Translate the menu before you order
A menu is the worst moment to be guessing: small print, dish names that are not in any phrasebook, a waiter waiting. Point your iPhone at it and read the whole thing in your own language — in 58 languages, and in most of them without a signal.
The whole menu, not one word at a time
Every line is read and translated in one scan, and laid over the menu where it belongs, so you can still tell the starters from the mains. Underneath it is set out as plain text for when the photo is hard to read in the light of a candle.
The scan is kept on your phone afterwards. You can read it again when the food arrives, or translate the same menu into a second language for whoever you are eating with — at no extra cost, because the work is already done.
Restaurants are where the signal dies
A basement trattoria, a courtyard, a village taverna. The camera reads 41 of the 58 languages on the phone itself, so no bars is not the end of dinner. What works with no internet.
Greek, Thai and Arabic menus
These scripts are the 17 the phone cannot read on its own. Scan the menu anyway — the photo is kept and translates itself when you have signal again, so at least you know what you ate. Which languages.
Nothing to sign up for
No account, no email address, and the translation stays on your phone. You are at a table with a menu, not filling in a form. What stays on the phone.
One thing it should not be trusted with
An allergy. This is machine translation, and a dish name can hide an ingredient no translation will surface — a stock, a sauce, something fried in the same oil. Use SofiLingo to understand the menu, then tell the waiter about the allergy in their own language. It will translate that sentence for you too, and typing works offline in every one of the 58.
Write the sentence out in full. Put through machine translation, “I have a nut allergy” comes out in Spanish as alergia a las nueces and in Italian as allergia alle noci, and both mean walnuts, not nuts in general. “I have an allergy to all nuts. Does this contain any nuts or traces of nuts?” comes out with frutos secos and frutta a guscio, the words that cover every nut. If it is one food, name that food.
Questions
How do I translate a menu with my iPhone?
Open SofiLingo, point the camera at the menu and tap to scan. The translation appears over the menu itself, line by line, with the full text underneath in your language. The scan is saved, so you can read it again after you have put your phone down.
Does it work if the restaurant has no signal?
In most languages, yes. The camera reads 25 languages on the phone with no connection at all, and 16 more fall back to the phone when there is none. In the remaining 17 the photo is kept and translates itself once you are back online.
Can I rely on it for an allergy?
No. This is machine translation, and a dish name can hide an ingredient that no translation will surface — a sauce, a stock, a garnish. Use it to understand the menu, then tell the waiter about the allergy in their language. SofiLingo can translate that sentence for you, and typing works offline in every language. Write it out in full: “I have a nut allergy” often comes out as walnuts (nueces in Spanish, noci in Italian), while “I have an allergy to all nuts” comes out as the word for every nut.
Can I translate the same menu into another language?
Yes. Every scan is kept on the phone, so you can open it again and translate it into a different language at no extra cost — useful when you are eating with someone who reads neither the menu nor your language.
Read the next menu
The first 15 translations are free, with ads and no card. The Holiday pass is $4.99 for 14 days, one payment, and does not renew — a trip's worth of menus with nothing to cancel afterwards.
Get SofiLingo on the App StoreNext: translating anything else with the camera · a translator for going abroad · translating with no internet · speaking a phrase out loud · what works offline in all 58 languages · passes and prices