The MenuLens Blog
Tips and guides for eating abroad, reading foreign menus, and travelling with your taste buds.
- ·5 min read
How to Read a Menu in Italy: A Tourist's Field Guide
An Italian menu has a structure most travellers don't realise — and breaking it accidentally is how you end up with two pasta courses and no main. Here's how to read it the way Italians do.
- ·4 min read
15 French Menu Terms Every Tourist Should Know
French menus are full of words that sound similar but mean very different things. Here are the 15 terms that decide whether you order what you wanted — or something you really didn't.
- ·5 min read
Hidden Allergens on Foreign Menus: A Traveller's Guide
If you have a food allergy and you travel, you already know the menu is the easy part — it's everything that doesn't make it onto the page that's dangerous. Here's what to watch for.
- ·5 min read
How to Read a Menu in Japan Without Speaking Japanese
An izakaya menu can look like a wall of unfamiliar characters. Here's how to recognise the dishes you actually want — and how to order them without making a mess of it.
- ·4 min read
Google Translate Camera vs MenuLens: Which Translates Restaurant Menus Better?
We tested both apps on real menus from Italy, Japan, and Spain. Here's where Google Translate's camera mode shines, where it fails, and what a menu-specific app does differently.
- ·4 min read
How to Translate a Restaurant Menu with Your Phone Camera (2026 Guide)
Three ways to translate a foreign menu with your phone — Google Translate, Google Lens, and MenuLens. Which one actually works when you're sitting at the table, hungry, and the waiter is hovering.
- ·1 min read
Welcome to the MenuLens Blog
A quick introduction to what we'll be writing about — and why translating menus deserves more than a passing thought.
