An iOS dining companion for China
Read the menu.
Ask with confidence.
Enjoy more of China.
Bite China helps international visitors translate Chinese menus into their preferred language, understand unfamiliar dishes, notice dietary information and communicate more confidently at the table.
Scan
Photograph a Chinese menu and let Bite China recognise the text.
Understand
See dish names, descriptions and cultural context in your language.
Personalise
Set dietary preferences so relevant flags surface automatically.
Communicate
Speak or show translated Mandarin phrases at the table.
The problem with word-for-word
A literal translation can leave you more confused than the original.
Chinese dish names are often poetry, history or a joke — rarely a list of ingredients. Translate them word by word and you get something stranger than the Chinese. Bite China is built to close that gap, so ordering feels like curiosity rather than a gamble.
This is the part a dictionary can't do for you: what the dish actually is, roughly what's in it, and which question is worth asking before you order.
Why China, why food
There is an extraordinary amount worth discovering.
China has an extraordinary variety of dishes worth discovering. From steaming baskets of bao and xiaolongbao to neighbourhood noodle shops and regional family recipes, food is one of the most rewarding ways to experience a place.
Bite China is being created to make that experience easier to enter — with respect for the language, the cuisine and the people serving it. Not to sanitise a menu into something familiar, but to give you enough footing to order the unfamiliar thing on purpose.
At the table
From "I have no idea" to "I'll have this one."
Point your camera at the menu and the page comes back readable — dish names in your language, what's typically in them, how they're cooked, and where they come from. If you've told the app you avoid peanuts or pork, those dishes carry a flag before you order, not after.
That's usually enough to decide. And when it isn't, you'll at least know the right question to ask — which is exactly what the phrase cards are for.
See how it worksDespite the name, this dish contains no fish. Shredded pork cooked in a Sichuan "fish-fragrant" seasoning of pickled chilli, garlic, ginger, vinegar and sugar — sweet, sour and gently spicy.
What Bite China does
Six tools for one table.
Everything is built around a single moment: standing in front of an unfamiliar menu, wanting to choose well and ask clearly.
Scan, and read it clearly
Photograph a Chinese menu and see dish names and descriptions in your preferred language.
Know what you're ordering
Likely ingredients, cooking style and regional context — enough to decide, and to ask.
Set your preferences once
Lactose, peanut, vegetarian, no beef, no pork, gluten-free — flagged as guidance, not guarantee.
Choose how you read
Menus and dish information translate into the language you select, not only English.
Say what you need
Build practical phrases and see them in Simplified Chinese, ready to show or speak.
Hear it said correctly
Play translated Mandarin phrases aloud through your iPhone speaker — no microphone required.
Being straight with you
What it does, and where it stops.
A translation app can be genuinely useful without pretending to be all-knowing. Here's the honest line between the two.
Making the menu readable
Turning a page of unfamiliar characters into dish names, descriptions and context you can actually act on — and giving you the Mandarin to ask a clear question.
Know one kitchen's recipe
Every restaurant cooks a dish slightly differently, and no app can see into a wok. We describe what a dish usually contains — the kitchen confirms what's in yours.
This matters most with allergies. Bite China flags what a dish typically contains and hands you the phrase to check — but if a reaction would be serious, the confirmation has to come from the person cooking. We built the phrase cards precisely so that conversation is easy to have.
Menu Mate China Ltd