Multilingual phone answering for restaurants: Spanish and other languages (2026)

To answer your restaurant's phone in Spanish or another language, first find out which languages people near you speak, using Census data for your county. Then pick one route: bilingual staff, a phone-menu key that sends callers to them, or an AI agent with a second language turned on. Test each language with your own menu names before guests call.

This page covers the phone. For touch and voice kiosks, see our multilingual kiosk guide, and for the lane, our multilingual drive-thru guide.

Which languages do people near you speak?

The Census Bureau's 2024 American Community Survey table C16001 counts about 321.7 million US residents aged 5 and over. About 74.1 million of them, or 23%, speak a language other than English at home. The table also shows how many in each group speak English less than "very well". Those callers may prefer to order in their own language.

Language spoken at home	People aged 5 and over	Of those, speak English less than "very well"
Spanish	44.9 million	18.4 million
Chinese (including Mandarin and Cantonese)	3.7 million	1.9 million
French, Haitian or Cajun	2.3 million	0.7 million
Tagalog (including Filipino)	1.9 million	0.6 million
Vietnamese	1.6 million	0.9 million
Korean	1.2 million	0.6 million

National totals say little about your street. On data.census.gov, open table C16001 and set Geography to your county or city. For a small area, choose the 5-year estimates: the Census Bureau's guide to 1-year and 5-year data says 1-year estimates cover areas of 65,000 people or more, while 5-year estimates cover all areas and are the most reliable.

Then check the numbers against your own calls. For two weeks, ask whoever answers to mark each call that starts in another language, and which one. A tally sheet by the phone is enough.

What are your options?

Route	How it works	What it needs	Start here if
Bilingual staff	Whoever speaks the language takes the call	That person on every shift you want covered	Most calls in the language come at times you already staff
Phone-menu key	A recorded menu offers a key for the language and rings a set person or line	A phone system with a menu, and someone who answers that key	One language, one bilingual team member per shift
AI agent with a second language	The agent continues the call in the language the caller uses	Your menu and FAQs set up, a test in each language, a staff handoff	Calls in the language come at all hours, or no bilingual staff are free

Whichever route you choose, record the greeting and hold message in the languages you support, using our phone scripts as a starting point.

What does Maple offer for other languages?

Maple lists multilingual voice in its Voice plan, and Pro includes everything in Voice, on its pricing page. Voice is $150 a month billed monthly or $85 a month billed annually. Pro, which adds phone orders into supported POS systems, is $350 a month billed monthly or $220 a month billed annually. The product page asks restaurants to test the languages, menu terms, accents and interruptions their guests use, and to confirm what is supported for their location.

Ask on a demo which languages are available for your location, and try your own dish names in each one, before you plan around a language.

How should you test each language?

1. Opening. Call and answer the greeting in the other language. Check that the agent or staff member carries on in it.
2. Menu names. Order your five dishes with non-English names, said the way your guests say them.
3. Numbers and changes. Order a quantity, remove an ingredient and swap a side. Our example in Spanish: "Quiero tres tacos de carne asada, sin cebolla, y un agua de horchata." Check that three tacos with "no onion" and one horchata reach the ticket.
4. Allergies. Ask about an allergen in the language. The answer should match what your kitchen would say, or the call should go to staff.
5. Names, numbers and addresses. Give a name, a callback number and, if you deliver, an address. Check them on the order.
6. Kitchen ticket. Confirm the ticket prints in the language your cooks read.
7. Handoff. Ask for a person in the language. Note who answers and whether they can help in it.

A week after launch, repeat the tests and listen to a sample of real guest calls in each language. Keep the language tally going for a month so you can see whether the language calls grew, shrank or moved to other hours.

Published by Maple, which sells AI phone answering for restaurants. This AI-assisted guide combines 2024 Census Bureau language data, Maple's pricing and product pages, and an original test list. The Spanish order is our example. It does not report results from any restaurant or promise support for a particular language.