Korean Phrases for Shops and Restaurants Nobody Teaches You

Phrasebooks teach 실례합니다 (sillyehamnida), “excuse me,” for getting a server’s attention.

Go and stand in a Korean restaurant and count how many times you hear it. The answer is usually zero.

What people actually say is 여기요 (yeo-gi-yo) — or, depending on who is behind the counter and how they feel about them, 사장님 (sa-jang-nim) or 이모 (i-mo). None of those is in the phrasebook, and the choice between them carries information.

This is the first of a series on the things Koreans say that subtitles and phrasebooks skip. Fares change and dates move; these do not. What follows will still be right in ten years.

Walking in

계세요? — gye-se-yo

Literally “are you present?” You say it when you step into a small shop, a market stall or a family restaurant and nobody is at the front. Somebody will answer from the back.

It is not “hello.” It is closer to “anyone here?” — and using it correctly is one of the fastest ways to stop looking like a tourist, because it means you understand that a Korean shop is often somebody’s front room.

안녕하세요 (an-nyeong-ha-se-yo) works everywhere and is never wrong. But in an empty shop it is slightly odd, because you are greeting nobody.

Getting attention

This is the one that matters most, and Korean gives you three options.

Say	To whom	What it does
여기요 (yeo-gi-yo)	anyone, anywhere	The default. Neutral, safe, used constantly
저기요 (jeo-gi-yo)	anyone	The same, slightly softer. Also used to stop a stranger in the street
사장님 (sa-jang-nim)	the owner, or anyone you want to flatter slightly	“Boss.” Warm, a bit jokey, extremely common
이모 (i-mo)	an older woman serving you	“Auntie” — literally mother’s sister

여기요 (yeo-gi-yo) is the one to learn. It cannot go wrong. Say it at a normal volume across a restaurant; that is what it is for, and nobody considers it rude.

사장님 (sa-jang-nim) is the charming one. Calling the person behind the counter “boss” is not sarcastic in Korean — it is a small, cheerful elevation, and it is used with taxi drivers, market sellers and restaurant owners all day long.

이모 (i-mo) is the intimate one, and it is the one to be careful with. Calling a middle-aged woman at a market stall “auntie” is genuinely affectionate and very Korean. Coming from a foreign visitor it will usually be received warmly — but it presumes a closeness, so use it where the room is already casual: a market, a pojangmacha, a small local place. Not in a hotel restaurant.

Asking the price — and the version you will hear in Gyeongju

얼마예요? — eol-ma-ye-yo is the standard, and it works everywhere in the country.

But go to Gyeongju, Busan, Daegu or Geoje and you will hear something else:

얼마라예? — eol-ma-ra-ye

That -라예 / -예 ending is Gyeongsang dialect, and it is one of the most recognisable sounds in Korea. It is not incorrect Korean and it is not rural — it is what most of the south-east actually speaks, including in cities of three million people.

You do not need to use it. But recognising it is the difference between thinking someone is being brusque and knowing they are just from Busan. We have since taken the dialect apart with the Academy of Korean Studies’ own entry on it, and the short version is that its politest endings are precisely the ones that sound curt to an ear trained on 요 — that piece is here.

Two more you will hear in the south-east:

• 밥 뭇나? (bap mut-na) — “have you eaten?” It is a greeting, not a question about food.
• 마! (ma) — an attention-grabbing “hey,” affectionate between friends, sharp between strangers.

And from the other end of the country, the one phrase every Korean recognises: 혼저옵서예 (hon-jeo-op-seo-ye), Jeju for “please come in.” You will see it written on signs across the island.

Ordering

이거 주세요 — i-geo ju-se-yo — “this one, please,” while pointing. This single phrase will feed you for a fortnight and there is no shame in it whatsoever; Koreans order this way constantly.

하나 (ha-na) / 둘 (dul) / 셋 (set) with the item: bibimbap hana juseyo — one bibimbap, please.

포장이요 — po-jang-i-yo — takeaway. Literally “wrapping.”

여기서 먹을게요 — yeo-gi-seo meo-geul-ge-yo — “I’ll eat here.” The two are asked as a pair at counters, exactly like anywhere else.

