Must Know Japanese Phrases for EATING at Restaurants in Japan Watch Before You Go YouTube

In this video, I'm going to share with you guys some must-know Japanese phrases when eating at a Japanese restaurant. So as you guys know, I'm always doing Japanese food videos for my channel, and often I get asked in the comments section, but how do I order at a restaurant, or how do I say this in Japanese? So what I'm going to do in this video is break down all of the Japanese phrases you need to know when you first enter the Japanese restaurant, when you're sitting down, and when you're leaving. And don't worry, I'm going to try to keep it as simple as possible. I'm going to shorten some of the Japanese so it's easy to remember, making it super easy for you to get the food you want at a Japanese restaurant. But before we continue, I wanted to give a quick thank you to our sponsor, Italki. Italki is an online language learning platform that introduces teachers and students together, where you can have a one-on-one lesson anywhere in the world, which is perfect for those of you coming to Japan for the first time who don't really know the language, but want to practice it before you come to Japan so when you get here, you can use all of the phrases you learned at home. In fact, you can use the phrases you learned in this video and practice with a teacher online. I know for me, it's made a world of difference being in Japan and learning a language. This is kind of like the next best thing if you're not in Japan, but you still want to practice your Japanese. So it's actually pretty easy to use. All you need to do is register, then choose a teacher. You can actually see teacher profiles, you can see video introductions, as well as reviews from previous students. Personally, what I like the most, though, is that it's super convenient. You don't have to travel, you don't need to leave your house, you can do it all online so you can learn a language from the comfort of your own home. And if you use the link go.italki.com.jp from Tokyo, you get $10 free in italki credits with your first purchase. All right, let's continue with the video. Number one, how many people? So when you first enter a Japanese restaurant, the first thing they're going to ask you is how many people in your party or your group, but you might not know what that sounds like. So here it is. They'll say, 何名様ですか? or 何人ですか? And the easiest way to answer this is you don't even need any Japanese phrases. So you can just signal with your hand, one, two, three, or however many people you have in your group. Simple, right? But to make this as authentic as possible, let's get a real Japanese person to help us. And who better to ask other than Maiko. はい、よろしくお願いします。 So Maiko, how do you say, how many Japanese people? 何名様ですか? 何人ですか? Number two, do you accept credit cards? Now Japan is still very much a cash based society, especially when it comes to mom and pop shops. So if you're planning to use a credit card, then you should definitely ask if they accept credit cards. So you say it like this. カード使いますか? カード means credit card and 使いますか is cannot use. And if you want to keep it really simple, you can just say カードOK? And they'll probably understand what you're asking. Number three, do you have an English menu? Now you can use this phrase when you're first entering the restaurant or when you sit down. More than likely they won't have an English menu, but it doesn't hurt to ask. So you say it like this. 英語メニューはありますか? So 英語 means English. メニュー means menu. And ありますか means do you have. Number four, do you serve vegetarian food? Do you serve vegan food? Or do you serve halal food? So I know some of you have some strict diets, so I wanted to include this for you guys. So you say it like this. ベジタリアン対応してますか? 対応 means accommodate. So when you're asking 対応しますか? It means do you accommodate for. For a different diet, just replace vegetarian with say vegan or halal. ベーガン、ハラル Also something worth noting about vegans and vegetarians or halal food, it's something that's still quite rare in Japan. So if a restaurant does accommodate for this type of diet, then more than likely they're going to have a sign at the front of the restaurant or at the least on the menu. So basically if you don't see a sign, then more than likely they're not going to have it. And if you ask them personally and they give you kind of like a blank stare, then they probably don't even know that that diet exists. So just be aware of that. Now if you're lucky, some restaurants have pictures on the menu, which makes it super simple. Or sometimes they even have plastic models in front of the restaurant. In this case, you can just point to what you want. And you don't even need to use Japanese, but if you want to know how to say this please, here's how you say it. Number six. Now this is a simple trick that I use sometimes when there's just way too much Japanese on the menu. I just ask, what's your recommendation? And order that. This is how you say it. So おすすめ means recommendation. You can even simplify it by just saying おすすめは. When you raise