12 Korean Foods & Snacks You See in K-Dramas

Watching Korean dramas can encourage some major food envy, with the characters often snacking on delicious-looking dishes that have your mouth watering and lamenting the fact that your snack selection isn’t quite up to scratch.

Our K-drama food guide covers some of the most common Korean dishes and snacks you’ll see enjoyed in these shows, so you can eat along at home!

Tteokbokki

A Korean street food classic, you’ll often see these spicy rice cakes appear in K-dramas. With a glistening, sweet and spicy red sauce and often topped with melted cheese, you can’t help but crave tteokbokki when it pops up on screen.

For many people, tteokbokki is their gateway into enjoying traditional Korean foods, often thanks to the influence of K-dramas! You can see tteokbokki featured in loads of shows from Vincezzo to Romance is a Bonus Book, with characters ordering it from street food vendors or restaurants as a late-night snack.

Kimchi

Another classic that you’ll likely see in pretty much most K-dramas is kimchi, South Korea’s national dish. This famous side dish, made from fermented cabbage and flavoured with spicy gochugaru powder, is paired with various other dishes at most meals. In K-dramas, you’ll often see kimchi enjoyed with rice and other dishes when the main character sits down for a meal.

Many shows also often feature scenes of making kimchi, showcasing its prominence in Korean culture and its role as a family bonding activity. Because this is My First Life, My Roommate the Gumiho and Doom at Your Service are all shows that feature kimchi-making scenes, to name just a few.

Jajangmyeon

Jajangmyeon is a popular noodle dish smothered in a delicious, rich black bean sauce. The dish makes for a hearty meal or snack that’s especially satisfying.

It’s another very common occurrence to see characters eating this in K-dramas, with Let’s Eat and Reply: 1988 being two shows it features quite prominently in.

Gimbap

Gimbap/kimbap is sometimes thought of as the Korean version of sushi, as it consists of rice and numerous fillings rolled up in dried seaweed sheets and cut into slices. It is often enjoyed as a light snack or a popular lunchbox item.

If you’ve seen Extraordinary Attorney Woo, you’ll certainly recognise gimbap as it’s the main character's favourite food and her father runs a gimbap shop, so it makes plenty of appearances.

Korean Corndogs

Another popular street food snack, corndogs are ideal for on-the-go eating. They usually consist of sausages and cheese that have been battered, rolled in panko breadcrumbs and deep-fried. Often, they are also covered in sugar and various condiments for an unbeatable sweet and savoury taste sensation.

When these appear on the screen, you’ll really wish you had one to snack on! You may often see corndogs in K-dramas when characters are out on dates or meeting for food. The showStart-Up frequently features corndogs and the main character’s grandmother owns a business that sells them.

Fried Chicken

Fried chicken is a classic comfort dish in Korea and is often shared with friends, making it common for K-dramas to show characters eating the dish when socialising.

Again, you’ll see this pop up in loads of shows, with Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo, Crash Landing on You and The King: Eternal Monarch being some iconic examples.

Korean BBQ

Korean BBQ is a communal dining experience where you sit around a hot plate or grill to cook meat yourself and combine it with different sauces and sides. Think of those scenes where characters are gathered around the grill and surrounded by plates of one tasty item after another!

If you really want to feel jealous over a delicious-looking BBQ spread, check out Weightlifting Fairy Kim Bok Joo and Crash Landing on You, which have scenes featuring this. As it’s such a popular and community-focused food, many shows with larger casts will feature Korean BBQ at some point!

Ramyun

Instant noodles are a staple and the go-to comfort dish or snack when cooking a full meal feels like too much of a hassle. In K-dramas, ramyun/ramen is often used to convey comfort and familiarity, with characters often eating noodles together in moments of bonding.

Itaewon Class, True Beauty and Hospital Playlist all feature characters reaching for tasty ramyun noodles in moments of stress or when sharing a quiet moment with someone else.

Hotteok

This is a sweet, doughy pancake filled with peanuts, cinnamon and brown sugar. Hotteok is a popular street food, particularly in winter, as the pancakes are served warm.

Any wintery montages in K-dramas are likely to feature these popular treats, at least in passing. Welcome to Waikiki prominently shows characters eating hotteok.

Iced Coffee

Many of us fuel our days with coffee, and K-drama characters are no different! With frequent scenes set in coffee shops and cafes, whether it’s a cosy date or dramatic confrontation, coffee is a given, and iced coffee seems to be a particular favourite.

Characters from Vincenzo, Start-Up and of course Coffee Prince can often be seen sipping on iced coffee drinks.

Kopiko Sweets

Kopiko sweets are hard-boiled coffee-flavoured candies made increasingly popular by product placement in a number of different K-drama shows. Not only do the sweets taste like coffee, but they also contain caffeine, giving you a bit of an energy boost.

Kopiko appears in all sorts of shows, with Vincenzo, My Demon and Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha being particularly notable examples.

Dalgona Candy

Dalgonda candy is perhaps the most famous recent example of a traditional Korean food that made its way to mainstream Western popularity via a Korean TV show.

The candy, made from melted sugar and baking powder, has a shape stamped into the middle, which is involved in a game whereby you have to remove the stamped shape without breaking the rest of the candy. The candy and game rose to worldwide popularity after it was featured in season one of Squid Game.

If you want to try any of these dishes yourself or simply want to stock up on the best snacks for binge-watching your favourite K-dramas, we stock a wide array of authentic Korean foods and ingredients, delivered straight to your door!