Why does Da Nang have so many Korean restaurants — and what do Korean people eat here

Walking along a few streets around Pham Van Dong, An Thuong, or Nguyen Van Thoai, you'll notice something hard to miss: Korean-language signs are almost as common as Vietnamese ones. In some stretches, just a few hundred meters bring you past five or six grilled meat spots, fried chicken places, and kimbap shops.

It's not random. Da Nang is one of the most familiar destinations for Korean tourists in Southeast Asia — with many direct flights, journeys of just over four hours, and beaches right near the city center. Alongside the flow of tourists, there is also a community of Koreans who live here long-term: people working for Korean businesses, shop owners, teachers, and retirees.

When a community stays for good instead of just passing through, the ecosystem follows: supermarkets selling Korean goods, hair salons, clinics with interpreters, and restaurants cooking for the locals themselves rather than for tourists. That's why the quality of Korean goods here is usually higher than the general standard of a tourist city.

How to recognize a restaurant that cooks for Korean diners:

• Banchan (side dishes) are refilled for free — it's practically an unwritten rule. • The menu is partly only in Korean, not translated. • Most customers in the restaurant speak Korean. • There are pots, scissors, and tongs set on the table — meaning the restaurant expects you to grill and cut the meat yourself.

If it's your first time eating it: ordering samgyeopsal (grilled pork belly) is the safest choice — the meat is grilled on a griddle, wrapped in lettuce leaves, and dipped in ssamjang sauce. For soup dishes, gukbap is great for the morning. Kimbap and tteokbokki are snacks, not main meals.

A small note on etiquette: at a Korean dining table, younger people usually pour water for their elders first, and receive their glass with both hands. No one expects foreign guests to do this, but if you do, the host will remember you.

Korean restaurants featured on VietSpots in Da Nang are pinned below.