French Menu

• Breakfast – petit déjeuner (peh-tee day-zhoon-ay)
• Lunch – déjeune (day-zhoon-ay)
• Dinner – dîner (dee-nay)

Viande – meat

• Boeuf – beef
• Bifteck – steak meat (but not usually presented as a steak)
• Entrecôte – a tenderloin steak on a plate.
• Faux-filet – a sirloin steak on a plate.
• Tartare de bœuf – this is ground beef with seasoning, served raw. Yes, I said raw. You’ve been warned.
• Porc – pork
• Agneau – lamb
• Mouton – mutton
• Veau – veal
• Cheval – horse
• Taureau – bull
• Lapin – rabbit
• Poulet – chicken
• Dinde – turkey
• Canard – duck
• Confit de canard – cured duck leg cooked in duck fat
• Magret de canard – roasted duck breast, usually served sliced
• Caille – quail
• Volaille – fowl; really, a catch-all word for any bird that’s not already mentioned above.

Poisson – fish

• Fruits de mer – seafood (Sometimes used as a carte category instead of “poissons;” otherwise, it usually means mixed seafood in a particular dish.)
• Homard – lobster
• Langoustine – langoustine (like a tiny lobster)
• Crevettes – shrimp (these are usually like you’re used to, i.e., peeled and ready to eat)
• Gambas – prawns (these usually come with the heads and shells on)
• Coquilles Saint-Jacques – scallops
• Thon – tuna
• Saumon – salmon
• Moules – mussels
• Moules frites – mussels with a side of fries, NOT fried mussels!
• Truite – trout
• Lieu – haddock or hake
• Morue, or cabillaud - cod (“morue” is sometimes used as an insult, FYI.)
• Loup – sea bass
• Calmar, calamar – calamari (squid)
• Poulpe – octopus

Légumes – vegetables

• Végétarien – vegetarian (Although this is not usually its own category, you can at least know the word to ask.)
• Haricots – beans
• Maïs – corn
• Epinards – spinach
• Oignon – onion
• Carottes – betcha can’t guess. Carrots!
• Salade mixte – a mixed green salad. This is as opposed to the salads under the “salades” portion of the carte, which are meal-sized and piled with amazing food

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• Pommes frites – French fries
• Aligot – a regional potato dish made with cheese. IF YOU SEE THIS, GET IT.
• Pommes Dauphinoise – potatoes baked in cream and garlic.

• Tarte – pie
• Tarte tatin – like an apple pie, but ten times more amazing.
• Crème brûlée – a small pot of custard with sprinkled sugar on top that they burn with a torch.
• Mousse au chocolat – chocolate mousse
• Ile Flottante – a bowl of crème anglaise (thick sweet cream) with an “île” (island) of meringue floating in it.
• Mi-cuit au chocolat or chocolat fondant – half-baked mini chocolate cake, with a gooey center.

• Assiette means a plate of something, like fromage (cheese) or charcuterie (cured meats).
• Poêlée – pan-fried
• Grillé – grilled
• Rôti – roast
• Poché – poached
• Cuit – cooked
• Cru – raw
• Frite – fried (as opposed to frites, which means French fries)

And some randoms:

• Côte or côtelette – chop, as in a pork chop or veal chop.
• Viande hachée – ground meat (minced meat)
• Anchois – anchovies. They show up in the weirdest places.
• Lardons – this translates to bacon, but don’t bust out the oeufs (eggs) just yet. Usually in small cubes, they’re more like a ham/pancetta meat. This usually comes on salads, or in pasta dishes. Sometimes, just because they’re French and fabulous, they’ll throw some on a plate as a garnish. Yes, that’s right – MEAT GARNISH.
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One more note: When ordering meat, they’re going to ask you how you want it cooked. Note that the French do not believe in overcooking meat as it ruins the taste, and they don’t have the litigious society that in America turns a rare piece of steak into a law suit. So think about how you usually like your meat, and go one up from there.

• Saignant (sahn-yahnt)- rare (This literally means “bleeding;” you’ve been warned.)
• A point (ah pwanh) – medium
• Bien cuit (byen kwee) – well done
• Brûlé (broo-lee) – burnt

http://www.francetravelguide.com/menu-tips-for-france-the-ultimate-french-menu-decoder-no-ring-needed.html