Translate French menu

A Guide to Understanding Restaurant Menus in France

From succulent seafood to melt-in-the mouth desserts, eating out in France is a sheer delight. The French know how to savor their food, dining at restaurants which serve long, leisurely lunches and dinners of three or more courses.

However, outside the major tourist areas, restaurant menus are completely in French and can be difficult to understand if you don’t speak French fluently. The restaurant staff may not be able to explain the choices to you if they speak little or no English. Here is guide to understanding French restaurant menus so that you gain the maximum enjoyment from your dining experiences in France.

Appetizers

Unlike in the USA where an entrée is a main course, entrées in France are appetizers or starters. If you would like to try a traditional French delicacy, choose snails (escargots), frogs’ legs (cuisses de grenouille) or oysters (huîtres).

If you enjoy eating pâtés or terrines, several different types feature on French menus, including duck liver pâté (foie gras de canard), and pork and liver pâté (pâté de campagne).

If you prefer a more conventional starter, look for a soup (soupe or potage). Fish soup (soupe de poisson) and onion soup (soupe à l’oignon) are among the most common soups served in French restaurants. You may see potage du jour on the menu, which means soup of the day.

Two other popular appetizers on French menus are smoked salmon (saumon fumé) and goat’s cheese (chèvre).

Meat Dishes

From beef to rabbit and from chicken to young pigeon, a wide variety of meat dishes (les viandes) are served in French restaurants. When ordering meat, you may be asked how you would like it to be cooked. There are five possible answers:

• very rare (bleu)
• rare (saignant)
• medium (à point)
• medium-well (cuit) or
• well done (bien cuit).

Bear in mind that meat may be cooked for less time than you are used to at home. So, if you would not be happy with a rare steak, ask for it to be cuit or bien cuit.

Steaks feature prominently on French menus. Ribeye steak (entrecôte) may be served with black pepper sauce (sauce poivre) or Béarnaise sauce (sauce béarnaise), which is made from white wine, egg yolks and butter and flavored with tarragon.

Steak tartare is a popular dish in France. It is made from raw minced steak combined with onion, raw egg and herbs. Although steak tartare is safe to eat when prepared properly, it should be avoided if you are pregnant or have a weak immune system.

Various lamb (l’agneau) dishes are served in French restaurants. Choose from lamb fillet (filet d’agneau), lamb shank (gigot d’agneau), a rack of lamb (carré d’agneau) or lamb chops (côtes d’agneau or côtelettes d’agneau).

Other types of meat that may appear on your menu include:

 canard – duck
 dinde – turkey
 lapin – rabbit
 pigeonneau – young pigeon
 porc – pork
 poulet – chicken
 veau – veal.

Seafood

Seafood features prominently on the menus of French restaurants, especially those that are situated near to the sea. In French, the words for seafood – fruits de mer -literally mean “fruits of the sea”. If you can’t decide which seafood to have, some restaurants offer an assiette or plateau de fruits de mer which is a plate of several different types of seafood.

Homard, langouste and langoustine are different types of lobster. They can be grilled (grillé) or served in a dish called langouste à l’armoricaine, which includes a sauce made from onions, carrots, tomatoes, garlic and herbs.

Mussels (moules) are cooked in a sauce, often consisting of white wine, onions and herbs, and served in a large, steaming pot. They are usually served with fries – moules frites means mussels with fries.

Other types of seafood appearing on French menus include prawns (crevettes roses), tiger prawns (gambas), and shrimps (crevettes grises).

If you prefer a fillet of fish (filet de poisson), choose from salmon (filet de saumon), trout (filet detruite) or cod (filet demorue).

Side Dishes

Fries or chips (frites or pommes frites) are a popular side dish. Vegetables (les legumes) often accompany meat or fish dishes. Different types of vegetables include:

• les choux-fleurs – cauliflower
• les endives – chicory
• les épinards – spinach
• les haricots (verts) – (green) beans
• les oignons – onions
• les (petits) pois – peas
• les pommes de terre – potatoes
• la salade (verte) – (green) salad.

Cheeses in translation

In many French restaurants, cheeses (les fromages) are served between the main course and dessert. This is a good opportunity to sample a wide variety of French cheeses because the cheese course usually consists of a platter of several different cheeses – plateau de fromages. It may include Brie, Camembert, Roquefort, and less well-known, locally produced cheeses.

Translate French Desserts

The word “dessert” means the same in French as in English. If you have eaten so much that only a light dessert is possible, ask for an ice cream (une glace). You may be asked how many scoops (boules) you want.

French cakes look and taste delicious. You may be offered a selection of freshly made cakes (pâtisserie du jour) to choose from.

If you like the thin French pancakes called crêpes, you may find some variations on your menu. For example, crêpes Suzette are served with a syrup made from orange juice, butter, caramelized sugar and flambéed brandy.

If you like apple pie, try tarte tatin which is an apple pie without the top crust. A mixed fruit tart may also be on the menu – tarte aux fruits. If you prefer sharp, citrus flavours, a lemon tart (tarte au citron) is an excellent choice.

Two traditional French desserts are crème brûlée and clafoutis.Crème brûlée consists of vanilla-flavored custard topped with caramalized sugar. Clafoutis contains cherries baked in batter and is a comforting dessert that it is served warm.

For chocolate lovers, a fondue au chocolat is a pot of melted chocolate which is accompanied by pieces of fruit on skewers. For an indulgent dessert, choose chocolate cake (gâteau au chocolat) served with whipped cream (crème chantilly) or chocolate mousse (mousse au chocolat).

When dining in French restaurants, it is often difficult to decide what to eat because there are so many delicious dishes to choose from. Be adventurous and try at least one French delicacy or dish that you have never eaten before. The French are renowned for their love of food, so take time to savor each meal you eat in France using this guide to translate French menu.