How to Order Food in Japan (Without Speaking Japanese)

Japan is one of the easiest countries in the world to eat well in, and one of the most intimidating places to order. The food is reliably good from a train-station noodle bar to a twelve-seat counter, but the menus are often handwritten, the systems are unfamiliar, and the polite silence of a ramen shop can make you feel like you are holding everyone up. The good news: once you understand four or five systems, almost every meal falls into place.

Ticket machines (食券機, shokkenki)

Walk into a ramen shop, a gyūdon chain or a soba stand and there is a fair chance you will be met by a vending machine rather than a waiter. This is the 食券機 (shokkenki, also called 券売機, kenbaiki): you pay the machine, it gives you a small paper ticket, and you hand that ticket to the staff. Nobody takes your order verbally, which is wonderful if you do not speak Japanese, as long as you can read the buttons.

1. Feed the machine first. Insert notes or coins (older machines often refuse ¥10,000 notes, and some newer ones take IC cards such as Suica). The buttons light up once you have enough credit.
2. Press your main dish. The top-left button is very often the house speciality, and the biggest or most prominent buttons tend to be the bestsellers.
3. Add extras. Toppings (トッピング), an egg (玉子 or 味玉), extra noodles (替玉, kaedama), rice (ご飯) or a beer are usually separate buttons.
4. Collect your change. Many machines need you to press a change button (おつり). Look for the lever or button near the coin slot.
5. Hand over the ticket. Give it to the staff or put it on the counter in front of your seat. They may ask a quick question about portion size or noodle firmness.

Set meals (定食, teishoku)

The backbone of everyday Japanese eating is the 定食 (teishoku), a set meal built around one main dish: grilled fish, ginger pork, fried chicken, a pork cutlet. It arrives on a tray with rice, miso soup and pickles, and sometimes a small side salad or a dish of simmered vegetables. It is filling, balanced and usually excellent value, especially at lunch, when many restaurants offer a short list of lunch sets (ランチ) at a lower price than the evening menu.

Look for ご飯おかわり自由 (gohan okawari jiyū) on the menu or a sign. It means free rice refills. And if you see 大盛無料 (ōmori muryō), a large portion costs nothing extra.

Reading the kanji that matter

You do not need to learn to read Japanese, but a dozen characters turn up on almost every menu and ticket machine. Knowing them is the difference between a guess and a choice.

The tax pair is worth remembering. Japan's consumption tax is, at the time of writing, 10% for eating in (with a lower rate for takeaway food). Most menus now show the tax-inclusive price, often with the pre-tax figure beside it, but you will still see prices marked 税抜 or with a small "+税". If the bill seems higher than you expected, that is usually why. Our guide to tax and service charges on menus covers this in more detail.

Ordering at a ramen shop

Ramen shops run on speed. There is often a queue outside, a counter of a dozen stools inside, and an unspoken expectation that you will eat and go. None of this is unfriendly. It is simply how a small shop feeds a lot of people.

• Buy your ticket before you sit. If there is a machine near the door, it comes first. If there is a queue, staff will often ask you to buy a ticket while you wait.
• Expect a question. Some shops ask how you would like your noodles: katame (かため, firm), futsū (普通, normal) or yawarakame (やわらかめ, soft). Others give you a printed form to tick for richness, oil and garlic. "Futsū" is always a safe answer.
• Order kaedama, not a second bowl. At tonkotsu (pork-bone) shops in particular, you can buy a refill of noodles (替玉) to drop into your remaining broth. Order it before your soup is gone.
• Water is self-serve. Look for a jug or a water cooler and cups on the counter.
• Slurping is fine. Nobody minds. Lingering over your phone once you have finished, while people queue in the cold, is the faux pas.

Izakaya and the otoshi

An 居酒屋 (izakaya) is a Japanese pub: small plates, cold beer, highballs and sake, usually ordered a few dishes at a time over the evening. Plenty now have tablets or QR codes at the table for ordering, which makes life easier; the smaller, older ones have handwritten menus on strips of paper pinned to the wall.

Shortly after you sit down, a small dish will arrive that you did not order. This is the お通し (otoshi; called 突き出し, tsukidashi, in parts of western Japan). It is a table charge in the form of a snack (a few pickles, some simmered vegetables, a little sashimi), and it is added to your bill per person, typically a few hundred yen. It is not a scam and it is not usually something you can decline; think of it as the cover charge. Some places also add a separate seating charge (席料) or a late-night surcharge, which should be noted on the menu.

Phrases you will actually use

Japanese restaurant staff are patient with visitors, and pointing at a menu with a smile goes a long way. These few phrases cover almost every situation.

すみません Sumimasen: "Excuse me" (to call staff over; also "sorry")

二人です Futari desu: "Two people" (hold up two fingers; 一人 hitori is one, 三人 sannin is three)

これをください Kore o kudasai: "This one, please" (while pointing)

おすすめは何ですか？ Osusume wa nan desu ka?: "What do you recommend?"

英語のメニューはありますか？ Eigo no menyū wa arimasu ka?: "Do you have an English menu?"

カードは使えますか？ Kādo wa tsukaemasu ka?: "Can I pay by card?"

お会計お願いします Okaikei onegaishimasu: "The bill, please"

ごちそうさまでした Gochisōsama deshita: "Thank you for the meal" (said as you leave)

Many restaurants have a call button (呼び出しボタン) on the table. If there is one, press it rather than calling out.

Paying: no tipping, and carry some cash

Do not tip. Tipping is not part of Japanese restaurant culture, and leaving money on the table usually leads to a staff member running down the street after you to return it. Good service is simply expected and included. The exception is that some hotels and upscale restaurants add a service charge (サービス料), usually printed on the menu.

The bill is often left face-down on your table on a small tray or clipboard. You take it to the register (レジ, reji) near the door and pay there, rather than handing money to your server at the table.

Card acceptance has improved a great deal, and chains, department-store restaurant floors and most city restaurants take cards and IC cards. But small ramen shops, older ticket machines and family-run places in the countryside can still be cash only. Keep a few thousand yen in notes and coins on you. Convenience-store ATMs generally accept foreign cards; if a machine offers to convert the withdrawal into Australian dollars for you, decline. Our guide to paying in local currency explains why.

A few courtesies that go a long way

• Say itadakimasu (いただきます) before eating if you like. It is appreciated, never required.
• Do not stand your chopsticks upright in rice or pass food from chopstick to chopstick; both are associated with funerals.
• Use the wet towel (おしぼり, oshibori) for your hands, not your face, at least in nicer places.
• Eating while walking down the street is frowned upon in many areas; eat at the stall or find a spot to stand.

Where swap.menu fits in

The systems above get you through the door. The menu is where most visitors still get stuck, especially the handwritten wall menus at izakaya and the dense, text-only menus at older restaurants. With swap.menu, you photograph the menu and every dish comes back translated and explained, with prices converted to Australian dollars (and tax or service charges added where the menu mentions them, so 税抜 prices do not catch you out).

Tap the dishes you want to build an order, add a note such as "no wasabi" or "small portion, please" (typed or spoken) and it is translated into Japanese. Then show the server the bilingual order, or let them scan a QR code to open it on their own phone. In a quiet counter restaurant where you would rather not hold things up, that is a genuinely calmer way to order.

Japan rewards curiosity. Point, ask, try the thing you cannot identify, and remember that the worst outcome is usually just a very good bowl of something you did not expect.