How to eat well in China without speaking Chinese

The thing that changed

Ordering in China is no longer a matter of pointing at pictures. In most city restaurants you sit down, scan a QR code on the table, and a menu opens inside WeChat or Alipay, in Chinese. You order and pay on your own phone. Often no one comes to take an order at all.

This catches people out badly, because the old survival strategies — point at the menu, point at another table — don't apply when there is no paper menu.

How to handle QR ordering

1. Scan from inside Alipay or WeChat, not your camera app. The camera app opens a browser page that frequently won't load the mini-program.
2. Use your phone's built-in translation on the screen. On iOS, take a screenshot and use the Translate action; on Android, Google Lens works at home but not reliably in China, so install Microsoft Translator before you go.
3. Quantities default to one portion. Dishes are shared — three dishes between two people is usually right.
4. If it defeats you, ask for a paper menu: 有纸质菜单吗？(*Yǒu zhǐzhì càidān ma?*)

The one phrase that beats every menu

> 有什么推荐的？来一个你们的招牌菜。 > *Yǒu shénme tuījiàn de? Lái yīge nǐmen de zhāopáicài.* > "What do you recommend? I'll have your signature dish."

This reliably produces a better meal than anything you'd have picked. Chinese restaurants tend to specialise narrowly, and the staff know exactly what theirs is.

Finding the good places

Western restaurant guides to China are thin and out of date. The real information is in two Chinese apps:

• Dianping (大众点评) — the restaurant review app. Chinese-only, but ratings, photos and prices survive translation perfectly well. Sort by rating and look at the photos.
• Xiaohongshu / RedNote (小红书) — where young Chinese travellers plan. Search a neighbourhood name and you get this month's reality rather than a three-year-old blog post.

Both are worth the friction. A 4.5-rated hole in the wall on Dianping will beat anything an English-language list sends you to.

Rule of thumb: a crowded restaurant with no English menu is a better bet than an empty one with laminated photos and English.

Dietary requirements

This is where literal translation fails and people get sick or upset.

• "I'm vegetarian" (我吃素) is not enough. Vegetable dishes are routinely cooked in pork stock or lard, and that isn't considered meat by the kitchen. You have to say so explicitly.
• Peanut oil is a default cooking oil across much of China. A nut allergy needs to be stated as severe, in writing.
• Oyster sauce (蚝油) is in a huge number of stir-fries, which matters for shellfish allergies.
• Soy sauce contains wheat, which makes coeliac genuinely difficult.
• Halal food is easy to find — look for 清真 (*qīngzhēn*). Lanzhou beef noodle shops are halal and are everywhere.

Our survival kit has cards for each of these, written to be understood by a kitchen rather than translated word for word. Show the screen; don't try to say it.

Small things that make it go better

• Tea or hot water arrives free. Cold water is unusual; ask for 常温水 (room-temperature water) if you want it.
• Tipping is not a thing. Don't.
• Street food is generally safe where there's a queue of locals and the food is cooked in front of you.
• Breakfast is savoury — noodles, dumplings, soy milk, fried dough sticks. The hotel buffet is not representative.
• Pay before you're asked. On a QR order you've usually already paid; otherwise 买单 (*mǎidān*) gets the bill.