Tasukatta! Useful Japanese Phrases When Dining Out in Japan

Tasukatta! Useful Japanese Phrases When Dining Out in Japan

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Woman trying to decide
Trying to order in Japanese at a Japanese restaurant? Here are some of the questions you might not expect - and how to respond to them.

Restaurants can be a minefield of problems for some, especially when abroad. With dietary requirements, personal tastes, and just general uncertainty, it can be hard to relax fully during what should be a relaxing experience. Here are a few tips and sentence structures you can use to deal with some issues you may encounter when eating out.

Other articles in this series:

Beyond Noodles: A Guide to the Different Types of Japanese Restaurants
A Simple Guide to Ordering a Meal in a Japanese Restaurant
Tackling Food Kanji in Japanese Menus

Dietary Cans and Cannots

For those with allergies or certain eating habits, not knowing what’s in your food can be a bit of a daunting prospect, especially if you are not confident with the language. As many menus do not contain a detailed ingredient list, it’s often up to the customer to ask themselves to check if a certain ingredient is in each dish. Here’s a list of some vocab of some common ingredients you might want to check is in your food.

EnglishJapanese
Meatniku
Pork豚肉 butaniku
Chicken鶏肉 toriniku
Beef牛肉 gyuuniku
Eggtamago
Fishsakana
Shellfish貝類 kairui
Shrimpエビ・海老 ebi
Glutenグルテン・麩質 guruten / fushitsu
Tofu豆腐 toufu
Soybean大豆 daizu
Dairy products乳製品 nyuuseihin
Cow’s milk牛乳 gyuunyuu
Soy milk豆乳 tounyuu
Mushroomキノコ kinoko

Use the above vocab with the following structures to tell the restaurant staff about your allergy or eating requirements.

Is there XX in this?
⇒ XXが入っていますか? (XX ga haitteimasu ka?)

I have an XX allergy.

⇒ XXのアレルギーがあります。 (XX no arerugii ga arimasu.)

I cannot eat XX.

⇒ XXが食べられません。 (XX ga taberaremasen.)

If your allergy isn’t too serious, or you particularly like the look of something and would like it with one of the ingredients removed, you can use the following structure below.

Can I have this without XX?

⇒ XX抜きでお願いできますか? (XX nuki de onegai dekimasu ka?)

Vegetarianism and veganism are slowly making their mark within the rather carnivorous food landscape of Japan. Fortunately, the terms are not too different in Japanese, which means it is not too difficult to ask whether a dish is vegetarian or vegan or not.

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Arthur Reiji Morris

Arthur Reiji Morris is a freelance translator currently based in London. He lived in Tokyo for four years, which he mostly spent playing music in tiny venues, attempting to visit every prefecture in Japan, and finding the best melon pan in town. He spent two years working at a video games company and three weeks working at a coffee chain, before deciding that being able to work from bed was far more appealing.

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