Seven members, seven very specific food orders. Photo: Dispatch, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The internet has convinced millions of people that K-pop idols survive on chicken breast, sweet potato, and pure determination. Then Jungkook orders grilled pork belly. Jin starts daydreaming about cold noodles. V puts on an apron and cooks glass noodles on live TV. The fantasy falls apart fast — because the people famous for impossible diets keep craving exactly what everyone else in Korea eats.
So here’s the honest answer to the BTS favorite food question: it’s not a diet plan. It’s Korean comfort food, the everyday kind — grilled meat, bubbling stews, cold noodles in summer, fried chicken at 2 a.m. There is no lettuce sadness here. Anyone hoping for a strict diet plan is going to be disappointed, and in the best way. Below, all seven members, and what they actually reach for.
“Foreign fans see a feast. Koreans just see dinner.”
BTS members and their favorite foods
On stage, the tightest act in pop. Off it, they argue about pork belly like everyone else. Photo: Korea.net, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Here’s the quick BTS favorite food cheat sheet — the dishes each member has talked about over the years:
- Jungkook — samgyeopsal (삼겹살, grilled pork belly) and kimchi jjigae (김치찌개, kimchi stew)
- Jin — naengmyeon (냉면, cold noodles), especially in summer
- V (Taehyung) — japchae (잡채, glass noodles) — he’s even cooked it on TV
- J-Hope — kimchi fried rice (김치볶음밥), and kimchi (김치) in general
- Jimin — kimchi jjigae (김치찌개)
- RM — famously easy to please; happy with almost anything good
- Suga — has never hidden his love of meat (고기)
Don’t just take our word for it. Here are the members in full mukbang mode, on their own official channel:
Jungkook: the samgyeopsal ambassador
Samgyeopsal — Jungkook’s not-so-secret weakness. Grilled golden, crisp at the edges. Photo: jinsoo jang (CC0), via Wikimedia Commons
Jungkook has probably done more to promote samgyeopsal than the Korean tourism board. Fans have watched him happily demolish plate after plate of grilled pork belly, talk about it on livestreams, and rank it at the top more times than anyone can count. If you had to bet on one member’s comfort food, this is the safe money. He’s also named kimchi jjigae — a hearty stew of aged kimchi, pork, and tofu — as a go-to. Between the two, you’ve got his perfect night in: something sizzling, something spicy.
Jin, and BTS when the cameras stop
Off duty, they’re seven guys who get hungry like anyone else. Photo: The White House (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons
Jin’s answer changes with the weather. When Seoul’s humidity turns cruel, he reaches for naengmyeon — chewy buckwheat noodles in a chilled, tangy broth, the dish Koreans live on all summer. It’s the exact opposite of “idol salad.” He’s also an open, unapologetic kimchi lover. And that’s the thing about all of them: strip away the stage, and BTS eat like any other Korean twenty- and thirty-somethings — big shared meals, late-night cravings, comfort food from home.
V: the member who actually cooks
Japchae: sweet-savory glass noodles — V plated these for real customers on TV. Photo: Korea.net, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Most idols talk about food. V (Taehyung) got handed an apron. On the tvN variety show Jinny’s Kitchen (2023) — set in a tiny Korean restaurant abroad, with Lee Seo-jin running the kitchen and Park Seo-joon and Choi Woo-shik on staff — V joined the crew as the youngest worker and spent whole episodes plating Korean dishes for real, paying customers. Japchae (잡채), the sweet-savory glass noodles tossed with sautéed vegetables, is exactly the kind of dish that show turned into an assembly line — and it has its own royal-court backstory, which we unpack in our full japchae guide (잡채). Watching a member of the world’s biggest boy band professionally toss noodles is its own small joy.
RM, Suga, Jimin & J-Hope: different plates, same table
The energy on stage; the appetite off it. Photo: Carolin von Petzholdt, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The other four round it out. J-Hope has talked about loving kimchi fried rice — the genius Korean move of turning leftover kimchi into a fast, satisfying plate. Jimin has mentioned kimchi jjigae more than once. RM is famously easy to feed; he’ll happily eat almost anything as long as it’s good. And Suga has never pretended to be anything other than a meat person. Different favorites, different moods — but the table underneath keeps looking the same.
