Korea has more dishes than any trip has meals. This tool narrows 84 of them down to the handful that actually suit you — by how much chilli heat you can take, what textures you avoid, what you cannot eat, and whether you are eating alone.
It takes about two minutes. Nothing is submitted anywhere and no sign-up is required — the questions run in your browser and the result appears on this page.
If the tool below does not load, your browser may be blocking scripts. The full list of every dish it covers is further down this page, grouped by ingredient.
What the questions cover
Thirteen questions, each one a real decision a visitor has to make at a Korean table:
- Chilli heat — the single biggest filter. Many visitors assume Korean food is uniformly spicy; it is not. Only a minority of the dishes here are genuinely hot.
- Texture — chewy, soft, gelatinous, slippery, crisp. Texture is prized in Korean cooking in a way that surprises people, and it is the most common reason a visitor dislikes something.
- Temperature and format — hot soup, cold noodles, grilled at your table, raw.
- Dietary limits — no pork, no beef, vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian. Korean side dishes are often not vegetarian even when they look it.
- Offal and raw fish — treated separately, because liking pork does not mean liking intestine.
- Who you are eating with — several Korean meals are built for a table of two or more. Eating alone changes the answer.
- How adventurous you feel — whether you want the safe version or the one locals argue about.
How to use the result
- Answer honestly rather than ambitiously. Saying you can handle more heat than you can is the fastest way to a wasted meal.
- Take the top few, not all of them. The list is a shortlist, not an itinerary.
- Search the Korean name. Korean map apps work far better with Hangul than with romanisation — each result gives you the Korean to copy.
- Re-run it for a different meal. What suits a solo lunch is not what suits a group dinner.
What the numbers in this catalogue actually say
Every dish here is stored with the same 28 fields — heat, texture, base ingredient, dietary flags, how it is eaten, what varies between shops. Once 84 dishes are described the same way, you can count them. And the counts contradict a lot of what gets said about Korean food.
Korean food is not mostly spicy
39 of the 84 dishes have no chilli heat at all. 54 are at or below “a hint.” Only 18 are genuinely spicy, and only 7 are what most people would call hot.
That means the single most common assumption about Korean food — that you need a tolerance for chilli to eat here — describes under a quarter of the catalogue. Seolleongtang, gukbap, jjajangmyeon, kalguksu, pajeon, bossam, samgyeopsal, tangsuyuk: none of them are spicy. If chilli is your limit, you have 54 dishes to work with, not a short list of exceptions.
The hard restriction is not meat — it is cross-contact
56 dishes contain no pork. 64 contain no beef. 34 contain no seafood. Avoiding a single animal is easier here than people expect.
The real problem is elsewhere: 63 of 84 carry a cross-contact note. Anchovy stock in a vegetable soup. Shrimp paste in the kimchi. A shared fryer. That is why this tool separates “contains” from “may have been in contact with,” and why it answers “ask” rather than “yes” so often.
Only 3 dishes are reliably vegan as served. 20 can be vegan depending on the shop; 22 can be vegetarian. A number that low is the honest answer, and no amount of filtering changes it. 41 are fine for pescatarians, which is the easiest Korean diet to hold to by a distance.
Texture divides Korean food more than flavour does
45 of 84 are chewy. Not seasoned a particular way — chewy. Springy, bouncy, resistant. Korean cooking treats texture as a quality to aim for rather than a by-product, and it is the most common reason a visitor dislikes a dish they expected to enjoy.
27 are hot soups. 6 are raw. If you already know you dislike bouncy food, that single answer removes more of the catalogue than any dietary filter does — which is why the tool asks about it early.
Most of it is easier than it looks
61 of 84 rate 1 or 2 out of 5 on how adventurous they are. Only 11 rate 4 or above. Live octopus and fermented skate exist, and they get written about far out of proportion to how often anyone eats them.
53 dishes are normal to order alone; 27 are genuinely hard to. That split matters more than most guides admit — grills and shared pots are built for groups, and a solo traveller who orders one will be served a portion for two. 20 dishes sit in the budget band and 15 in the premium band, so cost is rarely the thing that narrows your options.
Why these questions, and not other ones
We do not ask which region you are visiting. 76 of the 84 dishes are available nationwide; only 24 have a meaningful Busan association. Asking about geography would feel useful and change almost nothing about the answer.
We do not ask what you like. “Do you enjoy savoury food?” sorts nothing. The questions that actually split 84 dishes into a short list are the ones with a hard edge: what you cannot eat, what heat you can take, what texture you refuse, whether you are alone. Preference questions produce pleasant answers; constraint questions produce usable ones.
And we ask about the occasion — because a dish that is perfect for four people drinking at 9pm is the wrong answer for one person eating lunch at noon, and nothing about the ingredients tells you that.
What this tool cannot do
- It will not name a restaurant. This is a catalogue of dishes, not a directory. Finding a good shop is a separate skill and we wrote that up separately.
