For most of the last decade, ordering food in Korea meant reading Korean. Not conversational Korean — just enough to recognise a store name, a menu item and the words sitting next to the numbers. Plenty of foreign residents solved it by memorising the shape of 치킨 and tapping hopefully.
That assumption is now out of date. On 4 February 2026, Baemin announced English, Chinese and Japanese support, with the translated scope covering the order journey itself: search, choosing a store and its menu, payment, and delivery tracking. The company described it as LLM-based translation applied in sequence rather than a single overnight switch, so what you actually see in your app depends on when you look.
This matters because most English-language guides to these apps were written before that announcement and still open with “Baemin is Korean-only.” They were correct when published. But the more useful question, three weeks into a Korean address, is not whether the menu is in English — it is whether the app will accept your phone number, your address and your card. That is where new arrivals actually stall, and that is what the rest of this guide is about. For the wider list of apps worth installing in month one, start with our apps guide.
TL;DR
- Baemin is the only one of the three offering a full English, Chinese and Japanese order journey — announced 4 February 2026, applied in stages.
- Baemin is also the safest bet for a foreign card: overseas credit cards, WeChat Pay and Alipay+, plus Apple Pay with overseas-issued VISA, Mastercard, JCB and Amex from 2 June 2026.
- Coupang Eats and Yogiyo both list English on their app store pages, but neither has announced a full English order journey.
- Baemin says it now takes orders without a Korean phone number, per a July 2026 announcement; for the other apps, a Korean real-name number is still the reliably smooth path.
- Minimum order amounts and delivery tips are set store by store, so no guide can quote you a number. Single-portion categories and pickup are the workarounds.
The Big Three at a Glance
Everything below is what the companies or the reporting actually state. Where a cell says the sources are silent, that means nobody official has said — not that the answer is no.
| App | English in the app | Foreign-issued cards | Subscription & free delivery | Single-portion option |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Baemin (배달의민족) | English announced 4 Feb 2026 for the whole order journey, applied in stages; App Store language field lists Korean, English, Japanese, Chinese | Overseas credit cards, WeChat Pay, Alipay+; Apple Pay with overseas-issued VISA / Mastercard / JCB / Amex from 2 Jun 2026 | 배민클럽, 3,990 KRW per month list price — unchanged since its 11 Sep 2024 paid launch per July 2026 reporting; check in-app | 한그릇, a single-portion category with no minimum order amount (as of Aug 2026) |
| Coupang Eats (쿠팡이츠) | Play and App Store listings include English, but no announced full English order journey | Not stated in official sources | Free delivery began as a Coupang WOW benefit in 2024 (WOW: 7,890 KRW per month per the April 2024 announcement); a 2026 promotion extended free delivery to non-members, reported as limited-time | A no-minimum single-portion free-delivery option, launched August 2025 |
| Yogiyo (요기요) | App Store language field lists Korean and English | Not stated in official sources | 요기패스X, 2,900 KRW per month per its App Store page as checked in August 2026 | Not stated in official sources |
Three Things to Have Before You Open the App
1. A Korean phone number — with one fresh exception. In late July 2026, Baemin announced it now takes orders without a Korean mobile number, which quietly removes the biggest wall this article used to need a whole section for. That announcement covers Baemin; for Coupang Eats and Yogiyo we found no equivalent commitment, and Korean-number verification remains the standard assumption there. A Korean real-name number also unlocks everything else on this list — simple-pay, banking apps, customer service callbacks — so our advice stands: get the Korean SIM or eSIM early anyway.
2. Your address, in Korean. Have it written out the way it appears on your lease — road name, building number, building name, unit number. Copy it from the document rather than from memory; a wrong unit number costs you a phone call in Korean, which is the exact situation you installed an English app to avoid. If you are still apartment hunting, our guide to renting in Korea covers how Korean addresses are structured.
3. A payment method that will actually clear. Korean simple-pay services — KakaoPay, Naver Pay, Toss — generally require a Korean bank account and Korean identity verification, so they sit behind your bank, not ahead of it. If you have already opened a Korean bank account, that is the shortest road. If not, Baemin is the app that has publicly said it takes overseas credit cards, WeChat Pay and Alipay+.
