Park You Na and Bae Jung Nam Preview Family Romance Drama Love on the Menu

Park You Na and Bae Jung Nam are setting expectations for Love on the Menu, a new Korean family romance drama built around reunion, resentment, and the everyday work of repairing relationships.

The series follows Kim Moo Jin, played by Ha Seok Jin, and Han Gyu Rim, played by Hani, as former lovers who meet again eight years after a painful breakup. Their second encounter is not framed only as a romantic reset. According to the newly released preview, the story widens into a drama about broken family ties, emotional debt, and the kind of comfort that can slowly return when people sit at the same table again.

Park You Na joins the drama as Han Gyu Young, Gyu Rim’s younger sister and an accomplished doctor who has fought to build her own success. The character is described as bright and lovable, but not without rough edges. That combination appears to be central to the role: Gyu Young may seem prickly or immature at first, yet her behavior is tied to pressure, responsibility, and wounds she has carried while trying to support her family.

Park You Na Finds Sympathy In A Difficult Character

In discussing the role, Park You Na said the drama’s strength lies in how family members come to understand each other through ordinary struggles and conflict. Rather than presenting family as automatically warm or simple, Love on the Menu seems interested in the difficult middle ground where people argue, misunderstand each other, and still remain connected.

Park also noted that Gyu Young was not an easy character to understand immediately. The more she returned to the script, however, the more she began to see the pain behind Gyu Young’s outward behavior. That detail is important because it suggests the drama will ask viewers to look past first impressions. Gyu Young’s ambition and sharpness are not just personality traits; they are part of a survival strategy shaped by family expectations.

The actress also teased her working relationship with Hani, who plays her older sister. Park said Hani approached her first and encouraged her to speak comfortably, which helped the two become close quickly off camera. Once filming began, Park said Hani’s focus helped her enter the scene more naturally. For a drama centered on sisters with complicated family history, that off-screen comfort may be one of the keys to making their on-screen tension feel believable.

Bae Jung Nam Highlights The Drama’s Everyday Warmth

Bae Jung Nam plays Jo Heung Sik, a tall and charismatic figure with a blunt manner, a warm heart, and a regional dialect. His character may look rough around the edges, but he is fiercely loyal to the people he considers his own. Bae said Heung Sik’s loyalty and hidden warmth are qualities he recognizes in himself, which may help explain why the role feels personally grounded.

What stands out from Bae’s comments is that Heung Sik is not defined by one major dramatic twist. Instead, the actor pointed to daily scenes such as shared meals and small arguments as the moments that reveal who the character really is. That aligns with the drama’s title and premise: food is not just a backdrop, but a setting where tension, affection, and unresolved family feeling can surface naturally.

Bae also spoke warmly about working with Kang Ae Shim, who plays his mother Park Soo Nam. He said reacting to her ad-libs often gave him new ideas, creating a lively back-and-forth on set. In family dramas, that kind of flexible rhythm can matter as much as the written dialogue, especially when the goal is to make household conversations feel lived-in rather than staged.

A Weekend Drama Built Around A Universal Question

Love on the Menu appears to be positioning itself as a comfort drama with emotional bite. Bae described the story as being about a family that can make someone want to leave, but that they still want to protect in the end. He also pointed to the question of what family really means as the idea that resonated with him most.

That theme gives the drama a wider appeal beyond its central romance. The reunion between Moo Jin and Gyu Rim may be the spark, but the preview suggests the show will spend just as much time on siblings, parents, chosen loyalties, and the complicated reasons people keep returning to one another. For viewers who prefer romance with a strong ensemble and family stakes, the setup offers more than a simple second-chance love story.

Park You Na said playing Gyu Young taught her a great deal as an actress and expressed hope that viewers will embrace the character. Bae Jung Nam, meanwhile, described the series as a relatable family story that audiences can watch comfortably on weekends. Love on the Menu is scheduled to premiere on July 25 at 8 p.m. KST.