Sandy's Language Lab #6 - Restaurant Korean Part 2

It is essential to know how to customise your food at a restaurant using Korean, especially if you are a picky eater or have allergies to specific ingredients. In this series of Language Labs, we will introduce phrases that will be handy in these situations.

Figure 1: Chef Lee Jun-Ho in ‘Wok of Love’. Image source.

Before making your order, you can start off by checking the waiter if an ingredient is included in the dish: “(Ingredient name) 들어가요? Is there (ingredient name) in it/this?”.

E.g. 혹시 양파 들어가요?   (Are there onions in it/this?)

Once it is confirmed that the ingredient is in the dish, you can use the following phrases to remove this ingredients:
(Ingredient name)+ 빼주세요. E.g. 양파 빼주세요.(Please take out/remove the onions.)

OR

For more emphasise, you can ask the waiter to NOT add it into your food by saying:

(Ingredient name)+ 넣지 말아 주세요. E.g. 양파 넣지 말아 주세요.(Don’t put onions in please.)

If you have an allergy, you can add this expression: “저 (ingredient name) 알레르기 있어요.”

E.g. 저 땅콩 알레르기 있어요. (I am allergic to peanuts.)

땅콩 넣지 말아 주세요. (Don’t put peanuts in please.)

It is important to make it clear that you have an allergy so you and the restaurant can avoid incidents of allergic reactions.

If the ingredient is not in the dish and you would like to add it in, you can say:
(Ingredient name) +추가 해주세요. E.g. 치즈 추가 해주세요. (Please add cheese.)

OR
(Ingredient name) +넣어 주세요. E.g. 치즈 넣어 주세요.(Please add cheese (in).)
To ask for extra servings of the ingredient you can say:
(Ingredient name) + 많이 넣어 주세요. E.g. 버섯 많이 넣어 주세요. (Please add a lot of mushrooms.)

OR
(Ingredient name) + 더 주세요. E.g. 버섯 더 주세요. (Please add more mushrooms.)

Not everyone is good a handling spicy food. Since most Korean dishes contain spices, here are some helpful phrases to adjust the food according to your spice tolerance.

Usually the menu will also indicate how spicy the dish is or there will be a chart showing the level of spiciness you can choose from.

Figure 2: Haysung KBBQ Menu. Image source.                       Figure 3: Tteokbokki Spice Level. Image source.

Now you can enjoy Korean food customised to your taste. Try these phrases the next time you go to a Korean restaurant. It’s better to customise your food than to waste ingredients you can’t eat. And don’t forget to show your gratitude after the meal with “잘 먹었습니다” and “감사합니다”.

맛있게 드세요!!