What Banchan Actually Is, and Why There Are So Many

The first time you eat at a Korean restaurant, the confusing part arrives before the food does. Six or eight small dishes land on the table, nobody explains them, and no one has taken your order yet. They are banchan, and almost every assumption a Western diner makes about them is wrong. They are not appetizers, they are not a tasting course, and they are not extra.

They are part of the meal, not before it

Banchan are side dishes eaten alongside rice, for the whole meal. There is no sequence to work through and no order to eat them in. You take a little of one, some rice, a little of another. They exist to be rotated through, which is exactly why the portions are small.

The structural difference from a Western table is that a Korean meal is not built around one plated main. It is built around rice, with everything else arranged as accompaniment. Banchan are not a supporting act to a main course. In a lot of meals, they are most of the meal.

Why they keep refilling them

At most Korean restaurants banchan are included with the meal and refilled on request, without a charge. This reliably alarms first-time diners, who assume a bill is accumulating.

The reason is that they are not priced as dishes. They are part of what the restaurant considers a complete table, in the same way bread and water are elsewhere. Ask for more of the one you liked. It is normal, expected, and free at the great majority of places. The exception worth knowing: a few specialty items, seafood banchan in particular, are sometimes charged, and those are typically listed on the menu.

The counterpart obligation is that you do not take more than you will eat. Refills are unlimited; waste is noticed.

The count is not random

This is the part almost nobody outside Korea knows. The traditional Korean table setting is called bansang, and it is classified by how many banchan it carries: 3 cheop, 5 cheop, 7 cheop, 9 cheop, and 12 cheop.

The counting rule is the interesting bit. Rice, soup, kimchi, and the jang seasonings are not counted. They are considered so fundamental that they sit outside the tally entirely. A "three cheop" table therefore has rice, soup, kimchi, and three additional banchan on top.

The upper end of the scale was regulated by status during the Joseon dynasty. Twelve cheop was the royal table, and noble households topped out at nine. When a modern restaurant sends out eight or nine small plates, it is performing an old form of generosity, whether or not anyone at the table is counting.

What actually shows up

The lineup varies by restaurant, season, and region, but a few recur constantly:

• Kimchi. Nearly always present, and remember it is not counted as a banchan in the traditional system. It is its own category.
• Namul. Seasoned vegetables, blanched or lightly cooked, dressed with sesame oil, garlic, and salt. Spinach, bean sprouts, and radish are the common ones.
• Jorim. Things braised in soy sauce until glossy, most often potato, lotus root, or black beans.
• Jeon. Small pan-fried fritters, from zucchini to fish to mung bean.
• Gyeran-jjim. Steamed egg, served hot and puffed in an earthenware bowl.

Most of these are made ahead and served cool or at room temperature, which is not carelessness. Banchan traditionally include a lot of preserved and stored food, which is why fermented, braised, and pickled items dominate the category.

How to eat them without getting it wrong

• They are communal. Everyone eats from the same small plates. Take from the dish to your own rice or your own spoon, not from the dish to your mouth in one motion.
• Do not clear one before the food arrives. They are meant to last the meal.
• Ask for a refill of one you liked. Refusing to ask is the more common mistake.
• Rice goes in the bowl, and the bowl stays on the table. Lifting it to your mouth is Japanese and Chinese practice, not Korean.
• Spoon for rice and soup, chopsticks for everything else. Holding both at once is the giveaway that it is your first time.

The short version

Banchan are side dishes served with rice for the length of the meal, they are usually included in the price, and they are refilled if you ask. The number on the table traces to an old classification, bansang, that counted them in threes, fives, sevens, nines, and twelves, and pointedly did not count the rice, the soup, or the kimchi.

Most of what arrives is built from the same handful of fermented seasonings, so the Korean pantry guide explains a surprising amount of the table. And if the next meal is barbecue, that one has its own set of rules, which we cover in how to order at a Korean BBQ restaurant. The one dish that is always on the table, meanwhile, has a reputation worth examining: is kimchi actually good for you?