your intonation like that, it's kind of like a question mark. So if you say おすすめは, they know it's a question. Number seven. We all want to know the price, right? This is how you say it. So you say おいくらですか? But お is kind of like an honorific. So if you want to really really shorten, you can just say いくらですか? Or if you want to get it really really short, you can just say いくら? And just raise your intonation at the end. But just a fair warning, it does sound a little bit rude when you shorten it this much. They'll get what you're saying, but when you're shortening all your phrases, you do sometimes sound a little bit rude. Number eight. So I know some of you have allergies, and so I wanted to include this phrase especially for you. So basically, all you have to say is what you are allergic to, and then アレルギーです at the end of it. Simple. And if you wanted to replace shrimp with egg, then you would just say トマゴアレルギーです. And if I didn't cover your specific allergy, then all you have to do is look it up in the dictionary, and plop it into the phrase. So the thing is, in Japan, people don't know what allergy means. So to say it in Japanese, you have to say アレルギー. Number nine. Is there meat in this? This is kind of similar to the allergy, but if people don't have an allergy, and they just don't want to simply eat something, then this is how you say it. So we use これ. You don't actually need to say it, you can just leave that out, and you can just say Number ten. Please take this out. Now if you see something on the menu that you want to eat, but you don't like one of the ingredients, then you can ask to see if you can get it removed. More than likely, they're going to say no, or they're not going to want to remove it, but just wanted to tell you guys this phrase just in case. So let's use shrimp as our example. So basically なし means none or zero. So when you say エビ which means shrimp, and you say なし right next to it, you mean zero shrimp or no shrimp. And then お願いします at the end just makes it more polite. Again, you can make it shorter by not having the お願いします at the end, エビなし. A little rude, but they'll understand what you're talking about. Number eleven. Is this spicy? Now I love spicy food, and I know you guys love spicy food from watching my videos. So I definitely had to include this phrase. So the word 辛い means spicy. So if you ever see this anywhere on the menu, then you know that that dish is going to be spicy. 辛くできますか means can you make it spicy? できますか means are you able to do it or can you make it? Number twelve. Can I have some water? Or even better, can I have some beer? So basically お水 means water. ください means please. So all you're saying is water please. And the same thing goes for beer. Beer in Japanese is actually ビール. And when you say ビールください, it means beer please. Number thirteen. Excuse me. So what you'll find in a lot of izakaya restaurants in Japan and sushi restaurants or whatever, when you're at the table, it's actually customary to call on the server by yelling at them saying excuse me. Sometimes they will have bells that you can press and they'll come for you, but sometimes they won't actually come to your table unless you yell out excuse me, at which point they will come. You just need to know how to say it or else they may never come to your table. Here's how you say excuse me in Japanese. And for some reason I have a really quiet voice. Every time I say すみません, no one ever hears me and I have to yell it so many times. And Maiko just says it once and they come. So I don't know, I think you really need to have a higher pitched voice for them to hear you. Number fourteen. Check please. So when you're finally leaving the restaurant, you're going to want to get the check. So depending on the store, you're going to have to sometimes ask for the check. While other times you can just go pay at the register. Now in the case where you actually need to ask for the check, this is how you say it. So お会計 means bill and お願いします means please. So bill please. Simple, right? Number fifteen. Thank you for the meal. So it's actually customary when you're leaving the restaurant or you're finishing your meal to say thank you for the meal. So when they finish their meal or they're walking out of the restaurant, you'll hear them say this. In fact, you'll also hear this when people finish up their meals. Essentially, it's just a sign telling people that you're leaving and also just kind of a kind way to say thank you for the meal. Alright, so those are my Japanese phrases to help you get through your first experience at a Japanese restaurant. If I missed any phrases that you'd like to know, then definitely leave that in the comments section. If you want to see what I'm doing on the daily, then definitely check out my Instagram account and if you want to help support the channel, then definitely check out the Tokyo merch. If you're interested in seeing more of my Japan guides, I release a video every Saturday morning 9am Japan time. So definitely hit that subscribe button and the bell button and I'll catch you guys in the next one. Please subscribe!