Phrases to Use in a Restaurant

1. ~명이요 (du-myeong-i-yo)

~명이요 means we're ~ number of people. This is what Koreans normally say when walking into a restaurant. You fill the blank with a natural Korean number counting, such as 하나, 둘, 셋.

Remember that some numbers change in form when you use counters:

The numbers that slightly change when put together with counters are those that end in 1,2,3, or 4. This rule applies to almost all different types of counters in Korean. 

Exercise:
What do you tell the staff as you enter a restaurant in a group of 4?

2. 추천 하는거 있으세요? (chu-cheon ha-neun-geo it-seu-se-yo?)

추천하다 (chu-cheon-ha-da)
= to recommend

추천 하는거 (chu-cheon ha-neun-geo) 
= something that is recommended (i.e. recommendation)

있으세요? (it-seu-se-yo?) = polite form of 있어요 (it-seo-yo?), which is a way to ask if something exists

After putting these defnintions together, I hope you can guess that this phrase means do you have a recommendation?. If you're in a restaurant and are not sure what to get, ask the staff this question and they'll point you towards their signature dish! 

3. 이거 많이 매워요? (i-geo ma-ni mae-wo-yo?)

이거 (i-geo) is this - a way we point at something that is close to the speaker (in this scenario, a food item on the menu). 많이 (ma-ni) is one of the ways to say very, and 매워요 (mae-wo-yo) is spicy. The question means Is this very spicy?

Because we have a wide range of spicy dishes, it is hard to tell how spicy a red-colored dish is. We thought this phrase may come in handy for those with a low tolerance for spicy food (or the opposite, if you are looking for the spiciest dishes in Korea)! 

Bonus: 사장님, ~ 주세요! (sa-jang-nim, ~ ju-se-yo!)

If you have time for another phrase, this is the way that Koreans get the attention of a staff to request for an item! Learn more about how to use this sentence by looking at two other Bits articles: 

• How to address people
• How to ask for something (~주세요)