Restaurant Vocabulary

Chinese food is popular world-wide, but nothing beats the real thing.

If you travel to China or Taiwan, you will undoubtedly want to sample the fabulous cuisine. The staff of many of the smaller restaurants do not speak English, so this list of common restaurant items will help you get what you want.

Restaurants which cater to tourists will probably have Western cutlery available, but many of the smaller restaurants will only offer chopsticks and soup spoons. Do you know how to use chopsticks?

Click on the link in the Pinyin column to hear the audio file.

English	Pinyin	Chinese Characters
restaurant	cān tīng	餐廳
waiter / waitress	fú wù shēng	服務生
spoon	tāng chí	湯匙
fork	chā zi	叉子
knife	dāo zi	刀子
chopsticks	kuài zi	筷子
napkin	cān jīn	餐巾
menu	cài dān	菜單
beverage	yǐn liào	飲料
glass / cup	bēi zi	杯子
bowl	wǎn	碗
plate	pán zi	盤子
I am vegetarian.	Wǒ chī sù.	我吃素｡
I cannot eat…	Wǒ bùnéng chī …	我不能吃…
salt	yán	鹽
MSG	wèi jīng	味精
pork	zhū ròu	豬肉
spicy food	là	辣
sugar	táng	糖