Your First Baemin Order, Step by Step
Written for the English path. Because the translation was described as rolling out in sequence, some screens may still greet you in Korean depending on when you install.
- Install and set the language. If a language option is available to you, set it to English. The announced translation scope is the order journey — search, store and menu selection, payment, delivery tracking — so those are the screens to expect it on.
- Sign up and verify. Enter your phone number and complete the verification step. With a Korean real-name number this is uneventful; without one, Baemin’s July 2026 announcement says ordering is now possible — expect the flow to differ from the standard path.
- Add your address. Paste the Korean address you prepared, unit number included. Do this before you are hungry.
- Search or browse. Search is inside the translated scope, so English keywords are worth trying before you fall back to Korean.
- Build the cart and check the minimum. Minimum order amounts are set by each store, not the app, so the threshold changes restaurant to restaurant.
- Deal with the cutlery. Disposable spoons and chopsticks are a checkbox, not something you write in the request box — untick it rather than typing a sentence.
- Write the delivery request. Use the copy-paste table further down. Keep it to one line.
- Pay. With a foreign card, this is the screen that decides everything — see the next section.
- Track it. Delivery status is also inside the announced translation scope.
When the Payment Screen Says No
Payment is where most first orders die, and it usually is not your bank’s fault. Two paths are worth knowing.
The first is Apple Pay. Baemin began accepting Apple Pay with overseas-issued cards — VISA, Mastercard, JCB and Amex — on 2 June 2026, which is recent enough that guides published last year do not mention it. If your card is already in your Apple Wallet, that is the fewest fields you will have to fill in.
The second is entering the card directly. One resident walkthrough describes the Baemin payment screen as requiring you to select “해외 신용카드” (overseas credit card) as its own payment type rather than the default card flow, with part of the card number entered on a secure virtual keyboard. Treat that as a field report, not documentation — but if your card is rejected on the standard path, hunting for a separate overseas-card option is the cheapest thing to try.
If the failure is not the card but your name — the verification step rejecting you, or your name coming back as a mismatch — that is a different problem with a different fix. Korean identity verification is unforgiving about how a foreign name is transcribed, and the mismatch usually traces back to how it was registered when you got your phone number. We wrote a full guide on fixing Korean name verification failures; if you would rather check first, run your name through our Name Checker — a 30-second free check.
Prepaid and Travel Cards: What We Can and Cannot Tell You
This is where most articles get confident. We are going to do the opposite.
Multi-currency cards: some residents report that Wise and Revolut cards work for delivery app payments. That comes from a single source rather than a body of confirmed reports, so treat it as worth trying rather than as a plan — your mileage may vary.
Tourist prepaid cards, such as WOWPASS: we could not find reliable reports either way on whether they work inside the delivery apps. Not confirmed working, not confirmed failing — unreported. If you try one, have a second payment method ready before your cart is full; discovering the answer at the payment screen with a hungry household is poor experiment design. For what these cards are actually good at, see our WOWPASS guide.
Delivery Request Phrases You Can Copy and Paste
The request field is short and free-form. Korean users tend to write one clean instruction, sometimes with a reason attached, because a reason makes the request easier to honour. Copy the left column exactly.
| Type this | What it means |
|---|---|
| 문 앞에 놓아주세요 | Please leave it at the door. |
| 벨 누르지 말아주세요 | Please do not ring the bell. |
| 문 앞에 두고 벨 눌러주세요 | Please leave it at the door and ring the bell. |
| 노크 후 문 앞에 두고 가주세요 | Please knock, leave it at the door, and go. |
| 아기가 자고 있어요 | The baby is sleeping. (Added as a reason alongside a “no bell” request — the local convention is to explain why.) |
One thing not to type: your building’s shared entrance door code. It is a common habit — the box is right there, and the courier does need to get in — but that code ends up stored in an order record you do not control, and it is the same code your neighbours rely on. This is not hypothetical: a major 2025 data leak in Korea exposed door codes customers had typed into delivery order records, and the operator’s own notice told affected users to change their building codes immediately. Meet the courier downstairs, or use the intercom.
Eating Alone and the Minimum Order Problem
If you live alone, the minimum order amount is the tax you pay for not having roommates. Two thirds of the market has now built a product for it.
