side dishes that come with almost every Korean meal. Refills are usually free too; catch the server's eye, point, and more will appear.
Say it's delicious
Two words cover most of what you'll feel about the food, plus the one question that saves the spice-averse.
맛있어요
masisseoyo
It's delicious
매워요
maewoyo
It's spicy
안 매워요
an maewoyo
It's not spicy
When you're ready to actually order at the table, our guide to ordering food in Korean walks through the phrases you'll need.
Keep learning Korean
Learn the base words, the cooking styles, and a few proteins, and a Korean menu turns from a wall of characters into a list you can read. Practice the words with audio and spaced repetition in the Pretalk app, and stock up on mealtime vocabulary with our free Korean food and dining phrases.
