Eating

Vegetarian, Vegan & Halal

The stock problem nobody warns you about, the dishes that are genuinely safe, and how to ask.

The short answer

It is harder than in most big travel destinations, and entirely doable with a little planning. The single thing to know: a dish with no visible meat is often still not vegetarian, because the base is anchovy or beef stock and the seasoning includes fermented shrimp or fish sauce. Asking "is there meat in this?" will get you an honest no, and the answer will still be wrong for you.

The stock problem, said plainly

Kimchi usually contains salted shrimp or fish sauce. The commonest surprise, and it arrives at every table.
Soups and stews are typically built on anchovy or beef broth even when they look like vegetable dishes.
Tteokbokki sauce often starts from an anchovy stock.
Gimbap frequently has ham or crab stick in it, and the vegetable version has to be asked for.

This is not carelessness on anyone's part — the broth is simply what those dishes are made of. Ask about the stock, not about meat: it is the question that finds the actual problem.

Things that are usually fine

Temple food (사찰음식) — a whole cuisine that is vegan by principle, including no onion or garlic. Restaurants specialise in it and it is genuinely worth seeking out rather than settling for.
비빔밥 without egg and meat, asked for that way. The vegetables and rice are the dish.
부침개 / 전 — vegetable pancakes, though check for seafood in the batter.
두부 dishes, and the plain steamed or fried tofu sides.
Indian, Middle Eastern and Southeast Asian restaurants, which exist in every large city and understand the question immediately.

Halal

Certified restaurants cluster in Seoul — Itaewon in particular has a mosque and a street of them — and are scarcer elsewhere. Outside those, seafood and vegetable dishes are the practical route, with the same stock question applying.

Pork is present in a great deal of everyday food, including as a base flavouring, so "no beef" is not enough of a question.
Larger cities have Muslim-friendly listings maintained by the tourism organisation; look them up before you travel rather than at dinner time.
Convenience stores and supermarkets are reliable fallbacks anywhere, and labels list allergens.

Asking so the answer is useful

저는 채식해요 (*jeo-neun chae-sik-hae-yo*) — "I'm vegetarian." Sets the frame before you order.
고기 육수도 안 돼요 (*go-gi yuk-su-do an dwae-yo*) — "meat stock isn't OK either." This is the sentence that does the work.
돼지고기 있어요? (*dwae-ji-go-gi i-sseo-yo?*) — "is there pork in it?"
Write it once in a translation app and keep it as a screenshot. You will show it several times a day, and typing it each time is the reason people give up.

Strictness varies, and only you know yours. Some travellers treat a hidden anchovy stock as a deal-breaker and some don't — the point of this page is that you get to decide, instead of finding out afterwards.