Multilingual menu: your restaurant menu in 13 languages

A multilingual menu lets every customer read your menu in their own language. In Menuthere, you switch on Offer other languages and your online menu gets a language button. Customers tap it and choose from 13 languages, including Arabic, Hindi, Spanish, Chinese and Japanese. The menu is translated automatically, and their choice is remembered on their next visit. For the dishes where the exact name matters, you write the name yourself, in the customer's own script. The language button is on the Lite plan (US$17 a month); your own second-language dish names are on every plan, including Free.

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The 13 menu languages

Each language below can be offered on your menu. Open a guide for that language's script, dish-name conventions and a short sample menu.

Not on the list: languages such as Urdu, French, Malay, Sinhala or Thai aren't offered as menu languages. You can still write your menu, or a dish's second name, in any language you like. It shows exactly as you typed it.

How to set up a multilingual menu

It takes about three minutes in Settings → Store details → Currency & Language.

1. Turn on Offer other languages. Your menu gets a language button.
2. Choose the languages. Under Languages offered, tap the ones you want. English is always available. If you leave every language off, all of them are offered.
3. Pick the opening language. Primary language is what the menu shows before anyone taps the button. English (as written) shows your menu untranslated. Press Save changes.
4. Add your own names for key dishes. Open a dish in Menu, press Add secondary name and type its name in the second language. Start with your 10 best sellers.
5. Check it on your phone. Open your menu, switch to each language you offer and read the dish names. Fix any that read wrong with a second name.

On the Free plan, Offer other languages shows a lock and an Upgrade to Lite button. Full steps are in the docs: Menu in several languages for customers.

What customers see

• A language button on your menu. They tap it and pick a language.
• The menu text in that language. Photos and prices stay as they are, though the currency symbol follows the chosen language.
• Their own choice wins. If you set Arabic as the primary language and a customer picks English, they get English, and it's kept for their next visit.
• Your second names on the dishes you named yourself, in your spelling. The second name also appears on the customer's cart and order.

If you turn off a language that you'd set as primary, the menu goes back to opening in English.

Automatic translation vs your own dish names

Machine translation is good at "Add to cart" and weak at food. A dish like "Chicken 65" or "Kerala beef fry" can come out word for word, or differently from what your customers actually call it. So Menuthere gives you two tools.

How Menuthere picks your second name. It looks at the script you typed the name in:

Because each dish has one second name, pick the language your customers use most. For example, a restaurant that writes Malayalam second names shouldn't also offer Arabic, because Arabic readers would see the Malayalam names.

See Dish names in a second language for the steps.

Which languages should your restaurant offer?

Offer the languages your customers actually read, not all 13. A shorter language list is easier to check.

Tips for a menu that translates well

• Write plain dish names in English, and put the story in the description. "Grilled chicken with garlic sauce" translates better than "The Big Cluck".
• Keep brand names out of dish names where you can. A machine can't tell your house name from a word.
• Add a second name for your 10 best sellers in the language most of your customers read.
• Ask a fluent speaker to read the menu in each language you offer, on a phone. The docs say it plainly: a translated dish name may not read exactly as you would write it.
• Tag allergens, calories and halal on each dish (on every plan), rather than writing them only in the dish name.
• Set the primary language to the one most customers read. Leave it on English (as written) if your customers are mixed.

A multilingual menu vs the alternatives

You can still print a menu too. Your online menu and your printed one can share the same names.

What it costs

• Free plan, US$0: your own second-language dish names, shown under each dish. No language button.
• Lite, US$17 a month: the language button with all 13 languages, plus pre-orders, table booking, coupons and Stripe payments. The 7-day free trial needs a card to start, and nothing is charged until it ends. Indian stores are billed in rupees, converted from the US dollar price.
• 0% commission on your orders on every plan. Compare that with the delivery apps on our delivery app commission pages.

Want your restaurant's own app on Google Play and the App Store? That's the Branded App plan. Get your app.

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