Baemin runs a category called 한그릇 — single-serving portions with no minimum order amount, per the app’s own store description as of August 2026. Coupang Eats launched a comparable no-minimum single-portion free-delivery option in August 2025. Between them, the “one portion of one thing” case is far better served than it was two years ago.
Outside those categories, the numbers are genuinely unknowable in advance: both minimum order amounts and delivery tips are set by each individual store, so there is no official range and anyone quoting you a flat figure is quoting one restaurant they happened to look at. Two things reliably work: add a side to reach the threshold — a drink or a rice portion is usually cheaper than the gap you are closing — or switch the order to pickup, which sidesteps the delivery side of the equation entirely. Solo dining in Korea has its own etiquette beyond the apps, which we cover in our guide to eating alone in Korea.
Do the Subscriptions Pay for Themselves?
All three apps sell a subscription, and the pitch is always free delivery. The arithmetic is simple in structure and annoying in practice, because the prices move.
Baemin’s 배민클럽 went paid on 11 September 2024 at a list price of 3,990 KRW per month — a figure July 2026 reporting still describes as current, though the in-app price is always the one that counts. Coupang’s WOW membership, which is where Coupang Eats free delivery started as a benefit in 2024, was announced at 7,890 KRW per month in Coupang’s April 2024 newsroom post. In 2026 that free delivery was extended beyond WOW members and into convenience-store delivery — but the extension has been reported as a limited-time promotion, so check whether it still applies when you read this. Yogiyo’s 요기패스X sits at 2,900 KRW per month per its App Store page, as checked in August 2026.
One piece of context before you sign up for all three: Korean consumer groups have pointed out that the cost of “free delivery” does not vanish — it tends to reappear inside subscription fees and menu prices. The practical version: a subscription only pays for itself above a certain order frequency, and the honest way to find yours is to order without one for a month and count.
After the Food: The Part Nobody Warns You About
A delivery order in Korea arrives with more packaging than the meal appears to justify, and waste separation here is enforced at the level of your building rather than offered as a suggestion. The containers, the film lid, the paper bag and the food waste all go to different places, and food waste in particular has its own system that surprises people in week one. Sort it the night it arrives — our guide to trash and recycling in Korea covers which bin takes what.
FAQ
Can I use Baemin in English?
Yes. Baemin announced English support on 4 February 2026, covering search, store and menu selection, payment and delivery tracking, applied in stages rather than at once. Its Apple App Store listing gives Korean, English, Japanese and Chinese as supported languages. Whether every screen is translated on the day you install is a rollout question, not a policy one.
Can I sign up without a Korean phone number?
On Baemin, yes — the company announced in late July 2026 that orders no longer require a Korean mobile number. For Coupang Eats and Yogiyo we found no equivalent announcement, so assume Korean-number verification there. Either way, the path that makes every app in Korea behave is a Korean real-name number, and we recommend arranging it first.
Does Coupang Eats have an English app?
Partially. Its store listings include English, but unlike Baemin it has not announced a full English order journey — Korean media describe Baemin as the only delivery app offering the complete multilingual experience. Expect Korean on some screens.
Is there a minimum order amount?
It depends on the store: stores set it themselves, along with delivery tips, so there is no official app-wide range. The exceptions are the single-portion categories: Baemin’s 한그릇 has no minimum order amount, and Coupang Eats launched a comparable no-minimum single-portion option in August 2025.
Which app should I install first?
Holding a foreign card with no Korean simple-pay set up? Baemin is the straightforward answer: an announced English order journey, plus published support for overseas credit cards, WeChat Pay and Alipay+. If you already pay for Coupang WOW for shopping, install Coupang Eats the same day — its free delivery started life as a WOW benefit.
Delivery is one line on a much longer first-90-days list — phone number, bank account, address registration and the rest. Our First 90 Days Checklist (free PDF) puts them in the order that actually works.
Official Resources
- Baemin (배달의민족) on the Apple App Store — supported languages and current in-app purchase listings
- Yogiyo (요기요) on the Apple App Store — supported languages and 요기패스X pricing
- Coupang Eats on Google Play — publisher and listing details
- Browse all guides →