How to Read a Persian Menu: A Vocabulary Survival Guide

You're Staring at a Persian Menu and It's All Squiggles

Picture this: you walk into a Persian restaurant in Westwood, London, or Toronto. The smell of saffron rice and charcoal-grilled kebab hits you before you even sit down. Then the waiter hands you the menu, and half of it looks like calligraphy you'd see framed on someone's wall. You smile, nod, and secretly panic.

I get it. Learning how to read a Persian menu is one of those skills nobody thinks about until they're sitting in a restaurant with zero cell service, trying to figure out what خورشت قیمه. khoresht-e gheymeh. means before the waiter comes back. Good news: Persian menus follow a pretty predictable structure, and once you crack the code on a few key words, you can decode about 80% of any Iranian restaurant menu.

This post is about reading. recognizing the Farsi words on the page and knowing what they mean. Not about pronunciation (that's a whole other beast), and not about ordering or talking to the waiter. Just you, the menu, and the Persian script staring back at you.

Menu Section Headers: The Big Categories

Every Persian menu is organized the same way, give or take. These are the section headers you'll see, and once you can spot them, you already know what part of the menu you're looking at.

پیش‌غذا. pish-ghazâ. appetizers (literally "before-food")

غذای اصلی. ghazâ-ye asli. main dishes (literally "main food")

کباب‌ها. kabâb-hâ. kebabs (the -hâ suffix just means plural)

خورشت‌ها. khoresht-hâ. stews

پلوها. polo-hâ. rice dishes

نوشیدنی‌ها. nushidani-hâ. drinks

دسرها. deser-hâ. desserts

See that ها. -hâ pattern? That's the Persian plural marker. It shows up at the end of almost every section header. Once you spot it, you know you're looking at a category name, not a specific dish. It's like seeing the "-s" at the end of "Appetizers" in English. instant orientation.

Common Menu Words You'll See Everywhere

Some words pop up on every single Persian menu regardless of the restaurant. Memorize these and you've got yourself a cheat code.

پرس. pors. portion/serving. You'll see this next to dishes, like yek pors kabâb (one portion of kebab). It comes from the French word "portion". Farsi borrowed it decades ago and never gave it back.

نفره. nafareh. per person. When a dish says ۲ نفره. do nafareh. it means "serves two." This is common for big rice platters or family-style stews.

مخصوص. makhsus. special. If you see کباب مخصوص. kabâb-e makhsus. that's the "special kebab," usually the restaurant's best or biggest version. Think of it as the chef's flex.

ویژه. vizheh. special/featured (used interchangeably with makhsus)

با. bâ. with. As in کباب با برنج. kabâb bâ berenj. kebab with rice.

بدون. bedun. without. Handy if you spot an allergen or ingredient you want to avoid.

سرد. sard. cold. Usually for drinks or cold appetizers.

گرم. garm. hot/warm.

Decoding Compound Dish Names

Here's where it gets fun. Persian dish names aren't random. they follow patterns. Once you recognize the pattern, you can decode a dish you've never seen before.

Pattern 1: Chelow + [protein]

چلو. chelow. plain white rice. When you see چلوکباب. chelow kabâb. it means "white rice with kebab." چلو always means plain, steamed, saffron-topped rice served alongside something.

Pattern 2: [Ingredient] polo

پلو. polo. mixed rice (rice cooked with stuff in it). So زرشک پلو. zereshk polo. is barberry rice. باقالی پلو. bâghâli polo. is fava bean and dill rice. آلبالو پلو. âlbâlu polo. is sour cherry rice. The first word tells you what's mixed into the rice.

The difference between chelow and polo trips up everyone. Chelow = plain rice, served next to something. Polo = rice with ingredients cooked inside it. That's it.

Pattern 3: Khoresht-e [ingredient]

خورشت. khoresht. stew. The ـِ (-e) after it is the ezafe construction, meaning "of." So خورشت قورمه سبزی. khoresht-e ghormeh sabzi. is "stew of fried herbs." خورشت قیمه. khoresht-e gheymeh. is "stew of diced meat." The word after khoresht tells you the star ingredient.

Pattern 4: Kebab types

کباب کوبیده. kabâb-e kubideh. ground meat kebab (kubideh = pounded) کباب برگ. kabâb-e barg. filet kebab (barg = leaf, because of the thin cut) جوجه کباب. jujeh kabâb. chicken kebab (jujeh = baby chicken) کباب سلطانی. kabâb-e soltâni. the "sultan's kebab". one kubideh + one barg. The royal combo.

Living in Italy, I appreciate that Iranians name their fanciest kebab after royalty the same way Italians slap "alla regina" on anything with mozzarella and tomato. Both cultures know how to make lunch sound like a coronation.

