Questions about MenuGuide

MenuGuide is a menu translator app for iPhone, iPad and Android. Take a photo of a restaurant menu and it shows every dish in your language with a photo, ingredients, allergen and diet flags, calories and the price in your currency. When you’re ready, it shows or reads your order aloud in the waiter’s language.

MenuGuide translates menus into 49 languages, including English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Japanese, Korean, Thai, Vietnamese, Arabic, Hebrew, Hindi, Russian and Ukrainian. The menu itself can be in another language or script — for example Japanese, Thai or Greek.

For most printed menus, very good: MenuGuide translates dish names in context rather than word by word. Regional specialities can still come out imperfectly, so the original dish name is always shown under the translation.

Often, yes — if the writing is legible and the photo is sharp. Printed menus give the most reliable results. Hold your phone parallel to the menu, fill the frame with one page and avoid glare.

Yes. They are real photos of each dish found on the web, so you can see what it typically looks like. They aren’t taken at that restaurant, so the plating may differ.

Use it as a helper, not a guarantee. MenuGuide flags dishes that may contain the allergens you choose (peanuts, tree nuts, shellfish, fish, dairy, eggs, gluten, soy or sesame) or that clash with your diet, and lists the allergens it finds in every dish. This is an AI estimate from the menu text and typical recipes, so with a serious allergy always confirm with the staff.

No. Translating a new menu needs an internet connection because the photo is processed by AI. Menus you have already scanned stay saved in History on your phone.

You can try MenuGuide free, including the built-in sample menu and a limited number of scans per day. Premium unlocks unlimited scans and every dish on long menus. In the US it costs $4.99 a week, $9.99 a month or $39.99 a year; your store shows the local price before you pay.

Subscriptions are handled by Apple or Google. On iPhone go to Settings › Apple Account › Subscriptions; on Android open Google Play › Payments & subscriptions › Subscriptions. Premium stays active until the end of the period you’ve paid for.

Your menu photo is sent to MenuGuide’s server and processed by AI model providers (Google Gemini via OpenRouter, with OpenAI as a fallback) only to translate the menu. The app asks for permission before your first scan, and you can turn it off in Settings. Your allergies and diet are stored on your phone and sent with a scan only so matching dishes can be flagged. We do not sell your personal data. See the Privacy Policy.

Open the app, tap Photo and fit the menu page in the frame, or choose a picture from your gallery. The translated menu appears dish by dish. Tap a dish for details, add it to your order, then show the order to the waiter or tap Speak My Order.

MenuGuide reads the prices on the menu, works out the currency and shows each price in your currency. If a symbol is ambiguous — “$” can mean US dollars, Mexican pesos or Argentine pesos — it can use the country you’re in (with your permission) to pick the right one. Converted prices are estimates; you pay the menu price.

It writes your order in the menu’s language, so you can show your phone to the waiter, share the order, or tap Speak My Order to have it read aloud.

No. MenuGuide works without sign-up or login. Your saved menus and preferences stay on your phone, and you can erase them anytime in Settings › Delete account.

iPhone and iPad with iOS 16.4 or later, and Android phones and tablets with Android 7.0 or later.

Yes. The app includes a sample Italian menu, already translated, so you can see dish photos, allergens and prices in your currency before you scan a real one.