An Arabic menu that reads as well as it translates

A restaurant adds Arabic to its menu before opening its second venue. The English menu goes to a translation service, the Arabic comes back, and the designer places it beside the English. The first Arabic-speaking guests are polite, but a few smile at the descriptions, one points out that a dish name has been translated into something meaningless and another notices that the Arabic text runs in the wrong direction on one page. The menu has two languages, but it only reads well in one.

An Arabic menu that reads as well as it translates takes more than translation. Arabic is written from right to left in its own script, many dish names are better kept than translated, descriptions need to sound natural rather than literal and the layout has to work for both languages at once. Done well, a bilingual menu tells Arabic-speaking guests that the venue was made for them too. Done badly, it tells them the opposite.

This guide covers how to lay out two scripts on one menu, what to translate and what to transliterate, how to write descriptions that work in both languages, and who should check the result before it is printed. Every venue and figure in it is an example.

In the UAE and across the Gulf, many guests read Arabic first, and many venues serve them alongside guests who read English. A menu in both languages makes every guest feel considered, helps guests order with confidence and shows respect for the place the venue trades in.

For venues expanding into markets where Arabic is the main language of daily life, such as Saudi Arabia, a well-made Arabic menu is often expected rather than a courtesy.

English is written from left to right; Arabic is written from right to left, in its own script, with letters that join and change shape depending on their position in a word. Numbers in Arabic text are usually still read from left to right, which adds a layer of care when prices sit beside Arabic text.

These differences shape every decision on a bilingual menu, from where each language sits to how the prices line up. A layout designed for English and then filled with Arabic rarely works.

There are three common layouts for a bilingual menu. Side by side, with English on one side of the page and Arabic on the other. One above the other, with each dish in English followed by Arabic. Or two separate menus, one in each language, sometimes back to back.

Side by side works well on a wide page, with English on the left and Arabic on the right, each reading from its own edge. One above the other suits narrow pages and digital menus. Separate menus give each language the most room but double the printing.

Prices on a bilingual menu need a clear home. On a side-by-side layout, many menus place the price in the middle, between the two languages, so both readers find it easily. On a stacked layout, the price usually sits once, aligned consistently for both lines.

Decide whether prices appear in Western or Arabic numerals, and keep to it. Both are used in the region; consistency matters more than the choice.

Choose fonts designed to work together: an Arabic font and a Latin font with similar weight, size and feel, so the two languages look like one menu rather than two pasted together. Many type families include both scripts, designed as a pair.

Check the Arabic font at the size it will be printed. Arabic letters have dots and marks that disappear in small or light fonts, and a font that looks elegant on screen can be hard to read on a dimly lit table.

Good menu design applies to both languages: clear sections, enough space, a sensible order and dishes easy to find. A bilingual menu has twice the text in the same space, so it needs even more discipline.

Our guide to menu design for reading, not for framing covers the principles, and our guide to menu layout: one page, two columns or a folder covers the formats.

For each dish name, decide whether to translate it, transliterate it or keep it. Translating gives the meaning in the other language. Transliterating writes the original name in the other script, so it sounds the same. Keeping it leaves the name as it is, often with a short description.

Well-known dish names, such as many Arabic, Italian or Japanese dishes, are usually best transliterated or kept, with a description. Translating a famous dish name word for word often produces something that sounds strange to everyone.

Dishes guests already know by name should keep that name. Arabic-speaking guests ordering a well-known Arabic dish expect to see its usual name in Arabic, not a translation of an English description. English-speaking guests ordering a well-known Italian dish expect the Italian name.

Ask the people who will order the dish what they call it. The name they use is the name that belongs on the menu.

Menu descriptions should sound natural in each language, not like a translation. A description written in English and translated word for word into Arabic, or the other way round, often reads stiffly and sometimes oddly.

Write the meaning, not the words: what is in the dish, how it is cooked and what makes it good. Our guide to menu descriptions that sell without adjectives covers how to describe dishes plainly, and the same plain approach translates far better than flowery writing.

