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

💬 Podemos means we can, but in questions like this it works as can we...?. You can reuse the pattern with other verbs: ¿Podemos pedir?, ¿Podemos cambiar de mesa?

🇪🇸 Calling out ¡Camarero! can sound abrupt. Locals usually catch the waiter's eye and say ¡Perdone! "Excuse me!".

💬 Perdone is the polite form for a stranger. With friends you'd say perdona.

🇪🇸 This is the normal way to call a waiter or stop someone in the street. A plain perdone is polite enough on its own.

💬 carta here means the menu, not a letter. el menú is usually the fixed-price set meal.

🇪🇸 A fixed-price weekday lunch, usually with a starter, main course, dessert or coffee, bread and a drink. It's often the best-value meal in town.

💬 The h in hay is silent, so it sounds like English "eye": (eye). One word covers both "is there" and "are there".

💬 Primero "first" drops its final o before a masculine word, giving primer plato. Tercero "third" does the same: tercer plato.

💬 agua is a feminine word, but it takes el to avoid two 'a' sounds in a row: el agua fría "the cold water".

🇪🇸 Ask for agua del grifo "tap water" if you don't want bottled. Otherwise you'll usually be brought a bottle and charged for it.

💬 Agua is feminine but takes el "the" for the sake of sound: el agua fría "the cold water".

💬 Red wine is tinto, never rojo "red", even though rojo is the everyday word for the colour.

🇪🇸 This is the default beer order in a Spanish bar. Asking for una cerveza "a beer" might get you a bottle instead.

🇪🇸 This is mainly a breakfast drink. After a meal, locals tend to order a cortado "espresso with a dash of milk" or a plain café solo "espresso".

🇪🇸 Bread often arrives without being ordered and may show up on the bill. You can send it back if you don't want it.

🇪🇸 In some cities, such as Granada, a tapa comes free with each drink. Elsewhere you order and pay for it.

🇪🇸 A ración is a full plate meant to go in the middle of the table for everyone to share. Two or three of them can make a meal for a group.

💬 Media matches the feminine ración. With a masculine word it changes to medio: medio litro "half a litre".

💬 Me recomienda literally means recommends to me, and Spanish often uses this little me where English doesn't. You'll see the same pattern in ¿me trae pan? and ¿me pone un café?

💬 Before es, Spanish uses cuál rather than qué to ask "what": ¿Cuál es tu nombre? "What's your name?".

💬 Follow it with a thing or an action: quisiera un café "I'd like a coffee", quisiera pagar "I'd like to pay".

🇪🇸 Comes across as courteous; in everyday Spain people often just say me pone un café "I'll have a coffee", which is perfectly polite there.

💬 The accent matters here: mí means "me", while mi without the accent means "my".

💬 ll sounds like an English y, so it's (pah-EH-yah), not (pah-EL-ah).

🇪🇸 This is how people normally order in Spain, with no "I would like" needed. It sounds natural and perfectly polite.

💬 Otra already means "another", so never put una in front of it. Its ending matches the thing you mean: otro café "another coffee".

💬 A woman says Soy vegetariana. The ending changes to match the speaker.

💬 A woman says alérgica. To name what you're allergic to, add a: alérgico al marisco "allergic to shellfish".

💬 It literally reads "dry fruits", but it means nuts. Peanuts have their own name, cacahuetes "peanuts", so mention them separately to be safe.

💬 If you're a woman, say Soy alérgica a los frutos secos. The ending changes with the speaker: alérgico for a man, alérgica for a woman.

💬 Llevar usually means "to carry", but with food it means "to contain". Swap in any ingredient: ¿Lleva cebolla? "Does it have onion?".

🇪🇸 Waiters say it as they set down the plates, and people even say it to strangers they pass who are eating. Replying gracias "thank you" is enough.

🇪🇸 Spaniards also say it when someone sneezes, like "bless you". When toasting, people make eye contact as glasses clink.

💬 Adding -ísimo to a describing word makes it "really" something: rico "tasty" becomes riquísimo. You can do the same with others, as in buenísimo "really good".

💬 está is used for where things are, not es. Plural: ¿Dónde están los baños? "where are the toilets?".

🇪🇸 In bars and restaurants you'll also see aseos or servicios on signs. Asking for el baño is fine anywhere.

🇪🇸 In Spain the waiter won't bring the bill until you ask. Rushing you out would be rude, so catch their eye and ask.

🇪🇸 In Spain, you usually ask for the bill when you're ready; staff often won't bring it automatically. La cuenta, por favor is standard and not rude.

💬 Spanish uses con "with" here. For cash it's en efectivo "in cash".

💬 In Spanish, con covers both "with" and "by" here, so pagar con tarjeta is the normal pattern. You can swap the payment method: pagar con efectivo.

💬 You'll hear it in the question ¿en efectivo o con tarjeta? "cash or card?". Answer with just the half you want.

💬 Quédese is the formal command for one person: you're telling someone "keep it." For an informal tú version, it would be quédate con el cambio.

🇪🇸 This is something you'd say to the server or taxi driver when leaving a small tip. In Spain tipping is modest, so this usually means "keep the small change," not a big extra amount.

🇪🇸 People call this out to the staff as they leave a bar, even if they'll never be back. Hasta luego works as a general goodbye, not a promise to return.