TV & Beyond on 2025-10-04 15:30:00

by | Oct 4, 2025 | TV & Beyond Articles | 0 comments

TV & Beyond on 2025-10-04 15:30:00

the conclusion of “Squid Game,” South Korean television, or K-dramas, continue to find enormous success overseas. This includes the time-bending romantic drama “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” which has dominated Netflix streaming charts worldwide for weeks. The series centers on South Korean chef Yeon Ji-yeong (Im Yoon-ah), who specializes in cooking French cuisine, and is magically transported into Korea’s medieval Joseon era. With her skills earning her a spot as the palace chef, Ji-yeong falls in love with the cold and vengeful King Yi Heon (Lee Chae-min) as they endure cutthroat royal intrigue.

Like many acclaimed K-dramas, “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty” masterfully combines seemingly disparate genre elements into an emotionally riveting tale. Fortunately, there are plenty of Korean shows that echo the 2025 Netflix series’ themes and narrative tropes. This includes romances spanning social classes, an enemies-to-lovers dynamic, and a prominent emphasis on food. With that in mind, here are five K-dramas to watch if you like Netflix’s “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty.”

Itaewon Class

Park Sae-ro-yi (Park Seo-joon) warches Jo Yi-seo (Kim Da-mi) cover the mouth of Oh Soo-ah (Kwon Nara) in Itaewon Class

JTBC

In “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” food elevates its protagonist to a place of power and respect, while in “Itaewon Class,” food provides a well-planned revenge. An adaptation of Gwang Jin’s popular webtoon, the 2020 series opens with high schooler Park Seo-ro-yi (Park Seo-joon) losing his father in an accident to his nemesis Jang Geun-won (Ahn Bo-hyun). After being released from prison for an instinctive attempt on Geun-won’s life, Seo-ro-yi decides to triumph over his enemy’s family by outperforming Geun-won’s powerful restaurant corporation. Seo-ro-yi starts his revenge by opening a small restaurant in Seoul’s popular international district, Itaewon, though Geun-won and his father plot to crush him.

“Itaewon Class” is an addictive revenge drama, mixing culinary competitiveness with corporate scheming and complicated romantic entanglements exceeding the usual triangle proportions. Like Yi Heon in “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” Seo-ro-yi is an emotionally unavailable figure driven almost blindly by vengeance at the start of the show. Through his own budding romantic interests and restaurant, he begins to build a life beyond that single-minded goal. A show that starts as revenge but evolves into comedy and romance, “Itaewon Class” is a well-rounded K-drama that excels as it grows.

Mr. Queen

King Cheoljong (Kim Jung-hyun) holds the hand of Queen Cheorin (Shin Hye-sun) by an ornate palace in Mr. Queen

tvN

The 2020 series “Mr. Queen” is currently as close as it gets in terms of a K-drama similar to “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” but with its own twist. The show follows chef and playboy Jang Bong-hwan (Choi Jin-hyuk), who endures a near-death experience in the present day and regains his senses in the Joseon era. Possessing the body of Queen Cheorin (Shin Hye-sun), Bong-hwan tries to curry favor with the royal family through his retained cooking skills. As Bong-hwan searches for a way to return to his body and time period, he finds himself in the middle of deadly political intrigue.

The thing about “Mr. Queen” is that the 2020 series plays its premise largely for laughs, mixing fish-out-of-water gags with a gentle subversion of Korean historical dramas. There are raw emotional moments too, as with virtually all K-dramas, but the show keeps sight of the humor from its body-swapping concept. The historical trappings themselves are well-conceived, providing mysteries and twists to keep audiences hooked to see where the story goes next. A sort of “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” by way of “Quantum Leap,” “Mr. Queen” is one of the funniest K-dramas you need to watch next.

Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha

Yoon Hye-jin (Shin Min-a) glances up from a map by a dock in Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha

tvN/Studio Dragon

For a modern love story following a fish-out-of-water setup, the 2021 romantic comedy “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” hits all the right notes. The show has a big city dentist, Yoon Hye-jin (Shin Min-a), visit a scenic coastal village to observe her late mother’s birthday. Falling in love with the town, Hye-jin impulsively decides to open her own dental clinic there, meeting local handyman Hong Du-sik (Kim Seon-ho). As Hye-jin grows accustomed to her new bucolic home, she and Du-sik fall in love with each other.

On the surface, “Hometown “Cha-Cha-Cha” feels like a South Korean take on “Sweet Home Alabama” or any number of Hallmark movies. But this is a show that goes deeper with its formulaic romantic comedy premise than one might expect, really delving into its rural community. The stakes are considerably lower than “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” but the concept of a young professional out of her element and finding love remains a clear constant. An incredibly cozy watch with a memorable ensemble cast around its leads, “Hometown Cha-Cha-Cha” is one of the best romantic K-dramas on Netflix.

King the Land

Gu Won (Lee Jun-ho) sits impassively on a couch in King the Land

JTBC

So many contemporary Cinderella stories in Korean movies and television involve couplings between affluent corporate heirs and working-class and more worldly characters. That dynamic is firmly in place with the 2023 romantic comedy “King the Land,” which unfolds within the luxury hotel industry. Lee Jun-ho plays Gu Won, who is set to inherit the King Group, a hotel conglomerate, but finds himself embroiled in a corporate fight for his family’s legacy. Along the way, Gu Won meets the unfailingly cheerful Cheon Sa-rang (Im Yoon-ah), a hotelier who works at his company.

Gu Won is another emotionally detached protagonist like Yi Heon in “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty,” with Lee Jun-ho’s character a modern prince in all but regal title. And just like the time-displaced 2025 series’ Ji-yeong, Sa-rang is an effervescently happy match for her love interest that helps him open up and defend his place. The chemistry between Im Yoon-ah and Lee Jun-ho is developed solidly throughout the series, making Gu Won’s growth all the more believable and heartwarming. A beautiful love story framed against a sumptuously elegant setting, “King the Land” is a great feel-good K-drama.

Tastefully Yours

Mo Yeon-joo (Go Min-si) faces an unimpressed Han Beom-woo (Kang Ha-neul) across her dining counter in Tastefully Yours

ENA

Another food-based romantic K-drama that has seen widespread international streaming success on Netflix this year is “Bon Appétit, Your Majesty.” The show follows corporate restaurateur Han Beom-woo (Kang Ha-neul), who profits from stealing the secret recipes from smaller eateries. Beom-woo travels to a remote town where he meets Mo Yeon-joo (Go Min-si), who runs her own restaurant that’s so small that it only accommodates a single table. Though there is initially a deep friction between Beom-woo and Yeon-joo, the two not only learn to work together but form a romantic relationship.

Han Jun-hee, the creative director behind Netflix’s action K-drama “Weak Hero,” created “Tastefully Yours,” and that elevated quality remains despite the drastic change in genre. That said, while “Tastefully Yours” is definitely a romantic comedy through and through, there are more emotionally complicated stakes than its run-of-the-mill genre contemporaries. The enemies-to-lovers trope is front and center, but given Beom-woo’s morally compromised background and the wider community around Yeon-joo’s restaurant, there are fresh wrinkles to the story. Breathing new life into a well-worn premise, “Tastefully Yours” is a fantastic, food-centric romantic comedy.

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