Digital Menus
Multilingual Menus for Tourist Restaurants
In a tourist area, many guests cannot ask the questions they have: what a dish is, whether it contains something they cannot eat, and what it costs in money they understand. A multilingual menu answers those questions on the guest's own phone before anyone has to explain. It works best when dish names keep their local character, descriptions do the explaining, and the order the kitchen receives is in the kitchen's language.
What tourist guests struggle with
- Dish names that mean nothing outside the region.
- Prices in a currency they have not got used to yet.
- Allergies and diets they cannot explain in the local language.
- Waiting for a server who speaks their language, when the place is busy.
- Pointing at a picture because they cannot pronounce the dish.
Keep the local name, explain it underneath
A local dish name is part of why tourists came. Translating it word for word often turns a specialty into something bland or odd. Keep the original name, and use the description — in the guest's language — to say what it is: the main ingredients, how it is cooked, whether it is spicy, and how large the portion is.
Photos and portions
A guest who cannot read the local language relies on photos more than anyone. Use real photos where you can, and label any stock or illustrative image as such. Say whether a dish is a starter, a main or a dish to share; portion size is one of the first things a visitor gets wrong.
Prices without surprises
- Show prices in your own currency first — that is what the bill will say.
- If guests can see an approximate amount in their own currency, make clear it is for orientation only.
- Say on the menu whether service is included, so nobody has to ask.
Let the guest order without the language
When guests can order from the menu on their phone, the order reaches the kitchen in the kitchen's language, whatever language the guest read the menu in. That removes the moment at the table where a guest points and a server guesses. Keep staff available for questions — a phone does not replace a welcome.
Which languages to offer and how to translate: how to run a multilingual restaurant menu.
Tourist menus with Thmenu
Thmenu's guest menu is available in 31 languages: it opens in the language the guest's phone is set to, offers a language picker, and lays out right-to-left languages right to left. Guests can view prices in another currency for orientation, while the bill stays in yours. The names of the 14 EU allergens come from fixed, reviewed wording in each language rather than from a translation model. Dish names and descriptions are translated by an AI model as a first draft, and a validator flags translations that change what an ingredient is; editing a translation by hand is not available in the panel yet, so read the languages your guests use most. With table ordering switched on, guests can send their order from the menu and it reaches your kitchen display.