Kiswahili food words

Say 'Chakula ni kitamu sana' at the end of a meal, the food is very delicious, and watch the face of the person who cooked it. Food is where a few words of Kiswahili pay back fastest: they get you the dish you wanted, without the chili you did not, and they turn a transaction into a conversation.

This is a reference glossary for travelers: everyday food and drink words, what you will see on a Kenyan menu, the phrases for ordering and paying, dietary phrases and the polite words around a meal, each with pronunciation. It is not a lesson; lesson 4 of our course, food and the market, teaches these words with a dialogue and practice. For the dishes themselves, from ugali to pilau, see our food guides.

The everyday words

Meat, fish and the main dishes

Fruit

Reading a Kenyan menu

Menus in local restaurants are often in English with Kiswahili dish names. These words tell you how something is cooked.

One word to know before you look for lunch: in Kenya a 'hoteli' is usually a small, inexpensive local restaurant, not a place to sleep, so a roadside sign that says 'Hotel' means food, often good. Nyama choma is sold by weight: you choose the meat, order by the kilo or half kilo, and it comes chopped on a board with kachumbari and ugali.

Ordering

Naomba, literally 'I request', is the word Kenyans use most when they ask for something politely. Nataka is fine, but on its own it can sound like a demand. 'Naomba maji', may I have some water, may be the most useful sentence on this page.

Dietary needs

Two honest notes. Mboga means vegetables, but it is also the word for whatever is served with ugali, which can include meat, so ask 'Kuna nyama ndani?' if it matters. And mzio, the word for an allergy, is not widely known: for a serious allergy, carry a card in English and Kiswahili and tell your guide, who will speak to every kitchen on your trip. Vegetarian food is easy in Kenya, with beans, lentils, greens and Indian-Kenyan dishes everywhere. Vegan food is harder outside Nairobi, because of ghee and the milk in chai. Most food on the coast is halal.

Around the table

Why kitamu and not tamu? Kiswahili adjectives agree with their noun, and chakula takes the prefix ki-, so 'chakula ni kitamu'. If you forget, 'tamu sana' on its own works for anything you are eating, and nobody will mark your grammar.

Street food has its own vocabulary, from mutura to mshikaki and mahindi choma; see our Nairobi street food guide. For a hands-on way to learn the words, a Swahili cooking class teaches them over a pot of pilau.