Use a translator who knows food and the region, and ideally the dialects your guests speak, rather than a general translation service or a machine. Food terms, cooking methods and ingredient names are where general translation goes wrong most often.

Give the translator context: photos of the dishes, the ingredients, how they are cooked and who the guests are. A translator who has seen the dish writes a better description than one working from a list of words.

Have the finished menu checked by native Arabic speakers who know food: members of the team, trusted regulars or a second translator. Ask them to read it as a guest would, and to point out anything that sounds wrong, unclear or unintentionally funny.

Check the layout too: that the Arabic runs from right to left throughout, that letters join correctly and that nothing has been reversed or broken by the design software. Many design tools handle Arabic poorly unless set up carefully.

Allergen and dietary information must be clear in both languages. A guest with an allergy should be able to read, in their own language, what each dish contains, with symbols or words used consistently.

Check the allergen translations with particular care. A mistake in a description is embarrassing; a mistake in an allergen is dangerous. Our guide to dietary labels guests can trust on a menu covers how to present them.

Terms such as halal, vegetarian, vegan and gluten free need consistent, accurate translations, and claims must be true in both languages. A dish described as halal in Arabic must be halal in fact, with the sourcing to support it.

Our guide to a halal menu and the sourcing behind it covers what a halal claim on a menu should rest on.

Digital menus, opened with a QR code or on a website, need the same care, with extra questions: does the menu switch between languages, does the Arabic display correctly from right to left on a phone and do the dish photos and prices line up in both?

Test the digital menu on several phones in both languages. Our guide to QR menu design is not a PDF on a phone covers what a good digital menu needs.

The menu is not the only text guests read. Specials boards, table cards, signs and the bill all carry words. A venue with a bilingual menu and an English-only specials board sends a mixed message.

Decide which of these will be in both languages, and keep them consistent. A specials board in two languages takes a little more space and a little more effort every day.

Bookings in another language are part of the same welcome. Guests who read Arabic first may prefer to book, confirm and ask questions in Arabic, by phone, message or online. A venue whose booking page, confirmations and team all work only in English may lose them before they arrive.

Consider which parts of the booking journey can be offered in Arabic, and make sure someone on the team can take bookings and answer questions in the language guests prefer.

A bilingual menu works best with a team that can help guests in both languages. Servers who can explain dishes in Arabic and English, or at least know who can, make the menu come alive.

Train the team on the menu in both languages: the dish names, the main ingredients and the allergens. A server who can pronounce the Arabic names correctly earns guests' trust.

Every change to the menu now happens twice: a new dish, a changed price, a seasonal special. The risk is that the two languages drift apart, with the Arabic showing last season's dishes or old prices.

Make updating both languages part of every menu change, with the same person checking that they match. A menu whose two languages disagree confuses guests and can cause disputes over the bill.

A good bilingual menu costs more: translation, checking, a designer who knows both scripts and more careful printing. It also takes more time to update.

Budget for it as part of the menu, not an extra. The cost of doing it properly is small beside the impression a poor translation makes on every guest who reads it.

If a full bilingual menu feels like too much at first, start with the parts guests use most: dish names and short descriptions for the main menu, allergens and the prices. Add the full descriptions, the drinks list and the specials as the venue settles.

A short menu done well in both languages is better than a long one done badly.

Arabic is written in a standard form that readers across the Arab world understand, and spoken in many dialects that differ from one country to the next. Menus are usually written in the standard form, with dish names as guests know them in the region, which may come from a local dialect.

Choose a register and keep to it. A menu that switches between formal standard Arabic and a casual local dialect from one dish to the next reads oddly. A translator who knows both, and who knows your guests, can make the right choice dish by dish.

Dish names from Arabic and other languages can be written in English in several ways: shawarma or shawerma, hummus or houmous, labneh or labna. None is wrong, but a menu that uses two spellings for the same dish, or a spelling that differs from the sign outside and the listing online, looks careless.

Choose one spelling for each dish and use it everywhere: on the menu, the specials board, the website, the listing on maps and the delivery apps. Guests who search for a dish they enjoyed should find it under the name they saw.

