There is no magic solution here. The key is to learning some basic, important characters like meat, rice, noodles etc. If you cannot eat meat and you see the 肉 character, that's an immediate red flag. The best way to decode a Chinese menu is to ask the staff and learn those important phrases which, once you get two or three sentences down, you should be fine. I am vegetarian - 我是素食者 (wǒ shì sùshí zhě) I don’t eat meat - 我不吃肉 (wǒ bù chī ròu)