Korean Restaurant Phrases: Order, Share, Pay

Not a cafe

Cafe phrases own the coffee counter: 주세요 plus a drink, 드시고 가세요, 포장, 카드로 할게요. A restaurant is a table, a pot, and a bill.

Seat and order

Staff meet you with 몇 분이세요? 분 is the raised people counter, and 이세요 is honorific 이다. Two is 두 명이요 or 둘이요. They seat you. A menu arrives, or you ask 메뉴판 주세요.

이걸로 할게요.
igeollo halgeyo — I’ll have this.

The finger is on the line. -을게 promises that choice to the person writing it down. 이거 로 is the thing you have picked, the same 로 as “as this.” A noun plus 주세요 still works: 김치찌개 하나 주세요. One stew for the table is normal. 각자 시킬게요 if each person wants their own plate.

반찬 and the bill

반찬 is not on the menu as a second order. Empty dishes can take 반찬 더 주세요. Water is 물 주세요, and that is the one cafe line that belongs everywhere.

When you are done, 계산이요. That is the restaurant ask for the check. How you pay can still be 카드요; the cafe page already taught the card sentence. Split or together is 따로 할게요 / 같이 할게요, said when the check is in the air, not as a theory at the door.

잘 먹었습니다.
jal meogeotseumnida — I ate well.

습니다 is formal, and the phrase is frozen that way, like 잘 마셨습니다 after a drink. You say it as you stand up, to the table or toward the kitchen. 맛있었어요 is a comment on the food. 잘 먹었습니다 closes the meal.

Missing food and a table

If something is missing, 이거 안 나왔어요 is enough. You do not need a complaint speech. If you cannot eat a thing, 저는 돼지고기 못 먹어요 — 못, not 안, so it reads as a limit. The kitchen can work with that.

A reservation is 예약했는데요, plus the name. Walk-in is just the headcount. 자리 있어요? asks whether a table is free. 대기해야 해요 means you will wait. None of this is 포장, and none of it is 드시고 가세요. Those two stay at the cafe.