The manner in which you order your food in Japan somewhat depends on what kind of restaurant you happen to be visiting.

For example, if you're at an izakaya, you may want to ask:

飲み放題はありますか？
のみほうだい　は　あります　か？
Do you have (an) all-you-can-drink (option)?
Literally: “all-you-can-drink + は + there is / have + か?”

A lot of izakaya offer all-you-can-drink options, and they tend to be somewhere in the vicinity of $10-20 per person and last 90 minutes to two hours. This varies by izakaya, of course.

A lot of them also offer set courses. For example, here's the current course menu for わたみん家 (わたみんち), which is an izakaya chain you can find in Tokyo:

Here's their site. I used to go to their branch in East Shinjuku with my coworker James a lot, since it was right across the street from the building our English school was in.

If you're at an izakaya and would like to know if they offer set courses like that, you can say something like:

コース料理はありますか？
コース　りょうり　は　あります　か？
Do you have any course options?
Literally: “course + cooking + は + there is / have + か?”

If you end up deciding on, say, an all-you-can-drink course, you can say:

２時間の飲み放題お願いします。
にじかん　の　のみほうだい　おねがいします。
We’d like the 2-hour all-you-can-drink (option), please.
Literally: “two hours + の + all-you-can-drink + please.”

I used to love all-you-can-drink specials. I don't drink quite as much as I used to, though, so they seem slightly less exciting nowadays... I must be getting old...

---

Let's say you're not at an izakaya.

Maybe you're at an Italian place, and you want to order a pasta set.

You might say...

ペペロンチーノのスープセットください。
ペペロンチーノ　の　スープ　セット　ください。
I’d like the peperoncino soup set, please.
Literally: “peperoncino + の + soup + set + please.”

I keep saying "set," but maybe we'd say "combo" in English in this case? Then again, "combo" makes me think of fast food, so maybe "set" is better.

By the way, I didn't really know what a "peperoncino soup set" might refer to, so I tried looking it up. The Japanese Wikipedia page for ペペロンチーノ says that it refers to "pasta aglio" or "olio e peperoncino," but the English page redirects you to spaghetti aglio e olio. Anyway, it's spaghetti made with garlic, olive oil, and chili peppers, if I'm not mistaken. Is this common knowledge? Am I going to get hate mail from Italian readers?

Speaking of Italian food, I am wholly convinced that it's better in Japan than it is in the U.S. It seems like everywhere we've been in the States, pasta comes out mushy half the time... unless you explicitly order it al dente... but then it can be too hard, sometimes. Pasta in Japan seems to always be cooked perfectly. Then again, I'm no pasta expert.

If you want to see the many ways that one can eat spaghetti in Japan, by the way, check out the chain すぱじろう.

Taking a look at their menu page, you'll see that they offer Japanese-style spaghetti:

...and Western-style spaghetti:

---

After you've ordered, there's a chance that your server will say something like:

メニューお下げしてもよろしいですか？
メニュー　おさげ　しても　よろしい　です　か？
May I take these menus away?
Literally: “menu + may I (humbly) take (=lowering + even if [I] do + good + です + か)?”

Yeah, you could just say はい, "Yes," but you don't want to give up your menus! You want to study them like the nerd that you are while waiting for your food to arrive.

So you say...

まだ持っててもいいですか？
まだ　もってても　いい　です　か？
Is it all right if I hold onto them?
Literally: “still + all right to hold onto (=even if [I] am holding + good + です + か)?”

---

Anyway, I think we've done enough food-ordering for now.

In the next travel lesson, let's look at some other useful restaurant phrases...