In this booster
Most of a trip’s meals aren’t the famous ones — they’re lunch. The teishoku tray at a chain like Ootoya or Yayoiken, the family restaurant with the call button, the burger counter with the number call: this is where Japan actually eats on a Tuesday, and it’s some of the best cheap food in the world. This booster is that layer: the set meal and its daily special, the refill that’s often free, the set question at the counter, and the number they call when your food is up.
The cheapest rung of the ladder is already yours: Lesson 3’s konbini — onigiri, bento, Atatamemasu ka and the eat-in counter. Two neighboring boosters map the rest of the budget: Long Stay has the supermarket’s evening half-price sticker hour (the depachika is its luxury twin), and ticket-machine restaurants — ramen, gyudon, station soba — are their own pack: there the machine is the whole conversation. This one covers the formats where a person takes your order.
No new grammar — every sentence here is a frame you already own, wearing new nouns. Mostly Lesson 1’s onegaishimasu, Lesson 4’s arimasu, Lesson 7’s permission frame, and Lesson 3’s de-answer — the same move as Mochikaeri de. Boosters assume the finished core (Lessons 1–9); take them in any order.
As always: tap each sentence and listen first, repeat it aloud, then check yourself against the text and meaning that appear. Tap again to listen as often as you like.
The teishoku table
teishoku — the set meal: one tray carrying a main dish, rice, miso soup, and pickles, at one price. It’s Japan’s default lunch, and ordering one word buys the whole balanced meal — swap sakana for any main you can name or point at.
Higawari wa nan desu ka.
higawari — “changes daily”: the daily special, chalked on a board by the door. It’s usually the best value in the building — the kitchen made a lot of it this morning — and this question is how you order well without reading the board.
Higawari, onegaishimasu.
The full order in two words. If the answer to Higawari wa nan desu ka sailed past you, this sentence works anyway — the daily special is the safest blind order in the building. One exception: with an allergy or a dietary restriction, blind is exactly how you can’t order — lead with the declarations in the Dietary Restrictions booster and ask what’s in the dish first.
Misoshiru mo onegaishimasu.
misoshiru — miso soup, the teishoku’s standard sidecar. It usually comes with the tray; this sentence adds it when you’ve ordered something that doesn’t include it.
Okawari, onegaishimasu.
okawari — a refill or second helping of the same thing: rice, tea, cabbage. Hold the empty bowl slightly toward them as you say it — the gesture is half the sentence.
Gohan no okawari, ii desu ka.
Lesson 7’s permission frame with Lesson 5’s gohan: the polite version of the ask, for when nothing on the wall says refills are free.
Okawari wa jiyuu desu ka.
jiyuu — free, in the “as you like” sense. It’s the same jiyuu that opens jiyuuseki, the unreserved train seat in the Trains and Events boosters. On a restaurant wall, おかわり自由 (okawari jiyuu) means refills are unlimited and cost nothing — the sign that makes this question worth asking.
One board-reading aside: older lunch spots list their sets by Roman letter — chalked by the door you’ll see Aランチ (Ee-ranchi — “A lunch”) and B定食 (Bii-teishoku — “B set”). The letter is the part you can already read; say it the Japanese way — A is ee, B is bii, C is shii — and Ee-ranchi, onegaishimasu orders the classic.
The famiresu and the morning
famiresu — the family restaurant: Gusto, Saizeriya, Denny’s. Huge picture menu, low prices, open late, nobody hurries you — the traveler’s rainy-evening refuge. The name is “family restaurant” squeezed into four beats, the same abbreviation habit that made konbini.
Hanbaagu teishoku, onegaishimasu.
hanbaagu — the famiresu’s signature dish, and a famous menu trap: hanbaagu is a hamburg steak — the patty alone, no bun, knife and fork — while hanbaagaa with the long ending is the sandwich. One beat decides what lands on your table.
Mooningu wa arimasu ka.
mooningu — the morning set, one of Japan’s best quiet deals: order a coffee before about 11 a.m. at a coffee shop (the Animal Cafés booster’s kafe) and toast and a boiled egg arrive with it, often for the price of the coffee alone. Nagoya’s kissaten are famous for stretching this into a free breakfast buffet.
The fast-food counter
Here’s the honest note first: the burger counter is the single easiest place in Japan to eat with no Japanese at all — picture menus everywhere, and the big chains’ kiosks speak English. What this section buys you is the human counter when there’s no kiosk, and the one moment no screen handles: the number call.
The core already carries most of this transaction: for-here-or-to-go has been yours since Lesson 3’s konbini, and every upsell dies to hai or daijoubu desu. Two optional skills sharpen it further — the menu is katakana (hanbaagaa, poteto, koora are drill words in the Katakana skill), and Keigo Ear drills the size and drinks questions. What’s new here is one word and one script:
setto — the combo: burger, fries, drink at one price. Japan orders sets by name, not number — Biggu Makku setto — and this answer rides the same de as Mochikaeri de, which you’ve owned since the konbini. The bare menu price is the item alone (the menu calls that 単品, tanpin); declining the set is just daijoubu desu.
