Japanese Restaurant Survival Guide

Stepping into a Japanese restaurant for the first time can feel like navigating uncharted waters. The menu might as well be hieroglyphics, the staff is speaking rapid-fire Japanese, and you're frantically flipping through pictures hoping to find something new and interesting... but not unpleasantly so.

Ordering food in Japanese doesn't have to be stressful.

With a handful of essential phrases and a bit of cultural know-how, you'll be confidently ordering your favorite dishes and impressing locals with your language skills. Whether you're just starting your journey to learn Japanese or you're already immersed in the language, mastering restaurant interactions is a crucial skill.

This guide covers everything you need to know about ordering food in Japanese restaurants, from the moment you walk in the door to paying your bill. We'll skip the fluff and give you practical, real-world phrases that actually work.

[Essential Phrases] How to order food in Japanese

Before diving into the specifics, here are the absolute must-know phrases from the article that'll get you through any dining experience:

The six main types of restaurants in Japan

There are a number of different kinds of Japanese restaurants, and the experience at each one can be quite different. Before we get into the meat of the article, take a moment to think about what sort of restaurant you're going to and try to imagine the situations that might come up.

Casual dining

Ramen shops

Minimal service. You'll see a vending machine with pictures or names of different types of ramen. Select the one you want and pay; a ticket will be printed out. Walk inside, hand the ticket to the chef or waiter, and wait.

Kaiten-zushi

Sit in booths or at a bar. Sushi (in addition to some sweets and fried dishes) will traverse the restaurants on plates of different colors. Simply grab what you want—or use the tablet at your table to order something fresh.

When you're ready to pay, flag down a waiter. They will count your plates (plates of different colors cost different amounts of money), tally them up, and give you a receipt to take to the cashier.

Family restaurants

Also known as a "fami-resu", family restaurants are kind of like Japan's version of Denny's or Perkins. You'll choose a booth or table and a waiter will serve you. A wide variety of price ranges are available. You'll likely see people sitting in to work or study.

Traditional Japanese dining

Izakaya

An izakaya is a Japanese pub—and, like pubs anywhere else, they range from small personally-owned hole-in-the-walls to bigger, more established chain stores. Izakayas sell beer, sake, and liquors. If you're not a drinker, there will usually also be a variety of non-alcoholic beverages available—teas, sodas, and the like. You can also order small side dishes, such as peanuts, fried chicken, or edamame.

Sushi bars

Sushi bars are the high-end version of a kaiten-zushi. You'll sit at the counter and have direct interaction with a chef. Depending on the restaurant, seasonal or set menus may be available.

Kaiseki

Kaiseki is Japan's version of haute cuisine. You'll likely need a reservation to visit these restaurants, and seating may be at a bar, table, or tatami. You will order from a set menu, receive several courses of food, and have the option of ordering a variety of types of Japanese alcohol.

What to expect when walking into a Japanese restaurant

The moment you step through the door, you'll likely hear a chorus of いらっしゃいませ (Irasshaimase, "Welcome")

. There's no need to respond to this; a polite nod or bow is perfectly fine.

Next, someone will approach you and ask:

To respond to this question, you'll use the Japanese counter 名:

And then attach です (desu)

onto that. For example: 二名です (Nimei desu, "two people") .

Essential food vocabulary for navigating Japanese menus

Most Japanese restaurants have picture menus, but, just in case, here's several classic food terms for you:

Classic Japanese dishes

Typical Japanese drink offerings

Miscellaneous useful words

Phrases for a variety of restaurant situations

Now that we've seen the main types of Japanese restaurants and looked at several common food-related vocabulary words, here are some situational phrases you'll likely be able to employ.

🤚 Getting the waiter's attention

When you want to get a waiter's attention, simply raise your hand slightly above head-height and call out:

Some restaurants will have call buttons at tables. In this case, you can simply click the button.

