Guides

The listings on WokMenus are the restaurants' own menus, and menus assume you already know what a dish is. These guides fill in the rest: what the sections mean, how the regional styles differ, and what to expect from the dishes that show up on menu after menu.

• How to read a Chinese restaurant menu

  How a typical menu is laid out, what the regional labels (Cantonese, Sichuan, Hunan, Shanghai, northern) actually promise, how to order for a table, and the dishes that separate a restaurant's "American" page from its "traditional" one.

• Chinese menu glossary

  72 dishes, techniques and pantry staples explained in a sentence or three each. They are the same entries that appear under "Dishes to know" on every restaurant page whose menu mentions them.