A menu displaying apparatus and method in a portable terminal are provided. In the menu displaying apparatus, a select image buffer stores select images, and an unselect image buffer stores unselect images. A controller reads a select image for a selected menu from the select image buffer, displays the select image together with a title text of the selected menu at a predetermined position in a menu region, reads unselect menu images for unselected menus from the unselect image buffer, and displays the unselect menu images together with title texts of the unselected menus at predetermined positions in the menu region.