Food in Japanese: words for eating and ordering
Food is the tastiest way to learn Japanese: menus are a kanji lesson, and you already know plenty of words — sushi, ramen, tofu — even if they are pronounced a little differently than you think.
Here are the basic words, ingredients, common dishes, tastes and a few phrases for ordering, with kanji, reading and rōmaji. For いただきます and ごちそうさま, see the greetings guide.
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The basics
The ingredients and drinks you will find on every table. ご飯 is cooked rice, but it also means “meal”.
| 日本語 | Kana | Rōmaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| ご飯 | ごはん | gohan | cooked rice, meal |
| パン | — | pan | bread |
| 肉 | にく | niku | meat |
| 魚 | さかな | sakana | fish |
| 野菜 | やさい | yasai | vegetables |
| 果物 | くだもの | kudamono | fruit |
| 卵 | たまご | tamago | egg |
| 水 | みず | mizu | water |
| お茶 | おちゃ | ocha | tea (green) |
| 牛乳 | ぎゅうにゅう | gyūnyū | milk |
Meat, fish and ingredients
Meat is named with the animal plus 肉: pig (豚) becomes 豚肉, pork.
| 日本語 | Kana | Rōmaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 牛肉 | ぎゅうにく | gyūniku | beef |
| 豚肉 | ぶたにく | butaniku | pork |
| 鶏肉 | とりにく | toriniku | chicken (meat) |
| エビ | — | ebi | shrimp |
| 米 | こめ | kome | rice (uncooked) |
| 豆腐 | とうふ | tōfu | tofu |
| 醤油 | しょうゆ | shōyu | soy sauce |
| 味噌 | みそ | miso | miso |
Dishes
You already know many of them: just watch the long vowels, as in ラーメン (rāmen).
| 日本語 | Kana | Rōmaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 寿司 | すし | sushi | sushi |
| 刺身 | さしみ | sashimi | sashimi |
| ラーメン | — | rāmen | ramen |
| うどん | — | udon | udon |
| 蕎麦 | そば | soba | soba |
| 天ぷら | てんぷら | tenpura | tempura |
| 味噌汁 | みそしる | misoshiru | miso soup |
| おにぎり | — | onigiri | rice ball |
| 弁当 | べんとう | bentō | boxed lunch |
| カレーライス | — | karē raisu | curry rice |
Tastes
They are い-adjectives and conjugate like the others: 美味しい → 美味しかった, “it was good”.
| 日本語 | Kana | Rōmaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| 美味しい | おいしい | oishii | delicious |
| まずい | — | mazui | bad-tasting |
| 甘い | あまい | amai | sweet |
| 辛い | からい | karai | spicy |
| しょっぱい | — | shoppai | salty |
| 酸っぱい | すっぱい | suppai | sour |
| 苦い | にがい | nigai | bitter |
At the restaurant
The phrases you need after “これをください”: asking for a recommendation, takeaway, saying what you can't eat.
| 日本語 | Kana | Rōmaji | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| おすすめは何ですか | おすすめはなんですか | osusume wa nan desu ka | What do you recommend? |
| これを一つください | これをひとつください | kore o hitotsu kudasai | One of these, please |
| 持ち帰りでお願いします | もちかえりでおねがいします | mochikaeri de onegai shimasu | To take away, please |
| 肉が食べられません | にくがたべられません | niku ga taberaremasen | I can't eat meat |
| おかわりください | — | okawari kudasai | Another helping, please |
| 美味しかったです | おいしかったです | oishikatta desu | That was delicious |
ご飯: rice is also the meal
ご飯 is cooked rice, but also a meal in general: 朝ご飯 is breakfast, 昼ご飯 lunch, 晩ご飯 dinner. Uncooked rice, the kind you buy, is 米 (kome); in Western-style restaurants the rice on your plate becomes ライス.
The お in front: お茶, お水, お酒
Many food words take a polite お (or ご): お茶, お水, お酒, ご飯. With お茶 and ご飯 it is almost mandatory; with 水 and 酒 it makes the sentence gentler, and it is what you will hear from the waiter.
辛い: spicy, and mind the kanji
辛い (karai) means spicy, and in some regions salty too; for “salty” the safe word is しょっぱい. The same kanji read つらい (tsurai) means “painful, hard”: context, and the reading, make the difference.
Sushi, ramen, sake: words you already know
Many Japanese food words have entered English, but in Japanese they sound different: ラーメン has a long a, 天ぷら is pronounced tenpura. And お酒 is not only sake: it means alcohol in general. Rice wine, in Japan, is called 日本酒 (nihonshu).
From the menu to all the vocabulary
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Frequently asked questions
There is no exact equivalent: before eating, the person who eats says いただきます (itadakimasu), “I humbly receive”, and at the end ごちそうさまでした. It is not a wish to others but a thank you: it is explained in the greetings guide.
美味しい (oishii). Among friends, men especially also say うまい (umai). In the past tense, to compliment the meal at the end: 美味しかったです, “that was delicious”.
ご飯 is cooked rice and, by extension, a meal: 晩ご飯 is dinner. Uncooked rice is 米 (kome).
Water is 水 (mizu), more politely お水; tea is お茶 (ocha), which in Japan means green tea. Black tea is 紅茶 (kōcha).
In Japanese, お酒 (osake) is any alcoholic drink. What English calls sake is called 日本酒 (nihonshu) in Japan.