Chicken Radish (치킨무) Is Supposed to Be Free in Korea

If pickles are a garnish where you’re from, the little tub of white cubes that comes with Korean fried chicken looks optional. It’s chikinmu (치킨무, “chicken radish”), cubed white radish in a sweet-and-sour brine, and it’s there to cut the grease between pieces. I’d open it early instead of saving it for when the box is empty.

I get why it looks like a side dish from outside. In Korea it’s closer to part of the chicken, and the clearest evidence is what happens when a shop tries to charge for it.

When a 300-won tub became a cost

In January 2018, the restaurant trade paper Sikpum Oesik Gyeongje reported that some chicken franchisees had started charging for the radish and the free bottle of soda, or had stopped handing them out. Most delivery agencies in Seoul had raised their fee from 3,000 to 3,500 won per 1.5 km that year, and the minimum wage and rents were climbing. A tub of radish cost a shop about 300 won.

The paper saw the trouble coming. The radish and soda had been given away for so long that customers thought of them as free things that obviously come with chicken, and shops that dropped them could face fierce complaints.

The phrase that disappeared

People used to tack chikinmu mani (치킨무 많이, “lots of radish, please”) onto a chicken order. In January 2024 the JoongAng Ilbo wrote that the phrase had disappeared, and filed it under stealthflation, the kind of price rise that never shows up in the inflation index. Its example was Kyochon, which charged 1,000 won for each extra pack of radish.

The same article brought up a precedent I think is spot on. When Kyochon started charging a separate baedalbi (배달비, “delivery fee”) in 2018, people were angry, and now nobody blinks. The radish looks like it’s on the same road. At a chain that charges for extra radish, chikinmu mani is already a paid request.

An 800-won default

In July 2026, Money Today and Asia Today both reported the same kind of trick in delivery apps. In the setup Asia Today described, a chicken shop’s menu had a required “chicken radish” choice with three options: radish for 800 won, radish for 0 won, and no radish. The 800-won one was preselected. Sauce worked the same way at 900 won, so anyone who didn’t change both would pay 1,700 won for two things the shop gives away free.

Commenters asked whether the layout was built to make people pay by mistake, and one said a store like that gets skipped on sight. I honestly don’t think the anger is about 800 won. People feel they already paid for the radish when they paid for the chicken, so a price tag on it reads like the shop quietly took part of the order back.

Next time I order chicken through an app, I’m reading the radish line before I hit pay.