The one table they all come home to
Kimchi jjigae — Jungkook’s and Jimin’s pick. Photo: miyagawa, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Line up the favorites and the main dish keeps changing — pork belly, cold noodles, japchae, fried chicken — but the supporting cast never does. Every one of those meals arrives with the same quiet crowd of little dishes: kimchi, seasoned greens, a pickle or two. Those are banchan (반찬), Korea’s free side dishes, and they’re the base layer under everything Koreans eat, idols included. That’s the real BTS favorite food story: not a diet, a dinner table.
From their BBQ Chicken (비비큐) ad days to Jungkook’s viral 60 Chicken (60계치킨) live — chicken follows BTS everywhere. Photo: Francesc Fort, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
And the one order that unites all seven? Fried chicken (치킨) — and with BTS, that’s practically official. For over two years the group were the faces of BBQ Chicken (비비큐), one of Korea’s biggest chicken chains, filming commercials for it from 2016 to 2018. Chicken is basically on their résumé.
And it still follows them around. In early 2023, Jungkook casually ate fried chicken on a Weverse live — the “크크크 (LOL)” set from 60 Chicken (60계치킨), with cheese and corn-mayo dip and a side of pickled radish (치킨무). The clip went so viral that fans flew to Seoul just to order the exact same box. One idol, one late-night snack, and a chicken shop’s best-seller was reborn. Foreign fans see a feast. Koreans just see dinner — with extra sauce.
A few quick questions people always ask
What is BTS’s actual favorite food? There’s no single group answer — it splits by member. The most-cited BTS favorite food picks are Jungkook’s samgyeopsal and kimchi jjigae, Jin’s naengmyeon, V’s japchae, and J-Hope’s kimchi fried rice. Fried chicken is the group’s shared late-night weakness.
Do K-pop idols really diet that hard? They do watch what they eat around comebacks, but the “only chicken breast and lettuce” image is mostly internet myth. What they talk about loving is ordinary Korean comfort food — stews, grilled meat, noodles — served the normal way.
Did a BTS member really work in a restaurant? Yes. V appeared on Jinny’s Kitchen (tvN, 2023) as the youngest staff member, cooking and serving Korean food — including japchae — to actual customers alongside Lee Seo-jin, Park Seo-joon, and Choi Woo-shik.
Which chicken brand is connected to BTS? Two. BTS were official brand ambassadors for BBQ Chicken (비비큐) from 2016 to 2018. Separately, Jungkook made 60 Chicken (60계치킨) go viral in 2023 when he ate their “크크크 (LOL)” set on a live stream — fans then flooded the shop to copy his order.
Want to eat the way they actually do?
Strip away the fandom, and the whole BTS favorite food list points the same way: toward an ordinary Korean table. You don’t need a stylist or a schedule — just a table with a few small plates on it. Start with the free side dishes themselves — the rainbow of banchan at Gwangjang Market is the fastest crash course in what Koreans actually snack and share. Then see how a humble side dish becomes an entire beloved meal in Jeonju’s bean-sprout rice soup, or plan a whole trip around it with our what-to-eat-in-korea food guide.
Skip the chicken-breast fantasy. Grill some pork, ladle out a kimchi stew, and let the little plates pile up. That’s not a cheat meal. In Korea, that’s just Tuesday — and it’s exactly what the people you’re watching on stage are hurrying home to eat.
Member food preferences drawn from published interviews and variety appearances as compiled by Mashed, Koreaboo, and Sportskeeda; Jinny’s Kitchen (tvN, 2023) cast and V’s role are a matter of record. Video: BANGTANTV (BTS official), “[BANGTAN BOMB] BTS’ Mukbang!”
And since we’re talking BTS and food, here’s a seasonal one: on Korea’s hottest days, known as boknal, the country eats boiling samgyetang (ginseng chicken soup) to beat the heat — and yes, a certain member was once spotted at a samgyetang place on the hottest day of the year.