Speaking Japanese

How to tell a restaurant about a food allergy, in Japanese

If you are in the chair right now

卵アレルギーがあるので、卵が入っていない料理はどれですか。

I have an egg allergy. Which dishes don't have egg in them?

If that gets brushed off

重いアレルギーなので、厨房に確認してもらえますか。

It's a serious allergy, so could you check with the kitchen?

Say アレルギー, not 苦手. 苦手 is the word every textbook teaches for food you are bad with, and it is heard as a preference to work around if convenient. Swap the food in freely: 卵 (egg), 小麦 (wheat), そば (buckwheat), 落花生 (peanuts), 乳製品 (dairy), えび・かに (prawn and crab).

Every phrasebook has the word for allergy. None of them prepare you for the part that decides it: a waiter who nods, means it kindly, and does not go and ask. Getting the question as far as the kitchen is a different skill from knowing the noun, and it is the one worth practising.

If you need more than one line

softest

これ、何が入っていますか。

What's in this one? 入っています is the everyday way to ask what a dish contains.

neutral

卵アレルギーがあります。

I have an egg allergy.

neutral

厨房に確認してもらえますか。

Could you check with the kitchen? The question that actually protects you.

firmest

入っているなら、別のものにします。

If it's in there, I'll have something else. Gives them an easy way to say yes.

Two things worth knowing

The word for allergy is the easy part.

アレルギー and 苦手 are not heard the same

苦手 is the word most learners reach for, because it is the one the food chapter teaches. It means you are bad with something, and a kitchen hears a preference. アレルギー is heard as a medical constraint, and 重いアレルギー as one that matters. Being precise here counts for more than being modest about it.

Ask them to check, not to remember

「これ、卵は入っていますか」 invites an answer from memory, and a busy server will give you one. 「厨房に確認してもらえますか」 asks for something else entirely and is much harder to answer on the spot. In Japanese it is also the more polite of the two, because it asks for a favour rather than testing what somebody knows.

What Aiko actually said

What you have to get done

Say what you cannot eat
Ask about what's in the dish
Have them confirm with the kitchen

Aiko

こんばんは。何かお手伝いできることはありますか？

Good evening. Is there anything I can help you with?

You

実は、私は卵アレルギーがあるので、卵を使った料理について教えてもらえますか？キッチンに確認してもらえると助かります。

Actually, I have an egg allergy, so could you tell me which dishes use egg? It would help if you could check with the kitchen.

Aiko

卵アレルギーについて教えてくださり、ありがとうございます。キッチンに確認してみますね。

Thank you for telling me about the egg allergy. I'll go and check with the kitchen.

You

ありがとうございます。ところで、キッチンには何が入っているか確認してもらえますか？特にオムレツやケーキのような料理について知りたいです。

Thank you. Could you check with the kitchen what's in them? I'd particularly like to know about dishes like the omelette and the cake.

Aiko

はい、オムレツやケーキについても確認しますので、少々お待ちください。確認が終わりましたらお知らせします。

Yes, I'll check on the omelette and the cake too, so one moment please. I'll let you know once I have.

Now say it yourself

Reading that is not the same as producing it with someone waiting, which is the entire difficulty. You can have this exact conversation in the app: Aiko is a third of the way through, and you have three things to get done.

It is free, it takes about a minute to start, and the first attempt is allowed to be terrible.

Practise this conversation

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