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.
English | Japanese |
Meat | 肉 niku |
Pork | 豚肉 butaniku |
Chicken | 鶏肉 toriniku |
Beef | 牛肉 gyuuniku |
Egg | 卵 tamago |
Fish | 魚 sakana |
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.