Keep a glossary: every ingredient, cooking method, allergen and dietary term on the menu, with the agreed word in each language. Share it with the translator, the designer, the kitchen and the floor team.

A glossary keeps the menu consistent as it changes. When a new dish arrives, its description is written from the same words as the rest, and the allergen terms in Arabic are the ones already checked, not new ones chosen in a hurry.

In Saudi Arabia, restaurants must show calories on their menus, and venues elsewhere in the region may choose to. On a bilingual menu, the figures must appear consistently beside each dish in both languages, with the unit written clearly.

Numbers are easy to get wrong when a menu is laid out twice. Check every figure in both languages against the kitchen's records, and update both whenever a recipe changes.

Check the menu on paper, not only on screen. A proof printed at the real size, on the real paper, shows problems a screen hides: an Arabic font that prints too lightly, marks that disappear at small sizes, text that runs into the fold or prices that drift out of line.

Ask the printer whether their software handles Arabic properly, and send files with the fonts embedded. Many printing problems with Arabic come from a file that looked right on the designer's screen and changed on the printer's.

Restaurants are often dimly lit, and many guests read menus without their reading glasses. Arabic letters, with their dots and small marks, can become hard to read at small sizes or in light weights sooner than many Latin fonts do.

Set a minimum size for both languages, test the menu at the darkest table in the room and choose contrast over decoration. A menu guests can read easily is a menu they order from with confidence.

Before printing a full run, test the new menu with guests: a few copies shown to Arabic-speaking regulars, members of the team and friends of the venue. Ask what was unclear, what sounded strange and what they would have ordered.

Guests notice different things from translators. A regular may point out that a dish is called something else in their family, or that a description promises more than the dish delivers. Their comments are worth having before the menu is printed in hundreds.

A bilingual menu needs an owner: one person who approves every change to the Arabic version, keeps the glossary and checks that both languages match before anything is printed or published. Without one, the Arabic drifts, because everyone assumes someone else has checked it.

The owner does not have to translate. They make sure the translator has what they need, that a native speaker has read the result and that the printed menu, the specials board and the digital menu all show the same words in both languages.

An invented bistro opening in Riyadh needs a bilingual menu. Instead of sending the English menu to a general translation service, the owner hires a translator with food experience, shares photos of every dish and the list of ingredients and agrees which dish names to keep, which to transliterate and which to translate.

The designer uses a type family with matched Arabic and Latin fonts, places English on the left and Arabic on the right with prices in the middle, and two Arabic-speaking members of the team read the proof aloud. They catch a reversed line, an awkward description and an allergen term used inconsistently. The menu is corrected before printing, and the team is trained on the dish names in both languages.

servearound's menus, guest menu and booking page are in English only today: there are no translations or second languages in it, so an Arabic or bilingual menu is designed, translated and printed outside it for now. What it holds in English is the content a bilingual menu is built from.

Each dish carries its name, description, ingredients, allergens and dietary tags, photos and prices, and its calories where they are entered, and the guest menu shows them, with filters to show or avoid allergens and dietary tags. Changes made there, such as a new price or a dish marked sold out, show on the guest menu at once, which is a useful reminder to update the Arabic version at the same time. See the menus module.

If many of your guests read Arabic first, a bilingual menu makes them feel welcome and helps them order.

Side by side on a wide page, stacked on narrow pages and digital menus, or two separate menus.

Well-known names are usually best kept or transliterated, with a description.

A translator who knows food and the region, given photos and ingredients.

Native Arabic speakers who know food, reading it as guests would.

Translate them carefully and consistently, and check them twice.

Update both with every change, and have one person check they match.

Yes: dish names, short descriptions, allergens and prices first.

An Arabic menu that reads as well as it translates needs more than translation. Lay out the two scripts so each reads from its own edge, with prices where both readers find them and fonts designed to work together. Keep or transliterate well-known dish names, write menu descriptions that sound natural in each language and treat allergens and dietary terms with particular care.

Use a translator who knows food, have native speakers check the proof and update both languages with every change. Apply good menu design to the whole bilingual menu, extend the welcome to bookings in another language and the team's service, and the menu will tell every guest that the venue was made for them.