Cafe and restaurant in Igbo
A table, the menu, what you cannot eat, and a compliment to the kitchen. Play the ten Igbo words against the clock, with a note on how locals really use each one after every answer. All ten are written out below.
All 10 Igbo phrases in this lesson
- Tebul maka abuoTEH-bool MA-ka a-BOO-oh
- A table for two
- Biko, menuBEE-ko, MEN-oo
- The menu, please
- Gịnị ka ị na-atụ aro?GHEE-nee ka ee na-ah-TOO AH-roh
- What do you recommend?
- Anaghị m eri...a-NA-ghee m EH-ree
- I don't eat...
- Enwere m allergy na...en-WEH-reh m A-ler-jee na
- I'm allergic to...
- AnụAH-noo
- Meat
- Ọkụkọoh-KOO-koh
- Chicken
- AzụAH-zoo
- Fish
- Ọ tọrọ ụtọoh TOH-roh OO-toh
- It's delicious
- Cheers!CHEERS
- Cheers
In formal restaurants, which are rare outside major cities. Most Igbo eating is at market stalls, roadside eateries, or home. Reservations are not typical.
Formal restaurants may have menus in English. Market stalls and roadside spots have whatever is cooked that day, shouted to passersby. Asking "Gini ka i ri?" (What do you eat?) is more common.
Try ofe onugbu, bitterleaf soup, with pounded yam.
The English word is used for allergies.
Stockfish and dried fish season many soups.
Literally "it is sweet".
Igbo has no dedicated toast word; Nigerians overwhelmingly use the English "Cheers!" even mid-Igbo sentence. What is Igbo is the etiquette: elders drink first, younger people wait, and rushing the ritual reads as disrespect.