Authentic Korean Food Guide
By Gillian Boyd Published 25 March 2026
This is our guide to the authentic Korean food we ate, from full sizzling Korean BBQ to local specialities and street food snacks.
After being hooked on Culinary Class Wars, a brutal Korean cooking competition show of 100 chefs (including international Michelin starred chefs) on Netflix, we were keen to taste some of the dishes featured on the show.
Korea is a country that feeds you with both hands. Every meal arrived as an event — a spread of small dishes, bold fermented flavours, and smoky aromas that drift from tabletop grills across entire streets.
Here are some of the local dishes we ate during our 2 Week Itinerary in South Korea.
Bibimbap
비빔밥 · MIXED RICE BOWL
A beautifully arranged bowl of steamed rice topped with seasoned vegetables, a fried egg, and a generous spoonful of gochujang chilli paste. Everything gets stirred together at the table — the colours alone are enough to make you hungry. Warming, satisfying, and endlessly customisable.
Boneless Galbi
갈비 · MARINATED BEEF SHORT RIB
Tender beef short rib, marinated in a sweet soy and sesame sauce, cooked until lightly caramelised. Removing the bone means you get to enjoy pure, sticky, flavour-packed meat without the fuss. A proper introduction to Korean BBQ that was so good we ordered it several times.
Boneless galbi being cooked for us at a Korean BBQ in Seoul
Codfish Soup
대구탕 · DAEGUTANG
A light but deeply savoury broth built around flaky white cod, vegetables, and Korean spices. This was a late lunch in the busy Gwangjang Food Market in Seoul. Only one dish on the menu. Keeps things simple. Clean, restorative, and surprisingly complex.
Korean BBQ: Marinated Ribs & Beef Bulgogi
불고기 · FIRE MEAT
Dinner was a full tabletop BBQ affair. Marinated ribs joined by bulgogi — paper-thin slices of beef soaked in a sweet pear-and-soy marinade — sizzled over a charcoal grill set into the table.
Unexpected Highlight of the Day
The Korean pumpkin served with a tangerine sauce and crumbled feta cheese was one of those combinations that sounds unlikely but works beautifully. The sweetness of the pumpkin, the citrus brightness of the sauce, and the salty tang of feta together — genuinely one of the most memorable bites of the trip.
Only one dish on the menu – codfish soup
Korean BBQ, beef bulgogi and pumpkin
Chicken Kangjeong
닭강정 · SWEET & CRISPY FRIED CHICKEN
Bite-sized pieces of crispy fried chicken glazed in a sticky, sweet-spicy sauce — somewhere between a glaze and a lacquer. Eaten at an outdoor beer garden as the sun went down, paired with an ice-cold Korean lager. This is a national institution for very good reason.
Chicken Kangjeong – twice fried to make it extra crispy
Myeongdong
명동 · SEOUL'S FAMOUS FOOD STREET
Myeongdong’s pedestrian strip is lined with vendors offering every snack imaginable, but remember tom bring cash. We tried galbi dumplings — steamed parcels stuffed with juicy braised short rib — and a chicken kebab served in a soft tortilla wrap, washed down with fresh-squeezed orange juice pressed to order in front of us.
Jangiin Dakgalbi
장인닭갈비 · SPICY CHICKEN BBQ WITH MOZZARELLA
A communal dish of spicy marinated chicken cooked in a wide, shallow pan at the table, finished with a thick layer of stretchy melted mozzarella. You tear through the cheese to get to the smoky, sauce-coated chicken beneath. Equal parts theatre and deliciousness. It’s not only the signature dish – it’s the name of the restaurant.
Enjoying the street food in Myeongdong
Yummy jangiin dakgalbi
At the coastal city of Sokcho, the main industry is fishing so it would have been rude not to taste the fish.
88 Grilled Fish Restaurant, Sokcho
88 생선구이 · SOKCHO'S FAMOUS FISH GRILL
Six different fish — including skate, octopus, and mackerel, all depending on the day’s catch — were grilled directly in front of us on a compact tabletop grill. The fish arrived with a full spread of side dishes: kimchi, seaweed soup, seasoned seaweed, and spiced beans.
The dipping sauce — a small bowl of soy sauce with crushed garlic and wasabi stirred in — was simple and transformative, cutting through the richness of the fish perfectly.
Pro Tip – The 88 Grilled Fish Restaurant closes at 8pm. Aim to arrive not later than 6:30pm at the latest to secure your table and have time to enjoy the meal fully.
Catch of the Day grilled fish
Jeju
Jeju is an island with its own distinctive cuisine. Heavily based on local produce, sea food and tangerines are found in every menu.
