How to Host a Korean Dinner Party

A brief look into any cooking shop will tell you how popular dinner parties are. There are guides for every occasion to help inspire your dinner party! To help you avoid breaking down in the stress of pulling one off, though, we’ve compiled our favourite tips to help inspire your choices in food and décor, even if they come from the other side of the world.

Read our guide for how to plan a Korean dinner party for an anxiety-free experience.

1 Plan With Simplicity in Mind

Choose a simple recipe and avoid anything too fussy or time-consuming. Aim for elevated comfort food, and you can’t go wrong. Kimchi pancakes, Korean stir fry, or a delicious Korean rice pot are all great choices!

2 Shop Like You’re in Korea

Cooking the right food for the season is essential – that is just as true for Korean food as it is for any other.

Plan your menu around what is available and in season, and so what is better quality, by popping into your farmers market, butchers and fishmongers for their best and freshest meat and fish. Then, couple it with the ingredients you need from our Korean supermarket selection.

3 Prepare In Advance

The key to a successful dinner party is to spend as little time in the kitchen as you can once your guests have started to arrive. That means preparing as much of your meal as possible. Ideally, you should just have to heat up a dish that’s ready to be served or cooking already par-boiled vegetables.

A good dinner party is not a short affair either and often lasts hours, so don’t feel the need to immediately clear once people have finished eating. Actively try for long pauses between courses. That way, you have lots of time if you need it to prepare your dishes.

4 Go Big on Barley Tea

Barley Tea or Bori Cha is a staple Korean drink, and can be served hot, warm, or cold with ice. It is also effortless to make – simply bring to the boil some roast barley in a saucepan of water, simmer for 20 minutes, and serve. This drink is a favourite all year around, and you can find roasted barley in any good Korean supermarket, so you have no excuse not to make it!

5 Instruct Your Guests to Bring Extras

Especially if you are on a budget, don’t rule out asking your guests to bring a small extra to the party as an aperitif – food and alcoholic drinks go side-by-side in Korea, particularly pairing savoury or spicy foods with Soju.

You can also ask your guests to bring the side dishes themselves to nibble on between courses, as long as everyone is aware of how much they’re expected to deliver. Just make sure that you follow our guide to good table manners during your meal.

6 Complete Your Party with a Killer Dessert!

Korean food has some of the best puddings and sweets on the planet! We love Gyeongju bread in particular, an outstanding regional speciality full of doughy sweet goodness.

There are many delicious Korean desserts with which you can round off your dinner party. Choose the right one (or three!) to bowl your guests over at the end of the evening to help them enter pudding heaven.

Are you organising a Korean dinner party soon? Make sure to buy what you need from our Korean supermarket online or in our store. We have everything you will need available for you and your guests. And if you found our guide useful, leave us a comment on social media – we’d love to know how your party went!