Many owners treat an English menu as a luxury for tourist restaurants only. Look around you. In mixed residential areas, expats from many countries live next door. In business districts, foreign colleagues order lunch every day. In tourist cities, visitors look for a meal whose ingredients they can understand. All of them want to know what they are eating before they pay.
Who actually benefits
- Tourists and visitors: they want to understand the dish and what is in it, especially if they have an allergy.
- Resident expats: they order often, and many prefer plain, clear English.
- Younger guests: they move between both languages easily and may search for you in English.
- Your own staff: if your team includes different nationalities, a two-language menu cuts down mistakes.
Write the Arabic first, and do not translate it from English
Start by getting your Arabic right: the dish name as your regulars know it, and a short description of the ingredients and how it is served. Do not mix slang into formal sentences, and do not turn the description into a poem. “Slow-cooked lamb leg with rice” is clearer and nicer than “a canvas of Eastern flavours.”
Then write the English to be read, not to match
The goal is for a foreign reader to understand the dish, not to match words one for one. A simple rule works: if the dish is widely known by its Arabic name, keep the name and add a short English description. If it is not, describe it plainly instead of inventing a strange name.
Where translations usually trip
- Popular dish names: every dish has a name and a description. Keep the name as people say it, then add a short line to explain it, rather than translating the name itself.
- Sizes and portions: “half a chicken,” “quarter,” and “family plate” need a clear English equivalent, such as half a chicken or serves two.
- Cooking methods: grilled, fried, and pan-seared are different things. Pick the accurate word instead of one word for all.
- Extras and options: if a guest chooses the cheese or the sauce, write the choices in the same style in both languages.
A workflow that avoids the mess
- Fix the names first
Agree with your chef on one name per dish in Arabic and English before writing any descriptions.
- Write a one-sentence description
Name the main ingredient, the cooking method, and what it comes with. Stop there.
- Show it to a real reader
Ask a native English speaker to read the English version and tell you where they stumbled. A few minutes can save you a lot of embarrassment.
- Update both languages together
When a price or an ingredient changes, edit both versions at the same moment. Do not leave one of them stale.
If you are launching a digital menu, check that the system lets you enter the name and description in both languages for each item and that guests can switch language themselves. The Ordavya interface is available in Arabic and English, but the quality of the wording is still your responsibility.