The Sides Section

Sides on a Persian menu are where the real flavor lives, and they're usually the cheapest items. Here's what you'll spot:

ماست و خیار. mâst-o khiyâr. yogurt and cucumber. Persians put this next to everything. It's the unofficial national side dish. Think of it as Iran's answer to tzatziki, except we had it first.

سالاد شیرازی. salâd-e shirâzi. Shirazi salad. Diced cucumber, tomato, onion, with lime juice. Named after the city of Shiraz. Simple, fresh, and on every table in Iran.

ترشی. torshi. pickled vegetables. The word literally means "sour." Every Iranian grandma has a jar of torshi aging in a cupboard somewhere, and they'll fight you over whose recipe is better.

سبزی خوردن. sabzi khordan. fresh herb plate. A plate of raw herbs (basil, mint, tarragon, radish) that you eat alongside your meal. This confused me when I first started eating at restaurants in Milan. Italians don't just put a pile of raw herbs on the table and call it a course.

نان. nân. bread. You might see specific types: نان سنگک. nân-e sangak (stone-baked flatbread), نان لواش. nân-e lavâsh (thin flatbread), نان تافتون. nân-e tâftun (soft oven bread).

The Drinks Section

Iranian restaurants outside Iran usually have a short drinks list. Here's what you'll decode:

دوغ. dugh. carbonated yogurt drink. If you haven't tried it, imagine sparkling salty yogurt with mint. Sounds terrible, tastes perfect with kebab. I make everyone I know in Milan try it. Most of them hate it. Their loss.

چای. châi. tea. Not chai latte. Just black tea, served in a small glass, with a sugar cube you hold between your teeth while sipping. This is how half of Iran spends the afternoon.

شربت. sharbat. traditional sweet drink. Could be rosewater, saffron, or sekanjabin (mint and vinegar syrup). The English word "sherbet" actually comes from this Persian word.

آب. âb. water. One of the first Persian words most people learn. Short, sweet, essential.

نوشابه. nushâbeh. soda/soft drink.

آب میوه. âb-e miveh. fruit juice (literally "water of fruit").

Want to actually memorize these drink words instead of re-reading this list every time you eat out? ZabanYar uses spaced repetition to make vocab stick. you can import any word list and the app turns it into flashcards that adapt to your memory.

Reading Persian Numerals on the Menu

Prices on a Persian menu might use Persian numerals instead of Western ones. Don't panic. they're not hard once you see the pattern.

Here's a quick conversion table:

So if you see ۱۲۵,۰۰۰ on a menu in Iran, that's 125,000. which is in Iranian Rials (or you might hear toman, which drops a zero). At restaurants outside Iran, prices are usually in local currency with Western numerals. But some menus. especially the decorative ones. still use Persian numbers. Now you can read them.

The good news: ۱ (one), ۲ (two), and ۳ (three) look pretty close to their Western versions. The rest take a few minutes of practice, but it's only ten symbols total. Your brain can handle it.

Asking the Waiter: Two Survival Phrases

Okay, I said this post is about reading, not speaking. But I'd feel bad leaving you completely helpless, so here are two phrases you can point to or attempt out loud when you're stuck:

این چیه؟. in chi-e?. "What's this?"

Point at any item on the menu and say this. Works every time. The waiter will either explain it or. more likely in diaspora restaurants. switch to English and tell you it's a lamb stew.

پیشنهادتون چیه؟. pishnahâd-etun chi-e?. "What do you recommend?"

This is the golden question. Iranian waiters (and honestly, all Iranians) love giving recommendations. Ask this and you'll get a five-minute passionate speech about the tahdig that'll change your life. The related post on how to say no in Farsi might come in handy after the waiter suggests you order the entire menu.

Quick Reference Cheat Sheet

Print this. Screenshot it. Save it to your phone. Whatever works.

For a deeper dive into food vocabulary beyond the menu, check out our Persian food vocabulary guide. it covers ingredients, cooking methods, and the words you'll hear in an Iranian kitchen.

If you're serious about building your Persian vocabulary, tools like Anki or ZabanYar can turn any word list into a spaced repetition deck so you don't forget what you learned here by next week.

FAQ

Stop Guessing, Start Reading

A Persian menu isn't a mystery. it's a system. Section headers tell you the category, compound names follow predictable patterns, and a handful of common words show up on every single menu. You don't need to be fluent in Farsi to decode one. You just need to recognize about 30 words, and you've already learned most of them in this post.

Next time you're at a Persian restaurant, skip the English side of the menu. Try the Farsi first. You'll be surprised how much you can figure out. and your Iranian friends will be genuinely impressed.

If you want a tutor who speaks actual Tehrani Persian and won't bore you with textbook drills, I teach on Preply. We can do an entire session just on restaurant vocab if that's your thing.

Get it wrong and the worst that happens is a warm laugh and a story they’ll tell for years. Get it right — refuse the tea twice, accept on the third — and you’ll watch a face open up. You didn’t just speak Persian. You played the game.