好吃

好吃 (hǎochī) is the everyday Chinese adjective for 'tasty / delicious,' built straight from 好 ('good') + 吃 ('to eat') = 'good to eat.' Use it any time food (or anything you put in your mouth) tastes good. One important nuance: 好吃 only applies to solid foods you chew. Drinks use 好喝 (hǎohē, literally 'good to drink') — saying 这杯茶很好吃 sounds wrong because tea is sipped, not eaten. Soup, even though it's drunk in Chinese (喝汤), can sometimes go either way depending on the eating style. As a Chinese-style compound adjective, 好吃 takes 很 in front in normal positive sentences (这个很好吃, 'this is tasty'); without 很, the bare 好吃 sounds like a half-made comparison. To express 'super tasty,' use 太好吃了 ('so delicious!') or 真好吃 ('really delicious!'). The pattern 好 + verb generates lots of HSK-level adjectives: 好看 (good-looking), 好听 (nice-sounding), 好玩 (fun).

Note: Everyday spoken praise for food. In formal restaurant reviews you might see 美味 (měiwèi) or 可口 (kěkǒu); in casual conversation, 好吃 is universal.

Memory hook: Literally 'good to eat' — if it's good when you eat it, it's 好吃.