Menus are where travelers hit Japanese head-on, often with no English and a waiter waiting. Learn the cooking methods and the dish-type words and most menus open up.
Cooking methods
These words attach to an ingredient to tell you how it was cooked.
grilled or pan-fried, as in 焼き鳥 yakitori
deep-fried, as in 唐揚げ karaage
simmered, as in 煮物 nimono
steamed
served raw, sliced
Dish-type words
定食 (teishoku)
A set meal: a main, rice, miso soup, and a side, at a fixed price. The safe default order.
丼 (don / donburi)
A rice bowl topped with something, like 牛丼 (gyuudon, beef bowl).
盛り (mori)
Portion size. 大盛り (oomori) is a large portion, 普通 (futsuu) is regular.
Allergy and diet phrases
If you avoid something, learn to say it plainly. 〜が食べられません (...ga taberaremasen) means "I cannot eat...". For example, 卵が食べられません (tamago ga taberaremasen), "I cannot eat egg". Pointing at the menu while saying it helps.
One more tip
Many loanword dishes are written in katakana and are close to English: ハンバーグ (hambaagu) and カレー (karee) are easy wins. The katakana guide covers the ones that look familiar but are not.
Test one of these examples in the translator and see how it comes out.
Open the Translator