How to navigate a German restaurant menu for ordering food and drinks

To navigate a German restaurant menu for ordering food and drinks, it’s helpful to know common menu sections, typical food and drink items, and useful phrases in German for ordering.

Common Menu Sections in a German Restaurant

• Vorspeisen (Appetizers/starters)
• Suppen (Soups)
• Hauptgerichte or Sekundäre Gerichte (Main courses)
• Beilagen (Side dishes)
• Desserts (Desserts)
• Getränke (Drinks)

Typical German Food Items

• Schnitzel – breaded fried meat cutlet
• Bratwurst – grilled sausage
• Sauerkraut – fermented cabbage
• Kartoffelsalat – potato salad
• Rinderbraten – roast beef
• Käsespätzle – cheese noodles
• Gemüsesuppe – vegetable soup

Typical German Drinks

• Bier – beer
• Wein – wine
• Apfelschorle – sparkling apple juice
• Mineralwasser – mineral water
• Kaffee – coffee
• Tee – tea

Useful Phrases for Ordering

• Ich möchte bitte bestellen. – I would like to order, please.
• Was empfehlen Sie? – What do you recommend?
• Ich nehme … – I will have…
• Kann ich die Speisekarte sehen? – Can I see the menu?
• Was ist das Gericht des Tages? – What is the dish of the day?
• Ich hätte gerne ein Glas Wasser. – I would like a glass of water.
• Die Rechnung, bitte. – The bill, please.

Familiarizing yourself with these sections, common dishes, drinks, and phrases will make ordering food and drinks more comfortable in a German restaurant setting. The menu often lists items with descriptions that can help you choose if unsure. ^{1, 2}

References

• Implementation of Collaborative Filtering Algorithms in Mobile-Based Food Menu Ordering and Recommendation Systems

• Investigating Menu Item Popularity in Online Food Delivery: Observational Insights from Germany

• Peculiarities of the translation of idionyms in English and German gastronomic discourse

• Is Information Power? Comparing Anonymous and Open Egg Donation

• Judging food by its description: a text mining approach examining the most influential words on restaurant menus

• SEMANTIC DIFFERENTIATION OF HOMONYMOUS NOUNS OF THE MODERN GERMAN LANGUAGE

• „Enemy nationalities“ – the Fate of the Lithuanian population of German origin at the end of the Second World War

• Antibiogram of food-borne pathogens isolated from ready-to-eat foods and Zobo Drinks Sold Within and Around PRESCO Campus of Ebonyi State University (EBSU), Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria

• Online food delivery systems and their potential to improve public health nutrition: a response to ‘A narrative review of online food delivery in Australia’

• Aluminosilicatehalloysite nanotubes as a tool of modern nanocomposites for food safety

• German : phrasebook & dictionary

• Prevalence of diseases of the ENT organs among schoolchildren of the L’viv region (according to survey data during preventive examinations)

• Commercial Complementary Food in Germany: A Market Survey

• Eating and drinking seen through translation: A study of food-related translation difficulties and techniques in a parallel corpus of literary texts

• MaiBaam Annotation Guidelines

• Functional Variation of German Also across Registers and Speaker Groups

• „Frische Brot, lecker Brot, taze Brot“ – Eigene Muster in der Adjektivverwendung auf einem mehrsprachigen Wochenmarkt

• Word order in German child language and child-directed speech: A corpus analysis on the ordering of double objects in the German middlefield

• Changes in energy content of menu items at out-of-home food outlets in England after calorie labelling policy implementation: a pre–post analysis (2021–2022)

• Eighty-five percent of menu items from the six highest selling fast-food restaurants in the USA are ultra-processed

• Accuracy of menu calorie labelling in the England out-of-home food sector during 2024: Assessment of a national food policy

• Accuracy of menu calorie labelling in the England out-of-home food sector during 2024: Assessment of a national food policy.

• Comparison of Children’s Menu Items at Full- and Quick-Service Restaurants

• Food Is Medicine for Individuals Affected by Homelessness: Findings from a Participatory Soup Kitchen Menu Redesign

• Improving hospital nutrition care through “Indigenous cultural safety” of menu options: Results of a cross-sectional survey of Indigenous people in Western Canada.

• Automatic Restaurant Food Ordering Menu Card

• Menu item prices and promotions offered on a meal delivery app in the UK and their socio-economic patterns

• Commercial Complementary Food in Germany: A 2020 Market Survey

• Reusability of Germany´s total diet study food list upon availability of new food consumption data—comparison of three update strategies

• Commercial Complementary Food in Germany: A 2020 Market Survey

• Review of the Butler’s edition of “German Cuisine: Refined, Soulful and Delicious (Mini Recipe-Book)”

• Hygienic Quality of Air-Packed and Refrigerated or Frozen Stored Döner Kebab and Evaluation of the Growth of Intentionally Inoculated Listeria monocytogenes