Better Translate Download the app

The Japanese menu headings worth knowing before you sit down

Better Translate Team ·

A Japanese menu is organised by how the food is cooked, not by course. Learn five headings and most boards stop being a wall.

These are the sections our test boards actually use, with the translations our own scan returns:

HeadingWhat it meansWhat is under it
串焼き / 焼き鳥Grilled skewersChicken, mostly, one part per skewer
焼き魚Grilled fishWhole or half fish, salted and grilled
一品料理Small platesSingle dishes, the catch-all section
ラーメンRamenBowls, usually near the end
お通しSeat charge with a small dishNot something you order

Why the heading matters more than the dish

A skewer menu will list parts of a chicken you do not have a word for in English: neck, knee cartilage, skin, the oyster. Translated alone they read as a list of surgical terms. Under 串焼き they read as a menu, and you can order by pointing.

The heading is also what makes a hard character legible. 秋刀魚 is autumn, sword, fish. On its own that is nonsense. Under 焼き魚 it is obviously a fish, and it is sanma, Pacific saury.

The practical version

Find the headings first, pick a section, then read the four or five lines under it. That is a faster way through a Japanese menu than translating top to bottom, whatever you are using to read it.

— Better Translate Team

Download the app

Sources