Translation review

A translated menu is the restaurant's voice in another language. This is the review that stops a good kitchen from reading badly.

Review as a guest, not as an editor

Open the menu in a private browser window, on a phone, in the language you are reviewing. Do not read the admin screen — read what a guest reads.

Ideally, have someone who actually speaks the language do it. A translation that is technically correct and unidiomatic is still a bad menu.

Completeness

  • [ ] Every published item exists in this language.
  • [ ] Every category name is translated.
  • [ ] No source-language text is left anywhere.
  • [ ] Tasting and set menu blocks are all present, with the same structure as the source.
  • [ ] Footer notes carry every condition from the source.
  • [ ] The featured label reads correctly in this language.

Consistency with the source

  • [ ] Prices are identical — they are shared, so any difference is a fault to investigate.
  • [ ] Allergens are identical.
  • [ ] Dish order is identical.
  • [ ] The same dishes are published; statuses carry across languages.
  • [ ] Images are the same.

Prices and allergens should be impossible to diverge. If they have, something was edited on a translated record directly, and it needs correcting on the source.

Quality

  • [ ] Proper names — txuletón, pintxo, jamón ibérico — are kept, not translated.
  • [ ] Technical and regional terms are explained rather than replaced.
  • [ ] Descriptions are comparable in length to the source.
  • [ ] The register matches: terse stays terse.
  • [ ] Terminology is consistent across the whole menu, not per dish.
  • [ ] Category names are in the same voice as the item names.

Layout

  • [ ] Nothing overflows or truncates. Translated text is a different length, and German or Russian names will test a layout that only ever saw Spanish ones.
  • [ ] The category navigation still fits.
  • [ ] The contact dock labels are readable.
  • [ ] Long dish names wrap sensibly.
  • [ ] The menu reads well on a small phone, not only a large one.
  • [ ] The language selector reaches this language and returns from it.
  • [ ] Switching language keeps the guest on the same menu.
  • [ ] The contact dock links open the right menus in this language.
  • [ ] Any QR code for this language opens the right page.

Artefacts

  • [ ] A PDF exists for this language, generated after the translation was finished.
  • [ ] QR codes for this language were downloaded from the correct group.
  • [ ] Printed material states or implies its language clearly.

When to run it

  • Before publishing a language for the first time.
  • After adding a batch of dishes.
  • After any AI-assisted translation.
  • After a menu restructure.
  • Periodically, as part of the menu review.

What to do with what you find

Correct the source item's translation panel, not the translated record directly. Editing a translated record in isolation is how prices and allergens end up diverging, and those are the two things that must never differ between languages.

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