How to Order Food in a Country Where You Don't Speak the Language

The fear of ordering badly keeps more travelers in tourist restaurants than price ever does. It is a solvable problem, and the solution is not learning the language. It is a handful of methods that work anywhere, in any language, including places where nothing is written down and nobody speaks a word of yours.

The five methods, in order of reliability

1. Point at what someone else is eating

The single most effective technique in travel. Look at what the table next to you has, catch the server's eye, point discreetly, smile. This works in every country on earth and is understood universally.

It also produces better food than a menu would. You are ordering the thing the locals chose, which is by definition the thing this place does well.

2. Let the kitchen decide

Learn one phrase in the local language, roughly “what do you recommend?” or “whatever you think is best.” Even said badly, the intent lands, and it hands the decision to the person who knows the answer.

In many food cultures this is the normal way to eat. In much of Southeast Asia, Japan and Italy, asking the cook to choose is a compliment rather than an inconvenience.

3. The photo on your phone

If there is a specific dish you want, find a photo of it before you go out and show it. This is faster and more accurate than any attempt at pronunciation, and it removes the ambiguity that comes with words that sound similar.

4. The display case and the counter

Many of the best cheap restaurants in the world put the food where you can see it — a glass case, a row of pots, a grill at the front. Point at what you want. No language required in either direction.

5. Translation apps, with a caveat

Camera translation on a menu is genuinely useful and worth having. It is also frequently wrong in interesting ways, particularly with regional dishes and menus written by hand. Use it to understand roughly what a section contains, not to make fine distinctions.

The allergy problem, handled properly

What to actually order

• The thing the place is named after. A restaurant called after a dish makes that dish well.
• The shortest menu wins. Six items means a kitchen that has decided what it's good at. Eight pages means a freezer.
• Whatever is on the most tables. Look around before you sit down.
• The set menu or lunch special. Usually the kitchen's best value and often its best cooking.
• Ask for the local version. Many restaurants keep a milder or adapted version for visitors. Asking for it ‘the way you eat it’ changes the dish.

The part nobody mentions

You will occasionally order something you did not expect and do not like. That is the actual cost of this approach, and it is small — a few dollars, once or twice a trip. Set against it: the meals you would never have found, ordered in places you would not have entered, in a language you do not speak.

Most people's best travel food story starts with not knowing what they were ordering.

This piece reflects our own research and testing, current as of publish. Details change — always confirm current specifics before you go. Some links above are affiliate links: we may earn a commission at no cost to you, which helps keep the hacks free.