계산이요 — gye-san-i-yo — “the bill.” In most Korean restaurants you pay at the counter on the way out rather than at the table, so this is usually said standing up.

Around the meal

잘 먹겠습니다 — jal meok-get-seum-ni-da — said before eating, roughly “I’m going to eat well.” It is directed at whoever is feeding you: the host, the person paying, sometimes the restaurant.

잘 먹었습니다 — jal meo-geot-seum-ni-da — the same, past tense, said on leaving. This one is worth learning properly. Saying it to a market stallholder on your way out will get you a real reaction.

맛있어요 — ma-si-sseo-yo — “it’s delicious.” Say it out loud, to the person who cooked it, while you are eating. Korean food culture is not quiet about this.

The two that come out ruder than you intend

됐어요 — dwae-sseo-yo

Phrasebooks give this as “no thank you.” It is closer to “that’s enough” or “forget it,” and with a flat tone it lands somewhere between dismissive and annoyed.

To decline something politely, use 괜찮아요 (gwaen-cha-na-yo) — “I’m fine.” That is the safe one.

아줌마 (a-jum-ma) / 아저씨 (a-jeo-ssi)

These mean “middle-aged woman” and “middle-aged man,” and they are used constantly by Koreans. But 아줌마 in particular carries baggage — it can read as blunt or slightly dismissive depending on tone and setting, and a lot of women dislike being called it.

Use 사장님 (sa-jang-nim) or 이모 (i-mo) instead. Both mean roughly the same thing in practice and neither can be taken badly.

Leaving

수고하세요 — su-go-ha-se-yo — literally “keep up the effort,” said to someone who is still working as you go. Shops, taxis, security desks, delivery drivers. It is the single most Korean thing on this list.

One caution: it is said downward or sideways, not upward. To a person clearly senior to you — an elderly shopkeeper, a professor — 감사합니다 (gam-sa-ham-ni-da) is safer. To a shop assistant your own age, 수고하세요 is exactly right and slightly warm.

The ten-word version

If you learn nothing else on this page:

Korean	What it means	When you use it
계세요?	Anyone here?	Walking into a quiet shop
여기요	Over here	Getting attention — never wrong
이거 주세요	This one, please	Ordering by pointing
얼마예요?	How much?	Asking the price
포장이요	To take away	At the counter
계산이요	The bill	On the way out
맛있어요	It’s delicious	Say it out loud
잘 먹었습니다	Thank you for the food	On leaving
괜찮아요	No thank you	Declining — use this, not 됐어요
수고하세요	Keep well	Leaving a shop

Where this series goes next

All three instalments we promised here have since been written: counting and numbers, because Korea uses two entire number systems and switches between them by category; the words that change with the person you are speaking to; and regional speech, in two parts — Jeju, and the Gyeongsang endings you will meet in Gyeongju and Geoje.

What this article does not claim

Registers are described, not measured. Korean politeness is a grammatical system with several levels; we have simplified to what a visitor needs in a shop. The dictionary entries at the National Institute of Korean Language, linked in the sources, are the authority on the words themselves — the social readings here are our explanation of ordinary usage, not a citation.

Dialect forms vary within a region. 얼마라예 is a recognisable Gyeongsang form, but speech differs between Busan, Daegu and rural Gyeongsang, and between generations. Treat these as things to recognise, not a dialect course.

Every Korean word in this article carries its pronunciation the first time it appears. If you find one that does not, it is our mistake — the whole point of this page is that you can say these out loud without being able to read Hangul yet. (If you would rather read them properly: the alphabet takes about ninety minutes.)

Romanisation is approximate. We have written the sounds as an English speaker would read them rather than in strict Revised Romanisation, because the goal is to be understood out loud.

“Nobody says 실례합니다” is a generalisation. It is used — in formal settings, when interrupting someone, when squeezing past. What we are saying is narrower: it is not what people use to call a server.

Tone does most of the work. Every phrase here can be made warm or cold by delivery, and no written guide can carry that. When in doubt, smile and use the neutral option.