What is on your table
Restaurants use several ordering systems. The main ones you may encounter are:
| What you see | Where | How you pay |
|---|---|---|
| Tablet fixed to the table (테이블오더) | Barbecue houses, izakaya-style bars, chain restaurants, chicken-and-beer places | Usually at the counter, on the way out |
| Standing kiosk by the door (키오스크) | Fast food, snack shops (분식), small noodle and cutlet shops, cafés | Before you eat, at the machine; take a buzzer |
| QR code on the table | Cafés, dessert bars, some pubs | Varies — often in-app card payment |
| Paper menu, staff order | Older rice-soup (국밥) and set-meal (백반) houses, market stalls, street food tents (포장마차) | Cash or card at the counter |
| Wall menu, order at the counter | Food courts, department-store basements, drivers' canteens (기사식당) | At the counter, before you sit |
A self-ordering system may mean staff do not take each order at the table. Look for a call-staff button or ask at the counter if you need assistance.
How the table tablet works
The tablet on most tables is a T'order (티오더), which passed 320,000 installations in January 2026 — the largest fleet in Korea. Other suppliers, including KT's Hi Order (하이오더), Menuit (메뉴잇) and Baemin Order (배민오더), also put a tablet or a QR code on the table. The exact screens differ, but the usual process is:
- Tap a category down the left or across the top — 메인 (mains), 사이드 (sides), 주류 (alcohol), 음료 (soft drinks).
- Tap the dish, then the plus sign to set a quantity. Some dishes open an options screen first — spice level, meat weight, number of portions.
- Check the basket. The running total sits at the bottom of the screen in won.
- Press the large button at the bottom, usually 주문하기 (order) or 주문완료 (order complete). There is normally a confirm step after it.
- Order again as often as you like. Korean meals are ordered in waves — a second round of meat, another bottle — and the tablet expects that. Each round goes to the kitchen immediately.
- Pay at the counter by the door when you leave, unless the tablet asked for a card up front.
Two buttons are worth finding before you need them. 직원호출 (call staff) brings a person to your table; it is usually red and usually bottom-right. And many tablets carry 1/N or 나눠서 결제 (split the payment), which splits the bill evenly — the ordinary way a Korean group settles up. The tablet can also show allergens (알러지 표기) and switch between pay-before and pay-after, but only where the restaurant turned those on.
Finding the language button
The language button’s position varies by system. Look for:
- a globe icon (🌐), most often top-right or bottom-left;
- the word 한국어 (Korean) on its own, which is a language selector showing the current language rather than a label;
- KOR / ENG / 中 / 日 as small text buttons in a row;
- a flag strip.
Where English exists it is usually complete for dish names and prices and thin for the descriptions and options. Where it does not exist, point your phone's camera at the screen — Papago (Naver's translation app, the one that handles Korean best) and Google Translate offer camera translation. Check the result carefully, especially for ingredients and options.
English support varies by system and restaurant. Accessibility requirements address a separate question: under the Digital Inclusion Act (디지털포용법), in force since 22 January 2026, whoever installs an unattended terminal must offer disabled and elderly users one of five helps — staff on hand, voice guidance, a certified terminal, compatible software or a companion app — and the Ministry of Science and ICT can fine a refusal. Language is not on that list.
Look for the ingredient-origin information
Country of origin (원산지) is compulsory, and worth reading even in Korean. Article 5 of the Act on Origin Labelling of Agricultural and Fishery Products obliges restaurants, cafés and canteens to declare it, and Article 3(5) of the Enforcement Decree lists what: beef (including which type of cattle), pork, chicken, duck, lamb, goat; the rice in any cooked rice (밥), porridge (죽) or scorched rice (누룽지); the cabbage and chilli powder in cabbage kimchi (배추김치); the soybeans in tofu, soybean-curd stew (콩비지) and cold soy-milk noodles (콩국수); twenty named seafood species including olive flounder (넙치), mackerel (고등어), hairtail (갈치), squid (오징어), blue crab (꽃게), octopus (낙지), abalone (전복) and yellowtail (방어); and any live fish held in a tank.
The Enforcement Rule says how: beside or beneath the dish name, in Korean, at a font size at least as large as the dish name, with English allowed only as an addition. A restaurant may instead hang an origin-labelling (원산지 표시판) board of at least 29 × 42 cm. Falsifying origin carries up to seven years' imprisonment or a ₩100 million fine; leaving it off carries a fine of up to ₩10 million.
On a tablet, look for an 원산지 or ⓘ button. Since 9 January 2025 an electronic menu may keep the origin behind a separate window and simply show you where that window is, so on paper the origin sits next to the dish and on a screen it sits one tap away. Allergen marks are different: where a tablet shows them, the restaurant switched on a supplier feature, so do not infer that a dish is safe merely because no allergen symbol appears. Ask staff about your specific allergy.
The kiosk by the door, and why it is harder
A standing kiosk may require payment and order collection before you sit down. Korea had more than half a million of them by 2023, most of them older and cheaper than the leased tablet a barbecue chain rolls out across 200 branches. Three practical differences:
- You pay before you eat, at the machine, and the machine may not take a foreign-issued card even when the counter does.
- There is often nobody watching it. A queue forms behind you and no member of staff appears.
- Language support is thinner than on a table tablet.
If you cannot finish an order, ask at the counter and show the screen or dish you want. Staff can explain the available ordering and payment options.
