# Donkimu: Read Japanese Menus — Japanese food words for travel

> Japanese food words for travel (iPhone/iPad app by SUNPIL HWANG.)

- Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/donkimu-read-japanese-menus/id6806494625 (this page in markdown: same URL + `.md`)
- Developer: [SUNPIL HWANG](https://appshunter.io/developer/6806494627)
- Category: Education, Travel
- Price: Free with in-app purchases
- Age rating: 12+
- Requires: iOS 15.0 · 138 MB
- Languages: American English, Korean
- Released: 2026-09-12
- Data updated: 2026-10-29

## What is Donkimu?

Japanese menus are hard if you don't know Japanese, and still strange even if you do.

Sometimes you can't read the words.
Sometimes you can read them but have no idea what the dish is.

A translation tells you what the words mean,
but often you still can't picture the food,
so you end up searching for photos anyway.

Translation can help you order.
But knowing what a word means is not the same as knowing what the dish is.

When I was a student in Japan,
I often saw friends who could read most Japanese at JLPT N2 level
still pull out a translator at restaurants because of all the dishes they didn't know.

It makes sense.
When you study everyday Japanese or study for a test,
you rarely learn food names like seseri, bonjiri or namero on purpose.

To read a menu, you have to learn the menu.

With Donkimu, you learn the dish names you'll see most at Japanese restaurants,
together with what the food actually looks like.

You see the pronunciation, meaning and a short description together,
so the moment you see the word, you can picture the dish.

And you don't see it just once.
Words come back for review right when you're about to forget them.

A dish you've learned once
will stand out at the next restaurant, and on your next trip.

But real menus come in many styles.
Handwriting, brush strokes, vertical text -
when the look changes, even a word you know can feel unfamiliar.

So you see each word in different lettering styles,
and find the dishes you've learned on real menu photos in the quiz.

What matters is not whether you memorized it,
but whether you can recognize it on a menu.

Translation helps you understand a menu you can't read right now.
Donkimu helps you recognize it the next time you see it.

The more dishes you know,
the less you need your phone,
and the more you can compare and choose for yourself.

It's fine if you're just starting Japanese.
If you've studied a lot already,
you'll start noticing the dishes you used to skip.

Not Japanese for a test,
but the Japanese you'll meet at a restaurant today.

The week before your trip,
start with the menu.

Donkimu
So you can read Japanese menus yourself and choose what you want to eat.

## Pricing and in-app purchases

Base price: Free.

**One-time purchases**

| Purchase | Price | Type |
| --- | --- | --- |
| 돈키무 프리미엄 | $11.99 | one-time |
| 돈키무 1개월 이용권 | $3.99 | one-time |


## Is Donkimu safe?

Not enough ratings yet to assess Donkimu.

## Is Donkimu legit?

Donkimu: Read Japanese Menus has limited verification signals. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Donkimu is 58 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.


## Version history (last 4 releases)

### 1.0.23 — 2026-10-24

Category names now fit on one line, even on narrow phones.
Small wording fixes in English.

### 1.0.22 — 2026-10-21

Donkimu is now available in English.
Switch between English and Korean in Me > Language.
Menu categories, words, descriptions and the real menu quiz are all in English.
Pronunciation is shown in romaji (e.g. tonkotsu).
Category pictures on the home screen now load right away.
Smaller app size and minor fixes.

### 1.0.21 — 2026-09-18

No release notes.

### 1.0.12 — 2026-09-13

No release notes.

## Apps similar to Donkimu

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| --- | --- | --- | --- |
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## More apps by SUNPIL HWANG

- [나와의 채팅 - 나에게 메모장·할 일·예약 알림](https://appshunter.io/ios/app/id6819258061)

All apps by SUNPIL HWANG: https://appshunter.io/developer/6806494627

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*Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-10-29.*
