Ordering food in China: eight sentences that cover most meals

Restaurants are the best place to start using Chinese, for a practical reason: the conversation is short, predictable, and both sides want the same outcome. Nobody is testing you. Somebody wants to bring you food.

Here is roughly the whole script.

Getting seated and getting a menu

• 几位？ Jǐ wèi? — "How many people?" You'll usually hear this before you've fully walked in. Answer with a number: 两位 (liǎng wèi), two.
• 菜单 Càidān — menu. 菜单，谢谢。 works perfectly.

Ordering

• 我要这个。 Wǒ yào zhège. — "I want this one." Point at the menu, or at someone else's table. This single sentence will feed you for a whole trip.
• 这个是什么？ Zhège shì shénme? — "What's this?" You may not understand the answer. Ask anyway; something usually gets across.
• 再来一个。 Zài lái yí ge. — "One more of these."

The one about spice

• 不要辣。 Bú yào là. — literally "don't want spicy."

A warning from someone whose hometown is Chongqing: in Sichuan or Chongqing, 不要辣 is understood as a preference, not a specification. If you genuinely can't handle heat, say it twice and look like you mean it. 微辣 (wēi là, mildly spicy) is the braver option.

Also worth knowing: 麻 (má) is not the same as 辣 (là). 辣 is chilli heat. 麻 is the numbing buzz of Sichuan pepper. 麻辣 is both at once, and it is wonderful.

Paying

• 多少钱？ Duōshao qián? — "How much is it?"
• 买单。 Mǎidān. — "The bill." Say it to a passing server, or raise a hand.

Then the practical part nobody warns you about: you will mostly be paying by phone. Cash still works and cards sometimes do, but the default is a QR code. Set up a mobile payment app before you travel and this whole category of stress disappears.

Why eight sentences is enough

Because a restaurant conversation has a shape. You know what's coming, and so does the other person. That predictability is exactly what makes it the right place to speak Chinese out loud for the first time — the stakes are a plate of noodles, and the worst case is that you point.

Everything else — small talk with the owner, asking what the house speciality is, understanding the answer — comes later, and comes faster than you'd expect once you've broken the seal.

Want to hear these said properly and try them back? The mini lesson on the home page has four of them with audio, and Chinese for Travel builds the rest around wherever you're actually going.