Ordering Food at a Restaurant in Spanish: Phrases and Conversations

¡Hola! Today’s lesson aims at helping you learn the vocabulary, phrases and questions that you need to order your favorite food at a restaurant in Spanish. We have included many examples about food descriptions, ways to ask the waiter for the specialties of the house, ways to make reservations and more. In addition, this lesson will introduce the names of some popular Latin American dishes in Spanish. Let’s start…

Describing food and a restaurant’s menu in Spanish

The vocabulary for food in Spanish

There are many dishes around the world, and also, there are a lot of dishes in Latin America. Some of them like “tacos” are very popular abroad. We have prepared a very nice illustration with the names of some of the most popular food in Spanish, plus a few popular dishes in Latin America. These words will be included later in listening activities and quizzes, so please try to remember their names.

Essential Spanish adjectives to describe food

First, it is very important to use the right adjectives to describe food, that is words such as “Delicioso”, “Sabroso” (delicious), “Feo” (not delicious in this case), “picante” (spicy), “dulce”(sweet) and “salado” (salty), among many others. Sentences describing food in Spanish will make use of the verbs SER and ESTAR, for example:

• El filete está delicioso. (The steak is delicious.)
• La comida es sabrosa en ese lugar. (The food is tasty at that place.)
• Los tacos están muy picantes. (The tacos are very spicy.)

The picture below shows a list of essential adjectives we use very often to describe food in Spanish:

Interactive quiz No. 1

Read these sentences and drag the right adjectives about food in Spanish to the correct spaces. Then, check your answers.

Common questions and phrases at the restaurant in Spanish

When you are in the restaurant, the first words you will need are greetings and farewells like “Hola” and “Mucho gusto”. Besides some greetings, you will need many other expressions, which will be presented next in two different groups:

Common questions that customers ask at the restaurant in Spanish

As customers, we may come up with lots of different questions to ask the waiter or any other person at the restaurant, especially if we are there for the first time.  Listen to some of the most common things that customers ask and the possible answers for these questions:

Things that waiters say at the restaurant in Spanish

On the other hand, the waiter (el mesero) or the waitress (la mesera) will usually welcome you with a greeting like “Bienvenido, pase adelante por favor” (welcome, please come in) or “Bienvenido, ¿Tiene reservación?. Once you are inside the restaurant, the waiter could say or ask any of these things:

Other important Spanish words at the restaurant

Some essential nouns to have a conversation at a restaurant are: “mesa” (table), “reservación”, “comida”(food), “plato principal” (main dish), “entrada” (appetizer) and “postre” (dessert). Sometimes, restaurants will have their menu (el menú) in both English and Spanish, which offers learners a great opportunity to practice this topic in a more realistic context. As with all menus, they include prices (precios), a few or many dishes (platillos), and of course some special offers (ofertas especiales). Next, we show you a very simple menu with the names of some dishes in Spanish:

There are many typical dishes in Latin America. Sometimes these dishes have the same name across countries, but the recipe is totally different. Mexican food is probably the most famous Latin food in the United States, although there are so many great dishes in the rest of the continent. “Pupusas” for instance are representative of “El Salvador”, “Nacatamales” and “El Gallo pinto” are traditional dishes in Nicaragua, and just the same “Bandeja Paisa” is a very important one in Colombia.

Interactive quiz No. 2

Match these questions used at the restaurant in Spanish with their corresponding answers, and then check your answers.

Listening Activity No.1: Common Latin food in Spanish – La comida latina

Listening Activity No.2: At the restaurant in Spanish – En el restaurante

Key phrases in the conversation:

• “Pasen por aquí por favor”, means “Come this way, please!”
• “Me gustaría comer de todo”, means “I’d like to try everything”
• “Voy a pedir/ordenar”, means “I will order…”

You have made it to the end of this lesson. When you master the key expressions and questions in this lesson, try to find a Latino restaurant nearby and order something to eat in Spanish. Have fun and ¡Buen provecho!

Related Spanish Worksheets:

• Fruits and vegetables in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• Food in Spanish: conversation cards – PDF worksheet
• The Vocabulary for Food and Drinks in Spanish
• At a Fast Food Restaurant in Spanish – PDF Worksheet
• Food and Drinks in Spanish –Crossword Puzzle
• Fruits and Vegetables in Spanish – PDF Crossword Puzzle
• Cooking Verbs in Spanish (Labeling vocabulary)