Top 50 phrases to get by Portugal (Advanced): Dining out

💬 "Two" has a feminine form too: dois for men or mixed groups, duas for things like duas cervejas "two beers".

🇵🇹 In most restaurants you wait to be seated rather than taking a free table yourself.

💬 Tem on its own means "do you have", with no word for "you" needed. Swap in anything: Tem pão? "Do you have bread?"

💬 Na is em "in/on" merged with a "the". With a masculine word it becomes no: no restaurante "in the restaurant".

🇵🇹 To get attention, catch the waiter's eye or say Se faz favor! "Excuse me/please!". Calling out empregado! sounds abrupt.

🇵🇹 Use desculpe for an apology, but also to get someone's attention politely, like "excuse me." For squeezing past someone, com licença is often the more natural choice.

💬 menu exists in Portugal too, but it often means a fixed-price set meal. A ementa is the full list of dishes.

💬 ementa is the Portugal word for menu, while Brazilians say cardápio. A set menu is menu do dia "menu of the day".

💬 do is de "of" plus o "the". Same pattern: a sopa do dia "the soup of the day".

🇵🇹 Bread, olives and similar bites often arrive at the table unasked, but they aren't free. You're charged if you eat them, so send them back if you don't want them.

💬 To make a sentence negative, put não right before the verb. Queremos means "we want", and quero means "I want".

💬 Obrigado changes to match the speaker, not the listener. A man says obrigado and a woman says obrigada.

🇵🇹 Restaurants bring bottled water, not free tap water. Specify água natural "still water" or água com gás "sparkling water".

🇵🇹 If you just ask for água, you'll usually be asked fresca ou natural? "chilled or room temperature?".

💬 Red wine is tinto, literally "dyed", not vermelho "red". The colour comes after the noun: vinho branco, vinho tinto.

🇵🇹 Also look out for vinho verde "green wine". It's a young, light, slightly fizzy wine from the north.

💬 Uma goes with feminine words and um with masculine ones, so you get uma garrafa but um copo.

🇵🇹 imperial is the Lisbon word for a small draught beer. In Porto, ask for um fino instead.

🇵🇹 Asking for um café gets you a short espresso by default. In Lisbon you'll also hear it called uma bica.

🇵🇹 This is the polite, standard way to order in Portugal: Queria um café "I'd like an espresso". Quero "I want" sounds pushy from a customer.

💬 Queria literally means "I wanted", and it's the polite way to order. Use it for anything: Queria uma imperial.

💬 The ending lhau sounds like English "lyow": (bah-kah-LYOW). The first a almost vanishes.

💬 The describing word takes the same ending as the food: sardinhas assadas. A single item would be frango assado "roast chicken".

💬 This word changes to match the speaker. A woman says Sou vegetariana.

💬 A woman says alérgica. Add the food after a; if a "the" is needed, they merge: alérgico ao marisco "allergic to seafood".

💬 Portuguese often leaves out você or o senhor/a senhora when it's obvious from context. The same pattern works in O que sugere? or O que tem?.

🇵🇹 Locals often sprinkle cinnamon and powdered sugar on top. You'll usually find shakers on the counter.

🇵🇹 People often say this even to strangers eating nearby, or as they walk past a table. It's warm, not intrusive.

💬 Está is the "is" used for how something seems right now, like this dish tasting good. Same pattern: Está frio "It's cold".

💬 Literally "the house of bath". It's the standard term in Portugal, while Brazilians say banheiro.

💬 To ask where a place is, use é rather than está: Onde é a farmácia? "Where is the pharmacy?"

🇵🇹 The bill won't come until you ask for it, since rushing you would be rude. Say A conta, se faz favor.

🇵🇹 In Portugal you normally ask for a conta at the end; the bill is not usually brought unless you request it.

🇵🇹 Staff ask whether you want your tax number on the receipt. Visitors can just say Não, obrigado.

💬 posso plus any action asks permission: Posso entrar? "Can I come in?", Posso sentar-me? "Can I sit down?"

💬 Portuguese uses com "with" for paying by card, where English says "by". For cash, say em dinheiro.

🇵🇹 Worth asking in small cafés and family shops, some of which are cash-only or have a minimum for cards. Locals often pay by Multibanco card or the MB WAY app.

🇵🇹 Cards are widely accepted, but small cafés and shops sometimes set a minimum for card payments. The local card and cash-machine network is called Multibanco.

🇵🇹 This is used when paying cash, not by card. Tipping in Portugal is appreciated but usually modest, so this often means just leaving the small change.

🇵🇹 Adeus can sound more final than English "goodbye." For everyday parting, people often prefer até logo or tchau.