Kore, setto de onegaishimasu.
Point plus setto de — the complete fast-food order with zero menu vocabulary. The drink and size questions that follow are answered the same way: point at the board.
Dialog
Lunch alone at a teishoku chain: the daily special, the rice question, a free refill, and out. Listen to the whole dialog cold first.
Nan-mei sama desu ka. Hitori desu. Kochira e douzo. Higawari wa nan desu ka. Kyou wa sakana desu. Ja, higawari, onegaishimasu. Gohan no ryou wa ikaga nasaimasu ka. Nami de, onegaishimasu. Gohan no okawari, ii desu ka. Okawari wa jiyuu desu. Okaikei onegaishimasu. Kyuuhyaku-en desu. Gochisousama deshita.The whole scene runs on Lesson 5’s restaurant rails — the greeting scripts, the slip carried to the front register, Gochisousama deshita at the door. The two new beats are the ones this pack drilled: the rice-amount question answered in one word, and jiyuu turning an empty bowl into a full one for free.
What they’ll say to you
Two counter scripts for your ears. You never say these — catch the keyword, answer from your kit.
Setto ni nasaimasu ka. San-ban de omachi no okyakusama, omatase itashimashita.The number call is the one part of fast food no English kiosk saves you from: your receipt has a number, and when it’s called — in Japanese — your tray is waiting. San-ban is Lesson 3’s san wearing -ban, the label-number ending; for numbers past ten, the Numbers skill has you covered.
Repair drill
Ask about the daily special and the whole tray arrives in one keigo breath — fish, sides, refill policy. You are not expected to parse it.
Higawari wa nan desu ka. Honjitsu no higawari wa saba no shioyaki de gozaimasu. Gohan to misoshiru, kobachi ga tsuite, gohan no okawari wa jiyuu to natte orimasu. Okawari wa jiyuu desu ka. Hai. Jiyuu desu.One fragment surfaced from the recital — okawari … jiyuu — and handing it back with ka confirmed the only fact that changes how you eat. The fish itself needed no parsing: it’s about to be put in front of you, which is the best translation there is.
How to behave: buttons, refills, the register
- Nobody is ignoring you — press the button. Famiresu tables have a call button (the ticket-machine booster’s botan); staff wait for it and come at a jog when it sounds. Pressing it is the system, not an interruption. Many chains now hand you a tablet instead — look for the English toggle in the corner.
- Water, tea, and sometimes the whole drink bar are self-serve. The pitcher station near the kitchen is yours; so is refilling. At fast-food counters and many teishoku chains, you also bus your own tray — follow the stack of trays by the bin, and mind the sorting slots.
- Where おかわり自由 is posted, it’s genuinely free. Rice at teishoku chains, rice and cabbage at tonkatsu places. Hold the bowl out with your Okawari, onegaishimasu and nobody will blink. (Ramen’s noodle refill — the ticket-machine booster’s kaedama — is the paid cousin; don’t mix them up.)
- The register rule is Lesson 5’s, unchanged. The slip lands on your table with the food; carry it to the front register, cash on the tray, Gochisousama deshita on the way out. That sentence is still the tip.
Checkpoint
Your exit exam, out loud. Each line below sets a scene from this booster — say the Japanese before you tap; the tap plays the answer. Check yourself, repeat after the audio matching its pronunciation, rhythm, and speed, and if one won’t come, replay its section. These are this deck’s speaking cards — in Anki they queue up after the listening cards, so you’ll always have heard a line before you’re asked to produce it.
Vocabulary reference
| # | Romaji | English | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | teishoku | set meal | one tray: main, rice, soup, pickles |
| 2 | higawari | daily special | Higawari, onegaishimasu. |
| 3 | okawari | refill / second helping | hold the bowl out as you ask |
| 4 | jiyuu | free / as you like | おかわり自由 on the wall = free refills |
| 5 | misoshiru | miso soup | the teishoku’s standard sidecar |
| 6 | mooningu | morning set | coffee price, breakfast included |
| 7 | famiresu | family restaurant | Famiresu wa arimasu ka. |
| 8 | setto | set / combo | Setto de, onegaishimasu. |
| 9 | hanbaagu | hamburg steak | no bun — hanbaagaa is the sandwich |
| 10 | nami | regular serving | the 並 on buttons and menus |
Recognize only — never say these. The counter scripts:
| Script line | It means | You do |
|---|---|---|
| Setto ni nasaimasu ka. | make it a combo? | Answer Setto de. — or just the item, daijoubu desu |
| Gohan no ryou wa ikaga nasaimasu ka. | how much rice? | Answer Nami de. (regular) / Oomori de. (large) — or point |
| Okawari wa jiyuu desu. | refills are free | eat well — the same words are posted on walls as おかわり自由 |
| San-ban de omachi no okyakusama, omatase itashimashita. | your number’s up | match it to your receipt and collect — the number is printed there, called when your food is ready |
Anki deck
Drill this booster’s audio anywhere: download the Everyday Meals Anki deck. Sentence cards are the course; vocab cards are backup — suspend them unless a word won’t stick.