😷 Sharing your allergies / food restrictions

If you have food allergies, you can use the following phrase to let your waiter know:

Simply fill in the blank with whatever it is you're allergic to:

So you might say, for example:

Or, more directly, you can just say that you can't eat something:

🍽️ Ordering food

We'll go over a few options here.

1️⃣ Point and request

If you have a picture menu or a bilingual one, you can simply point at the item you want and use this structure:

If you don't know the name of the Japanese food you want, you can simply say:

2️⃣ Point and request multiple different items

Instead of saying "This please. This please. This please," you can use the Japanese particle と (to) to request a small list of things.

There's technically no limit to the amount of things you can string together with と, and it's not my place to cramp your style. Go wild. (Just not too wild.)

3️⃣ To order multiple of something

I regret to say that this is where things get complicated. While learning the basic Japanese numbers is pretty easy, learning to reliably count things in Japanese is unfortunately going to take a fair bit more investment than just memorizing a few useful phrases from a handy-dandy blog post.

I'm not going to get into all of that because you're probably just here trying to figure out how to order your damned donburi so you can get onto bigger and better things. If you do want to get into all of that fancy counting stuff, check out the above blog posts. Otherwise, we'll be using this basic formula below:

A counter is simply a helper word used to count something. We occasionally use them in English—"three flocks of geese" is very different than "three geese"—but Japanese requires you to use them whenever you're counting something, and there are dozens of the little buggers.

As for the ones you'll use at restaurants, though:

The all-purpose counter つ (tsu) can be used in a pinch for pretty much everything:

If you want to step up your game, 個 (ko) is used for little objects like pieces of sushi or small dishes:

Then, the drinks-counter 杯 (-hai/-bai/-pai) is what you'll use to order beverages:

If you want to get really fancy, you can combine these counters with the particle と, which we learned about previously, to order multiple quantities of different things:

🙏 Restaurant Etiquette: Do's and Don'ts

Japanese dining doesn't contain any hidden traps for foreigners. So long as you're not being obnoxious and starting food fights, you'll probably be fine.

If you'd like to learn a bit about Japanese culture or are paranoid, though, here are a few pointers for you:

Before You Eat:

Say いただきます (Itadakimasu)

, which translates to something like "Thank you for the meal", before starting to eat. This beautiful phrase shows gratitude not just for the food, but for all the effort that went into bringing it to your table.

You can learn more about the deeper cultural significance of this phrase in our article on Itadakimasu meaning.

During the Meal:

Again, common sense will bring you far. A few things you might not expect, though:

After the meal:

Say ごちそうさまでした (Gochisousama deshita)

, which is the counterpart to いただきます and means something like "I was treated to a wonderful meal".

😬 If something goes wrong...

Nobody's perfect. If you get something you didn't expect, simply get the attention by slightly raising your hand (as discussed above) and then use one of the following phrases:

🧾 Paying Your Bill

When you're ready to leave, get the waiter's attention and say:

Then, here are a few phrases you can use at the counter:

An assorted list of useful restaurant phrases

In no particular order:

Worried you won't be able to understand Japanese menus?

Say you do all this preparation, decide you want to go to a friendly family restaurant, learn a few basic formulas for ordering, then stumble into something like this:

You know how to order food, but you haven't actually learned to read Japanese yet.

Migaku's OCR feature can help you get over this hurdle in your trip:

The OCR feature works with text anywhere, such as handwritten menus, digital displays, billboards, or receipts.

Order Japanese Food with Migaku

You can now order food and drinks at any restaurant in Japan 💪

Restaurant interactions teach you about Japanese politeness levels, social hierarchies, and hospitality culture. While limited, they're mini immersion experiences that will build your confidence for more complex conversations... and that's super important.

While this is sort of an aside, I'd like to introduce you to the Golden Rule of Language Learning before we part:

So, go order your food—but also know that, if you want, this could be the start of a delicious adventure.

頑張って！(Ganbatte!) — Good luck, and enjoy your meals!