Ordering is far less of a barrier than most visitors fear, because China solved the problem for its own domestic tourists first — millions of whom cannot read a regional menu either.
Scan the table code#
This is the method people underestimate. In most chain restaurants and a growing share of independents there is no paper menu at all: a QR code sits on the table, you scan it with Alipay or WeChat, and the menu opens on your own phone with photographs of every dish.
You browse, tap, and pay without a single word spoken. Many of these ordering pages now include an English toggle, and the ones that do not are still navigable because everything has a picture.
Point at pictures#
Small restaurants often have laminated picture menus or photographs displayed on the wall. Pointing is entirely normal and no one will think less of you for it.
Where there are no pictures, look at what other tables are eating and point at that. This is common practice, usually gets you the thing the kitchen is good at, and is how a lot of the best meals happen.
Use your camera#
Google Translate and Microsoft Translator both read Chinese characters through the camera and overlay a translation live. Pleco is the strongest tool for food specifically, with a dictionary that knows dish names rather than translating them character by character.
The few phrases worth having#
这个 (zhè ge) — "this one", said while pointing, is the single most useful phrase in Chinese restaurants.
买单 (mǎi dān) — the bill.
不要辣 (bú yào là) — not spicy. In Sichuan and Hunan this is worth knowing even if you like heat, because the local baseline is higher than yours.
For menu structure, how ordering for a table works, and what to order region by region, see the guide to ordering food in China.