To improve Chinese teaching materials and help learners, this study probes into the dining terms used on university campuses and the potential linguistic difficulties they cause for foreign learners of Chinese. The dining terms were collected from the twenty restaurants located on the Taoyuan campus of Ming Chuan University. The lexical levels of the words defined as dining terms were analyzed based on the List of 8,000 Chinese Words. This study shows that of the six types of ding terms, Types (a) menu terms, (c) communicational expressions between buyers and sellers, (e) dialogues involving customers and restaurant wait staff, and (f) comments from customers about the food and beverages they purchase and consume, are typically included in Chinese teaching materials, but Types (b) advertisement terms and (d) terms related to environmental guidance are not. Type (a) menu terms in general Chinese teaching materials are simpler than those used on the campus. Each of the six types comprises numerous advanced TOCFL Level 5 words and those that were not included in the List of 8,000 Chinese Words. Of the 432 words collected from the menu items, 347 (80.3%) were not included in the word list. This deficiency may cause language comprehension difficulties for students who are not at or above Level 5. The dining terms also demonstrated linguistic differences between Taiwan and Mainland China, which may cause language difficulties. Reading comprehension problems may arise when the name of the food and beverage on a menu shows no direct relation to ingredients. Learners may also be confused by improper English translations of Chinese terms and menu items and encounter comprehension difficulties when examining the menu contents. The flaws in dining terms used in Chinese language teaching materials should be ameliorated, and additional teaching and self-learning materials targeted dining terms should be developed, allowing foreign learners to accomplish food-related tasks.