A Guide to Korean Banchan: Names, Meanings and Whether It Costs Extra

You sit down and several plates arrive that you did not order. The question a visitor actually has in front of them is a single one: am I paying for this? Korean dish names are not built to answer it. What a name records is how the thing was made, and on that axis a dish you ordered and a plate that simply appeared are indistinguishable.

This guide sets out that mismatch. The real rules about paying live not in the name but in How to Order at a Korean Restaurant, and this guide points you there.

At a glance

The list has no banchan category
Only 2 of 778 entries carry "Side Dish" in the English, and both mean "served with the set meal".
Yet 89 entries are named for those preparations
12 kimchi, 16 namul, 33 muchim, 18 jangajji, 10 jeot — each registered as a dish in its own right.
The English collapses five preparations into Salad
All 33 muchim and all 16 namul land on the same word.
Service rules are separate
What is included, whether refills are offered and where to collect extra plates depend on the restaurant.

The notation list has no slot called banchan

The Korean Food Promotion Institute's official menu-notation list held 778 entries when checked on 2026-09-12. Exactly two of them carry the phrase Side Dish anywhere in the English.

Korean	Official English
간장게장정식	Soy Sauce Marinated Crab Served with Rice and Side Dishes
보리밥정식	Barley Rice Served with Side Dishes

Both are set meals. Side Dishes here describes what arrives alongside the rice; it is not the name of a class of food. Across the whole list, nothing is filed as a side dish.

The absence is not sloppiness. It is that the list is recording a different axis altogether.

And yet 89 entries are named for exactly those preparations

There is no category, but the plates themselves are all over the list. Counting by the ending of the Korean name:

Name ends in	Entries	English head-word
김치 kimchi	12	Kimchi
나물 namul	16	Salad
무침 muchim	33	Salad
장아찌 jangajji	18	Pickled …
젓 jeot	10	Salted …
total	89

All 89 are registered as dishes in their own right. On the list they are not distinguishable in any way from something you order.

And that indistinguishability is closer to a fact than to an error. Dubu-kimchi ends in 김치 and is a dish you order. Miyeok-cho-muchim is the same: on one restaurant's menu it is an item, at the next table it is a plate that simply came.

Which is the point. These names record what a thing is and how it was made; they do not record whether you asked for it. Whether it was brined, dressed or fermented is in the name. Whether you pay for it is not.

A temple-cuisine table — namul on the woven tray at the centre, kimchi and pickles around it. Every one has its own name, and none of them is called banchan

Richy! (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)

A Jeonju bibimbap table — the ordered bowl arrives with several small accompanying plates

Seefooddiet (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0)

A dwaeji-gukbap table — cabbage kimchi, cubed radish kimchi, green chilli with garlic, and seasoning paste

chomjong (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0)

The English collapses five preparations into one word

There is a place where the English reassembles what Korean had separated. Sixty entries carry the word Salad, and those sixty absorb five distinct Korean preparations.

Name ends in	Entries
무침 muchim	33
나물 namul	16
냉채 naengchae	3
생채 saengchae	3
채 chae	1
others (샐러드김밥, 골뱅이소면, 냉채족발, 도토리묵)	4

All 33 muchim and all 16 namul render as Salad, without exception. The difference between something dressed raw, something blanched and dressed, and something served chilled survives none of it.

The same translation problem appears in A Guide to Korean Noodles: mul-naengmyeon and naeng-memil-guksu both appear as Cold Buckwheat Noodles.

So Salad in the English does not license the assumption that you are getting cold dressed vegetables. The Korean name tells you more about what is on the plate.

Why banchan may not be listed like a main dish

The notation list explains dish names, but a restaurant menu answers a different question: what you can order and at what price. Small accompanying plates may arrive with the meal even when each one is not listed as a separate menu item.

That does not make the service identical everywhere. The selection, portion, refill policy and self-service rules can vary by restaurant and by menu. Look for wording near the set-menu description, signs by a self-service bar or instructions from staff.

Kimchi can also appear inside an ordered dish rather than as an accompanying plate. Gaeseong kimchi-dumpling hot pot and kimchi-mari-naengmyeon are examples. The word at the end of a dish name still tells you about the food; it does not tell you whether that plate is included with another order.

If you want to choose banchan individually, markets and specialist shops are a clearer setting. At Tongin Market's Dosirak Cafe, for example, brass coins are used to select food from participating stalls.

Places that show different banchan settings

What the name will tell you

The ending does not give you a price, but it does give you a method, and that is worth something.

장아찌 jangajji — brined in soy or soybean paste. The English begins with Pickled.
젓 jeot — cured in salt. The English begins with Salted, and it is strongly salty.
김치 kimchi — salted and fermented.
무침 muchim · 나물 namul — dressed with seasoning. The English renders both as Salad.

If you are avoiding an ingredient, this distinction matters more than usual. A kimchi made with salted seafood is not distinguishable by name. That problem is handled separately in Eating Vegetarian and Vegan in Korea.

Check the restaurant's service rules

A dish name does not settle price or refills. Check the menu or ask staff whether small plates are included, whether refills are offered and whether extra portions come from a self-service bar. How to Order at a Korean Restaurant explains those situations in more detail.

The notation counts describe names, not restaurant service. The figures 89 and 60 come from the Korean Food Promotion Institute's notation list. They do not measure what a particular restaurant serves with a meal.

The notation list is not a menu. Restaurants may use different English renderings for the same food. Table manners are covered separately in Korean Etiquette Basics.

Frequently asked questions

Can I tell from the name whether a plate is banchan or something I ordered?

No. In the Korean Food Promotion Institute's notation list, the 89 entries whose names end in kimchi, namul, muchim, jangajji or jeot are all registered as dishes in their own right, indistinguishable from things you order. Dubu-kimchi ends in kimchi and is an ordered dish. The name records the preparation, not whether you asked for it.

Does the notation list have a banchan category?

It does not. Of the 778 entries, only two carry the phrase Side Dish in the English — 간장게장정식 and 보리밥정식 — and both use it to describe what comes with a set meal. Nothing in the list is filed as a side dish.

If the English says Salad, is it a salad?

Read the Korean instead. Sixty entries carry the word Salad, and all 33 muchim and all 16 namul are among them, alongside naengchae and saengchae. The difference between something dressed raw and something blanched and dressed does not survive into the English.

What is the difference between jangajji and jeot?

The method differs, and the English head-word records it. Jangajji is brined in soy or soybean paste, so its English begins with Pickled; jeot is cured in salt, so its English begins with Salted. The notation list carries 18 names ending in 장아찌 and 10 ending in 젓.

Why is banchan not on the menu?

Small accompanying plates may arrive with a meal without being listed as separate items. Kimchi can also appear inside an ordered dish, as in Gaeseong kimchi-dumpling hot pot or kimchi-mari-naengmyeon. Check the set-menu description and the restaurant’s service instructions.

Do I have to pay for banchan?

The name alone will not tell you. Check the menu or ask staff whether the plates are included, whether refills are offered and whether extra portions come from a self-service bar. How to Order at a Korean Restaurant covers those situations.

I am vegetarian. Is banchan safe?

The name alone will not tell you. A kimchi made with salted seafood does not say so in its name, and what went into a muchim or namul dressing is outside the name as well. Eating Vegetarian and Vegan in Korea sets out how to check ingredients.