Walk into a restaurant in Japan and you'll hear いらっしゃいませ (irasshaimase) before you've even sat down, one word that means welcome, doesn't require a reply beyond a small nod, and sets the tone for a meal you can get through with about eight phrases. From there, ordering, checking for allergies and asking for the bill only take a handful of set lines, plus one that does most of the work: これをお願いします (kore o onegaishimasu), "this, please." Point at the menu or a photo of the dish, say it, and the order is placed, even if the rest of the menu is in kanji you can't read yet.
The phrases that carry the whole meal
| Japanese | Reading | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| いらっしゃいませ | irasshaimase | Welcome (staff says this, no reply needed) |
| 何名様ですか | nan-mei-sama desu ka | How many people? |
| 一人です / 二人です | hitori desu / futari desu | For one / for two |
| すみません | sumimasen | Excuse me (to call a server over) |
| これをお願いします | kore o onegaishimasu | This, please (point at the menu or a photo) |
| おすすめは何ですか | osusume wa nan desu ka | What do you recommend? |
| お水をください | o-mizu o kudasai | Water, please |
| お会計お願いします | okaikei onegaishimasu | The check, please |
Learn these eight and you can walk in, get seated, order and pay without switching to English once.
Getting seated and ordering
Staff usually ask 何名様ですか (nan-mei-sama desu ka) at the door. Hold up fingers if the words go by too fast to catch. That works everywhere. Once you're seated, calling a server over is its own small skill: raise a hand and say すみません (sumimasen), the same word that also covers sorry and thank you depending on the moment. Point at what you want and add これをお願いします, and the order is placed. Not sure what's good? おすすめは何ですか asks the server directly, and the answer is usually one dish, not a list.
Some places run a ticket machine (券売機, kenbaiki) at the entrance instead of table service, common at ramen and gyudon chains. Same idea, different order: pick the button, the picture usually tells you enough, and hand the ticket to the counter.
Checking for allergies before you order, not after
This is the phrase worth memorizing exactly, not approximating: 〜アレルギーがあります (~ arerugii ga arimasu), "I have an allergy to ~." Swap in the ingredient:
- 卵 (tamago), egg
- 乳製品 (nyuuseihin), dairy
- 小麦 (komugi), wheat
- えび / 海老 (ebi), shrimp
- そば (soba), buckwheat noodles, common and taken seriously in Japan specifically
Say it before you order. Asking after the food has arrived is too late to matter. If the reply comes back fast and you didn't catch it, that's exactly when a voice translator earns its place: ask again in English and hear the answer spoken back in your own language.
Before and after the meal
Two phrases bookend every meal, and Japanese diners say both without fail. いただきます (itadakimasu) before the first bite, roughly "I gratefully receive this." ごちそうさまでした (gochisousama deshita) once you're done, thanking whoever made or paid for the food. Neither has a clean English translation, and neither is optional if you want to sound like you've done this before.
Paying, and the one habit that trips people up
お会計お願いします (okaikei onegaishimasu) gets the bill moving. Two things catch first-timers. Tipping isn't expected anywhere, so don't leave coins on the table. And splitting a bill between several people (割り勘, warikan) is common but not automatic: the cashier needs you to say so, since one combined check is the default. Card payment still isn't universal outside big cities either, so carrying cash stays the safer habit.
When the menu itself is the problem
Phrases get you through the conversation, but they don't help when the whole menu is handwritten kanji on a board behind the counter. That's a different problem with a different fix: point a camera translator at the menu and read it in English, in place, before you say a word. The full method for translating a Japanese menu covers dish names, set meals, and the allergy characters worth searching for on sight.
Yomi runs that camera translation, plus a voice mode for the allergy question and whatever the phrasebook doesn't cover, entirely on your iPhone and offline. Memorize the eight phrases above for speed, and let the menu translator handle anything you haven't learned yet. Back home, the same camera reads a manga page bubble by bubble, and the rest of the trip, directions, trains, what to do if something goes wrong, is in Japanese for travelers.