Using a Korean delivery app is one of the first things that made me genuinely love living in Korea — especially what people call “ppalli-ppalli” (빨리빨리) culture, “quickly, quickly.”
The Apps Everyone Uses: Korean Delivery App Basics
The two most popular delivery apps in Korea are Baemin (배달의민족) and Coupang Eats (쿠팡이츠). You search for restaurants near your address that are registered on the app, order from your phone, and the food shows up at your door — usually much faster and with better quality than you’d expect. Honestly, it’s not an exaggeration to say you can live in Korea without ever stepping outside if you don’t want to.
Can Foreigners Actually Pay on These Apps?
As of 2026, both apps have gotten a lot more foreigner-friendly. Baemin officially supports English, Chinese, and Japanese in-app language settings, doesn’t require a Korean phone number, and accepts overseas-issued cards (Visa, Mastercard) — including through Apple Pay. Coupang Eats also offers an English interface, though overseas card support there can be less consistent and may vary depending on your device or account.
A couple of practical notes: identity verification (usually a 6-digit SMS code) can be a common sticking point for foreign users, and payment support can change depending on your card issuer and app version. If one app doesn’t work with your card, it’s worth trying the other.
There’s No Real “Tipping” Culture
Korea doesn’t really have a delivery tipping culture — what looks like a “delivery tip” is more accurately just a delivery fee, and it’s already built into the total price you pay upfront. You never need to pay the delivery driver or the restaurant anything extra beyond what you already paid in the app.
For context: if the standard delivery fee is around ₩3,000, choosing a faster delivery option might add about ₩1,000 more. But honestly, unless you’re in a real hurry, the standard option is rarely much slower — there’s usually no strong reason to pay extra for speed.
Before you check out, the app shows an estimated delivery time. Unless it’s Friday night, Saturday night, a holiday, a long weekend, or there’s a major event like a big soccer match, your food usually arrives right on time or even a bit early.
Minimum Order Amounts
Every restaurant sets its own minimum order amount, and you can’t complete a checkout if you’re under that threshold — even for the exact same type of food, this minimum varies restaurant by restaurant, so it’s worth checking before you start picking items. With more people living alone these days, there’s also a growing category of single-serving meals with lower minimums, so you don’t have to worry about ending up with way more food than you can eat.
How to Actually Pick a Good Restaurant
My honest advice: pay attention to reviews before choosing where to order from, even for a brand or dish you already know. That said, be a little skeptical — it’s a fairly common practice for restaurants to offer a small free side dish in exchange for a 5-star review, so don’t put 100% trust in the star rating alone.
My real trick: look at the number of reviews, not just the rating. If a place has a 4.8 average with over 2,000 reviews, that’s a strong signal it’s genuinely good. This method has kept me from picking a bad restaurant even when ordering from somewhere new.
Customization Options When Ordering
Most delivery orders let you add:
- Food requests (e.g., “no onions, please,” “extra sauce,” “just a little spicy”)
- Rider requests (e.g., “please knock quietly, there’s a baby sleeping”)
- Whether you need disposable utensils
- Drop-off instructions (ring the doorbell, leave it at the door, etc.)
What I’d Actually Recommend Ordering
If you’re visiting Korea, I’d genuinely recommend trying delivery food at least once — it’s convenient and it’s good. A few of my personal go-tos:
Main dishes: Yeopgi Tteokbokki (엽기떡볶이, very spicy — arguably Korea’s most famous tteokbokki brand, hugely popular with women in their teens through 30s), Kimchi-jjim (김치찜, spicy), Budae-jjigae (부대찌개, mildly spicy), and BHC fried chicken (fried in olive oil — genuinely good).
Dessert: Yoajeong (요아정, yogurt ice cream), Baskin Robbins 31 (wide variety), or pretty much any bakery-style dessert on the apps.
One Last Thing: Cleaning Up
Once you’re done eating, rinse out your delivery containers and sort them into recyclables — same rules apply here as they do for regular trash separation.