- It does not know what tonight's menu is. Seasonal fish, sold-out items and shop-specific choices are beyond it.
- It cannot promise a dietary outcome. Where the data says “ask,” it means ask — the broth and the side dishes are set by the kitchen, not by us.
- Most of the reference photographs are not ours. They come from Wikimedia Commons under open licences and show the dish in general. Our own photographs sit in the individual guides and reviews, and they replace the borrowed ones as we go.
What it does do is narrow 84 dishes to a handful in under a minute, using fields that were written one dish at a time rather than scraped. Where a dish varies meaningfully between shops, that is recorded too — 8 of them carry a full breakdown of what changes and why.
Every dish this covers
All 84, grouped by main ingredient. Series guides for each group are being published one at a time.
Pork
Dwaeji Gukbap 돼지국밥 · Gamjatang 감자탕 · Budae Jjigae 부대찌개 · Samgyeopsal 삼겹살 · Jeyuk Bokkeum 제육볶음 · Bossam 보쌈 · Jokbal 족발 · Tangsuyuk 탕수육 · Donkkaseu 돈까스 · Dwaeji-galbi 돼지갈비 · Mandu 만두
Beef
Seolleongtang 설렁탕 · Galbitang 갈비탕 · Yukgaejang 육개장 · Bulgogi 불고기 · So-galbi 소갈비 · Yukhoe 육회
Chicken
Samgyetang 삼계탕 · Dakdoritang 닭볶음탕 · Andong Jjimdak 안동찜닭 · Dakgalbi 닭갈비 · Yangnyeom Chicken 양념치킨 · Dakbal 닭발 · Fried Chicken 후라이드치킨
Seafood
Eomuk 어묵 · Haemul Pajeon 해물파전 · Hoe 회 · Ganjang Gejang 간장게장 · Gomjangeo 꼼장어 · Jogae-gui 조개구이 · Gwamegi 과메기 · Hoe-deopbap 회덮밥 · Twigim 튀김 · Bangeo 방어 · Agu-jjim 아구찜 · Daegu-ppol-jjim 대구뽈찜 · Haemul-jjim 해물찜 · Kkotge-jjim 꽃게찜 · Haemultang 해물탕 · Gul-gukbap 굴국밥 · Miyeokguk 미역국
Offal
Sundae Gukbap 순대국밥 · Gopchang 곱창 · Sundae 순대 · Nakgopsae 낙곱새 · Makchang 막창 · Gopchang Jeongol 곱창전골
Noodles
Milmyeon 밀면 · Naengmyeon 냉면 · Kalguksu 칼국수 · Kongguksu 콩국수 · Jajangmyeon 짜장면 · Jjamppong 짬뽕 · Janchi Guksu 잔치국수 · Japchae 잡채 · Wandang 완당 · Bibim Dangmyeon 비빔당면 · Bibim-guksu 비빔국수 · Makguksu 막국수 · Jjolmyeon 쫄면 · Sujebi 수제비
Street food & rice
Tteokbokki 떡볶이 · Gimbap 김밥 · Bibimbap 비빔밥 · Baekban 백반 · Mul-tteok 물떡 · Tteokguk 떡국 · Kimchi Bokkeumbap 김치볶음밥 · Kimchi-jeon 김치전 · Patjuk 팥죽
Vegetable & tofu
Kongnamul Gukbap 콩나물국밥 · Kimchi Jjigae 김치찌개 · Doenjang Jjigae 된장찌개 · Sundubu Jjigae 순두부찌개 · Cheonggukjang 청국장 · Kimchi 김치 · Dotori-muk 도토리묵 · Gyeran-jjim 계란찜 · Dubu-kimchi 두부김치
Sweets & drinks
Hotteok 호떡 · Patbingsu 팥빙수 · Makgeolli 막걸리 · Soju 소주 · Bungeoppang 붕어빵
Questions people ask
Is Korean food all spicy?
No. It is the most common assumption and the most wrong one. Most of the dishes in this database carry little or no chilli heat — the entire beef soup family, grilled pork, dumplings, cold noodles, fried dishes and most of the rice dishes. The tool exists partly to make that visible.
Can I eat Korean food as a vegetarian?
It is harder than it looks, and the difficulty is hidden in the details rather than the main dish. Most Korean kimchi contains fish sauce or salted shrimp, and many vegetable side dishes use anchovy stock. The tool filters on this, but always confirm at the restaurant.
What if I am eating alone?
Several Korean meals assume a table of two or more — grilled meat and shared stews in particular, and some restaurants have a two-portion minimum. Rice-and-soup dishes are the solo-friendly category, and the tool will steer you there.
Do I need to book anything?
No. Everything in this database is ordinary food you could eat tomorrow — no reservation-only restaurants, no court cuisine, no dishes that have effectively disappeared. If a Korean cannot walk in and order it, it is not in here.