Speaking Mandarin Chinese
How to tell a restaurant about a food allergy, in Mandarin
If you are in the chair right now
我对海鲜过敏。可以帮我问一下厨房吗？
I'm allergic to seafood. Could you ask the kitchen for me?
If that gets brushed off
我的过敏很严重，一点都不能吃。
My allergy is serious — I can't eat any at all.
The pattern is 对…过敏: the food goes after 对 and before 过敏, and dropping the 对 unravels the sentence. 帮我问一下 asks for the check as a small favour, which is exactly the register that gets it done.
Every phrasebook has the word for allergy. What they skip is that in most Chinese restaurants there is no allergen list to fall back on — no EU-style fourteen-item chart at the back of the menu. The kitchen check is not politeness here. It is the only mechanism you have.
If you need more than one line
softest
这个菜里有什么？
What's in this dish? The gentle opener.
neutral
我对花生过敏。
I'm allergic to peanuts. Swap in: 海鲜 seafood, 坚果 tree nuts, 鸡蛋 egg, 牛奶 milk, 麸质 gluten.
neutral
可以帮我问一下厨房吗？
Could you ask the kitchen for me? 帮我 plus 一下 — a favour, kept small — and the question that actually protects you.
firmest
如果有，我就点别的。
If it's in there, I'll just order something else. 就 sews the condition to the outcome, and gives them an easy yes.
Two things worth knowing
The word for allergy is the easy part.
对 is not optional
过敏 alone means «allergic», but the thing you are allergic to has exactly one place to live: after 对, before 过敏 — 我对海鲜过敏. Learners produce 我过敏海鲜 by translating word order, and the sentence stops working. Practise the pattern until the 对 arrives on its own, because you will be saying this one under pressure.
There is no list — so make the kitchen the list
EU menus legally mark fourteen allergens; Chinese menus, with rare exceptions, mark none, and cross-contact in a wok kitchen is real. That makes 帮我问一下厨房 the load-bearing sentence of the whole meal. One more door may open for you: the waiter may ask 有什么忌口吗 — any dietary restrictions? — and that question is your invitation to say the 对…过敏 sentence.
What Mei actually said
What you have to get done
- Say what you can't eat
- Ask what's in the dish
- Have them check with the kitchen
Mei
Hello, have you decided what to order?
You
I haven't decided yet, but first let me explain: I'm severely allergic to peanuts and can't eat anything containing them; could you ask the kitchen whether this dish has peanuts in it?
Mei
Of course, I'll have the kitchen confirm right away, and I won't serve it until they have.
You
Thank you — please confirm exactly what the ingredients are, especially whether there are peanuts or any chance of cross-contact with them.
Mei
Of course, I'll confirm all the ingredients and any peanut cross-contact with the kitchen and let you know; please don't worry.
The whole conversation, unedited
A real run in the app, nothing scripted on the waiter's side. The transcript above is taken from this recording, and the objectives tick off on screen as they are met.
Turn sound on to hear it.
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: Mei 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
