Are the side dishes free, and can you ask for more?

What arrives before you ordered it

The small dishes that appear once you sit down are banchan, and they are part of the setting rather than a course you selected. Kimchi almost always, then anything from seasoned greens to braised potato to a small omelette, depending on the kitchen.

Nothing about them is an order you placed. Even the hygiene rules restaurants work under describe banchan as something the business puts out and tops up, not something it sells you by the plate. They arrive with the rice, not before it, and they are meant to be eaten alongside everything else rather than first.

Asking for more

Asking is expected. District health offices tell restaurants to serve banchan in very small amounts and to top them up immediately when a diner needs more, so a refill request is not an imposition — it is the model the regulator is pushing.

Point at the dish and ask, or say the name if you know it. Some places set out a shared banchan counter instead, which the same rules encourage: common side-dish containers, small dishes and compartment trays all count as food-culture improvements a restaurant is expected to attempt.

Why the first serving is small

Under the Food Sanitation Act a restaurant may not reuse, recook or store food a customer has left. Enforcement is not nominal: a first offence draws a 15-day suspension, repeat offences two months then three, and the statute reaches three years' imprisonment or a 30 million won fine.

So everything that goes back from your table is waste the kitchen absorbs. That is the real reason portions start small and refills are routine — and why restaurants are also required to keep takeaway containers and tell you they have them. Take less, ask twice, box what is left.

Good to know

• Leftovers cannot legally be reused — that is why portions start small
• Restaurants must keep takeaway containers for what you do not finish
• Use a spoon for rice; fingers are for wrapping food in lettuce, not for the dishes

Sources: Dobong-gu Health Center, Seoul — Food service obligations · Dong-gu Office, Busan — Ban on reusing leftover food · Visit Seoul — Etiquette · Updated Jul 2026