Jeju Tteokgalbi
떡갈비 · JEJU SWEET GRILLED SHORT RIB PATTIES
Jeju’s regional take on galbi uses minced beef short rib — possibly blended with a little pork — seasoned with herbs and soy sauce, then shaped into soft patties and grilled until lightly sweet and caramelised. Served with rice and an array of fresh side dishes, this felt like true island comfort food.
Sea Urchin Bibimbap
성게 비빔밥 · JEJU SEA URCHIN RICE BOWL
A Jeju specialty and a step up from the classic bibimbap. Creamy, briny sea urchin sits atop the rice with the other toppings, tied together with nutty sesame oil. The combination of ocean-fresh urchin and earthy sesame was sublime — and very particular to the island.
All this for 2 people – Jeju Tteokgalbi
Sea urchin bibimbap
Coffee and cakes
The bakeries in Korea deserve a mention for their delicious, light rich cakes. They almost look too good to eat. Pair with a freshly brewed coffee.
Jeju Ice Cream
A small but memorable interlude: ice cream in Jeju, at 4,000 won each. Graham chose hallabong — Jeju’s famous tangerine-orange hybrid — and I went for peanut. Neither was overly sweet, and both had a lighter, less creamy texture than you’d find at home — somewhere between a sorbet and an ice cream. Refreshing and entirely appropriate on a warm afternoon.
Jeju Soju
Korea’s national drink, Soju made from distilled grain based spirit is colourless and usually consumed with food. It is mostly drunk neat in small glasses and has been likened to vodka but at around only 17% alcohol. The small bottles at 360ml are shared communally. After tasting various brands, my favourite was Hallasan Jeju Premium Soju.
So many cakes to choose from
Peanut and hallabong ice creams in Jeju
Busan
The last stretch of the trip brought some of the best casual snacking of the whole two weeks. Korea’s street food culture is at its most exuberant in Busan, and these three snacks perfectly summed up what makes eating here so enjoyable — inventive, generous, and always a little theatrical.
Seed Hotteok
씨앗호떡 · BUSAN'S FAMOUS SEED-FILLED PANCAKE
Hotteok is a beloved Korean street food, but Busan’s version is in a league of its own. A vendor on the street presses the dough into a flat, golden pancake on the griddle, then — in the move that makes this so memorable — uses a pair of scissors with a small spoon fused to one blade to snip it open and prop it apart. Inside is a warm, nutty filling packed with sunflower and other mixed seeds, bound lightly together with a subtle sweetness that never overwhelms. The texture is chewy on the outside and soft within. Don’t be fooled by the street-snack appearance — this is genuinely filling, and one was enough to keep us going for hours. The scissor-and-spoon tool alone is worth watching.
Coin Cheese Hotteok
동전 치즈호떡 · COIN-SHAPED MOZZARELLA WAFFLE SNACK
Named for its resemblance to a Korean 10-won coin, this snack is served on a stick — making it as easy to eat as it is to photograph. A slightly sweet, waffle-like batter is pressed into a round coin shape and cooked until golden and crisp at the edges, while the centre stays soft. Inside, a generous pocket of melted mozzarella pulls apart in satisfying strings when you bite through. It looks dainty but is surprisingly substantial — the dense batter and rich cheese filling mean one is more than enough. The contrast between the lightly sweet batter and salty, stretchy cheese is simple but completely addictive.
Sweet Potato Sticky Rice Bread
고구마 찹쌀빵 · GOGUMA CHAPSSAL-PPANG
Korea has an enduring love affair with sweet potato, and this baked treat is one of its finest expressions. Made with glutinous rice flour, it has a wonderfully chewy, mochi-like texture — dense and satisfying in a way that sets it apart from ordinary bread. The natural sweetness of the sweet potato comes through in the dough itself, giving it a warm, earthy flavour without needing much added sugar. A single piece is surprisingly filling — the sticky rice makes it far more substantial than it looks. Soft, slightly sweet, and deeply comforting.
Good to know: These street snacks are much more filling than they appear. If you’re planning to eat a proper meal soon after, one between two is plenty — particularly the seed hotteok and the sticky rice bread.
Fancy a cheese coin snack?
Or do you prefer a seeded one?
Final Thoughts
Korean food is generous in a way that goes beyond portion size. Every meal comes surrounded by banchan — small shared side dishes that arrive automatically and keep getting refilled. There is always kimchi, always something fermented, always something unexpected. The country feeds you as if feeding you well is a form of hospitality, because it is.
Whether you’re standing at a street stall in Myeongdong, sitting around a tabletop grill in Seoul, or watching fish smoke on a rack by the East Sea in Sokcho, eating in Korea is always an experience worth having. Go hungry. Stay curious. And always, always arrive at the fish restaurant before 6:30pm.
Never miss an Adventure!