How to order off Japanese menu????

Hi forum,

Does anyone have any tips on how we can order off a japanese menu?

Take the restaurant aburyia for example, how does my family of 2 adults %26amp; 2 small kids order and convey quantity and type of food we want. Does Aburyia have pictures we can at least point to or those plastic food models in front window ive heard many people talk about. This makes me nervous alittle as there%26#39;s so much i want to try but if I cant read what it is, i%26#39;ll porb miss it all together.

Any advice?? especially aburyia, im so keen to try that place thanks to Nessie!!!

How to order off Japanese menu????

If this is the right restaurant, it seems they have an english menu.

http://r.gnavi.co.jp/fl/en/h008405/

Many restaurants have plastic food displayed outside, or pictures on the menu. During your travels, you might want to select those restaurants so as not to have to read the menu.

There are %26#39;point and say%26#39; japanese language books, but in the absence of any language ability and with no plastic food or pictures, you are going to have to throw yourself on the mercy of the restaurant.

You are not going to starve.

How to order off Japanese menu????

The Aburiya in my posting is in Susukino, not the Aburiya in the above link.

The menu has about 25 percent of the dishes pictured in photos. No English, though.

One way to do it is to pick one dish from each section. For example, there are sushi moriawase (assortments) in the sushi section. There are grilled dishes in the grilled section. Salads in the salad section. The waiter may have some rudimentary English, too. The good thing is that you can order as you go. There%26#39;s usually no real progression of courses. They bring out whatever they cook first. Try a few dishes to gauge the size, then order more.

Another way to do it is to have some dishes in mind before you go, and try to find the closest approximations. The drawback is that many restaurants specialize. You need to go to a sukiyaki specialty restaurant for sukiyaki and a takoyaki joint for takoyaki.

In the final analysis, there%26#39;s no way of know exactly what you%26#39;re going to get. You have to roll with the punches.

You can also say what you don%26#39;t want:

';XX nuki ni shite kudasai'; (Wthout XX, please)

or

';XX taberamasen.'; (I don%26#39;t eat XX)

or

';XX haite-imasu-ka'; (Does that have XX?)

Staff will have more patience during non-peak hours and on weekdays.

If this is too much stress, Kushi-Dori is a good yakitori place on my reccomendation list, with an English menu. The atmosphere is casual, but it may be too smoky for kids.

Coupons for the Susukino branch

http://r.gnavi.co.jp/fl/en/h008406/coupon.htm

Maps and some dishes in English here

http://r.gnavi.co.jp/fl/en/h008406/menu.htm

Thanks for coupon link. Printed and attached to my sapporo eatery paperwork.!!! great!

Aburiya has many branches..

Any of them has non-smoking section?

Thanks..

I wonder if they don%26#39;t have non-smoking section then we reserved for a separate room, will that help?

Or all the smoke will eventually come into the room anyway?

At the Susukino branch, if you get a booth it will be relatively isolated from smoke.

Some restaurants are no-smoking during lunch, but there are very few non-fast-food places that have non-smoking sections for dinner.

Thanks again, Nessie3

Stephy,

What makes it easier is unlike other Asian restaurants, there are not a lot of choices. If you know in advance what the region is known for (research), just say chicken, lamb, beef etc and they will understand. They often bring something extra for you to taste so it would be unlikely that you%26#39;d miss it all.

Macsubi

Do ask for an English menu, many restarants will have these if you ask.

Good advice given, basically decide on beef, chicken etc (beef will be twice the price)and indicate accordingly.

Staff and just as often other diners will offer some English assistance and help with order. It is often surprising where you come across those who are quite fluent in English. We had some great experiences and didn%26#39;t have a bad meal whole trip although we were bothered by smoking.