When can I use or not use すてきですね?

We were learning this phrase in class and taught that it meant wonderful or nice. So I asked 先生 if I could call a bowl of ramen すてきです. She said no, but I could call an Instagram post of that ramen すてきです 。 What’s the rule here? That we can’t use it for food?

5 comments
  1. Suteki means cool or neat. It’s a weird thing to say about food, even in English. Maybe if someone made the toppings look like totoro and your were commenting about the artwork being neat.

  2. if you are a guy hardly ever, I think, and kakoi would be used instead.
    sorry I haven’t spoken in years just wigging it.
    my gut tells me these days steki would be used by gays and girls

    eddit,: yeah on reflection I think this I probably wrong

  3. oh I didn’t read the rest.
    so steki is kind of more like or formal way of saying cool. perhaps sophisticated is also relevant.
    for that food example, steki is referring to the presentation of it and would be more appropriate saying that in Instagram, where it is food presented in front of you you wouldn’t comment on the design.
    I also feel steki needs to be neat and tidy, orderly, oh yes if you see a guy in a nice suit this is when you can say steki desu neh.(when I first learned it I thought it ment sexy which it does not)

    but you wouldn’t say it to a surfer, but you could say kakoi

  4. It doesn’t sound proper and in English, it sounds odd.

    Something like:

    この家は素敵です!
    This house is wonderful!

    I would use a different adjective like:

    おいしい.

    このラーメンはおいしいです。
    This ramen is delicious!

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