Taking phone orders in Spanish, Korean and more: a guide for New Jersey restaurants

New Jersey orders in many languages

According to Census Bureau survey data summarized by USAFacts, about 3.08 million New Jersey residents aged 5 and older, or 34.3%, spoke a language other than English at home in 2024. Spanish leads with about 1.61 million speakers, followed by Chinese, including Mandarin and Cantonese (about 138,300), and Hindi (about 106,900).

You can see it in the state’s food. In Palisades Park, the business district along Broad Avenue has been called Koreatown, with Korean restaurants and dessert shops one after another. In South Paterson, sometimes called Little Istanbul or Little Ramallah, Main Street between the Clifton border and Madison Avenue is heavily Turkish and Arab.

Many of those customers speak English too. But ordering in your own language is easier when the details matter: a cake for a birthday, a tray for a holiday, a dish without nuts.

Why a small restaurant struggles to answer in every language

Hiring for every language you hear at the counter is hard, and a bilingual employee works only some shifts. An AI phone assistant can cover the languages your callers speak at every hour you are open, including the late shift and the Sunday morning rush.

How Ordero handles a call in another language

1. It answers in your restaurant’s name, as your automated ordering assistant.
2. When the caller speaks Spanish, Korean, Turkish or another of its languages, it switches and carries on in that language.
3. It takes the order from your real menu, with sizes, toppings and extras, and reads it back with the total.
4. The order lands in your panel with your menu’s own item names, so the kitchen reads every ticket the same way. The call’s transcript is there too.

Ordero speaks eight languages: English, Spanish, Turkish, German, French, Arabic, Korean and Hindi. Chinese is not among them yet, so callers who prefer Chinese are best served by your staff for now: Ordero passes the call to a person whenever the caller asks.

Tips for a multilingual phone line

• Say it on your menu and website in the languages your customers speak, for example “Llámenos, hablamos español”.
• Add the everyday names of dishes to your menu descriptions, so callers can ask for them the way they say them at home.
• Mention the languages you serve customers in on your Google Business Profile and your website.
• Call the demo line, +1 (516) 724-9773, and order in Spanish or Korean to hear the switch.