How to Read a Chinese Menu

Regional Chinese cuisines and what their menus look like

China has eight recognized major culinary traditions, and restaurant menus reflect this. Knowing which cuisine you are eating tells you a great deal about what to expect:

Cantonese (粤菜)

The cuisine most people outside China encountered first. Menus emphasize fresh ingredients, light seasoning, and delicate flavors — steamed fish, stir-fried greens, roast duck, and dim sum. Stocks are carefully made and sauces are subtle. If a menu has dim sum, it is almost certainly Cantonese.

Sichuan (川菜)

Bold, spicy, and numbing. The defining ingredient is the Sichuan peppercorn (花椒), which creates the mala (麻辣) flavor — simultaneously numbing and hot. Key dishes include mapo tofu, dan dan noodles, and kung pao chicken. Menus often flag heat levels.

Shanghainese (沪菜)

Richer, sweeter, and braised. Shanghainese cooking uses more sugar and soy sauce than other cuisines. Red-braised pork (hongshao rou), soup dumplings (xiaolongbao), and smoked fish are signatures. The xiao long bao — thin-skinned soup dumplings — deserve their own section on any menu that offers them.

Hunan (湘菜)

Spicier than Sichuan in some ways, but without the numbing peppercorn. Hunan cooking uses fresh and dried chilies heavily and pairs them with smoked or cured ingredients. Chairman Mao's braised pork (Mao's red-braised pork) is a Hunan dish that appears on many menus.

Beijing and Northern (京菜 / 北方菜)

Wheat-based rather than rice-based. Dumplings (jiaozi), hand-pulled noodles, Peking duck, and lamb are common. Northern menus often have a noodle or dumpling section that southern menus lack entirely.

Dim sum (点心)

Not a regional cuisine but a Cantonese brunch tradition. Dozens of small dishes arrive in bamboo steamers. Ordering is typically done on paper forms by ticking boxes next to dish names. It is one of the most social and relaxed forms of Chinese dining.

How Chinese menus are structured

Unlike Western menus that move from starter to main to dessert, Chinese menus organize by ingredient or cooking method:

Cold dishes (凉菜 liángcài) — these arrive first. Cucumber salad, cold tofu, marinated beef tendon. They are appetizers in function but are ordered and priced individually.
Protein sections — pork (猪肉), chicken (鸡肉), beef (牛肉), seafood (海鲜), and tofu (豆腐) each have their own section. This is how most large menus are organized.
Vegetables (蔬菜 shūcài) — always worth ordering. Stir-fried morning glory, garlic-sautéed spinach, or mapo-style eggplant appear here.
Soups (汤 tāng) — usually ordered for the whole table, served in a large bowl. Hot and sour soup, fish head soup, and winter melon soup are common.
Staples (主食 zhǔshí) — rice, noodles, and dumplings at the end. In many restaurants you order rice separately; it is not automatically brought.
Daily specials — often written on a board or on a separate slip. These are the dishes the kitchen wants to highlight and are worth asking about even if the characters are unfamiliar.

Key dishes to know

These dishes appear across Chinese menus frequently enough that recognizing them helps even before you can read the characters:

Mapo tofu (麻婆豆腐) — silken tofu in a spicy, numbing Sichuan sauce with ground pork. One of the most distinctive dishes in Chinese cooking. See the full mapo tofu guide.
Dan dan noodles (担担面) — wheat noodles in a sesame-chili sauce with preserved vegetables. See the dan dan noodles guide.
Kung pao chicken (宫保鸡丁) — stir-fried chicken with dried chilies, peanuts, and Sichuan peppercorn. See the kung pao chicken guide.
Char siu (叉烧) — Cantonese BBQ pork, roasted to a lacquered red finish, served sliced over rice or inside buns.
Hot pot (火锅 huǒguō) — a shared cooking experience: a simmering broth in the center of the table, raw ingredients ordered from a list, cooked by dipping. The menu is entirely raw ingredients to choose from.

Ordering customs at Chinese restaurants

Sharing is standard: dishes are placed at the center of the table and everyone eats from the same plates. It is polite to serve others before yourself. Tea arrives automatically at most Chinese restaurants and is either free or very low cost. At the end of the meal, the check is usually fought over — paying for others is a sign of generosity and care.

At large family-style restaurants, particularly at dim sum, ordering can feel chaotic. At dim sum, paper order forms are the most common system: scan the menu card, tick boxes, hand the form to staff, and dishes arrive as they are made.

When characters are genuinely unreadable, ChefBear's Chinese menu translator can read them from a photo and explain each dish.

FAQ

How are Chinese restaurant menus structured?

Most Chinese menus organize dishes by protein (pork, chicken, beef, seafood, tofu) rather than by course. Cold dishes often appear first, followed by stir-fries, braises, soups, and rice or noodles at the end. Family-style sharing is the default; dishes arrive as they are ready.

What is the difference between Cantonese and Sichuan menus?

Cantonese menus focus on fresh ingredients cooked simply — steamed fish, stir-fried greens, dim sum dumplings. Sichuan menus highlight bold, numbing spice from Sichuan peppercorns alongside dried chili. Dishes like mapo tofu and dan dan noodles appear on Sichuan menus.

What does dim sum mean and how does ordering work?

Dim sum is a Cantonese brunch tradition of small dishes served in bamboo steamers and on small plates. Modern dim sum restaurants usually use paper order forms. Common dishes: har gow (shrimp dumplings), siu mai (pork and shrimp dumplings), char siu bao (BBQ pork buns).

What does 麻辣 (mala) mean on a Sichuan menu?

Mala (麻辣) describes the signature Sichuan flavor: 麻 (má) means numbing from Sichuan peppercorns, and 辣 (là) means spicy from dried chili. Together they create a sensation that is simultaneously hot and numbing.

What is the standard way to order at a Chinese restaurant?

Order a selection of dishes to share around the table — roughly one dish per person plus a shared soup or vegetable. Rice is usually ordered separately. Tea is often poured automatically.

Navigate any Chinese menu with confidence.

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