Ordering Madrid stew, not the set menu (A1)
At half past two in a Madrid restaurant, someone wants cocido. The waiter explains the three servings: soup, chickpeas with vegetables, and meat.
Pedir comida en el restaurante
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About this article
What you'll learn
The present tense, the verb querer, and questions for ordering a dish.
The narrator does not order the menú del día. They want cocido madrileño, a chickpea, vegetable and meat stew served in three parts called vuelcos. The order is cocido and water. The soup is not on the table yet.
After reading
Article learning block
Phrases, words, grammar, and quick practice from this text.
Phrases for training
Add useful phrases to SRS or mark them as already known.
¿tiene reserva?
newdo you have a reservation?
The waiter asks whether you booked the table in advance. Tiene is the usted form, so the question is polite.
The first question you hear when you walk into a Spanish restaurant.
¿Hay mesa para una persona?
newis there a table for one person?
The customer asks whether a free table is available for one diner. Hay stays the same for singular and plural.
A ready-made phrase for arriving without a booking.
por aquí, por favor
newthis way, please
The waiter uses this phrase to lead the customer to a table.
Helps you follow simple instructions from restaurant staff.
Quiero el cocido madrileño
newI want the cocido madrileño
Quiero plus the name of a dish is the simplest way to order. Cocido madrileño is a chickpea stew and the most typical dish of Madrid.
A pattern you can reuse with any dish: Quiero + the dish.
¿Algo más?
newanything else?
The waiter asks whether you want to add something to your order.
A common question right after you order.
eso es todo
newthat is all
The customer uses this to close the order politely.
A short way to say you do not need anything else.
Key words
Vocabulary that carries the school-day topic.
Waiter
camarero
waiter
The camarero greets you, takes the order and brings the bill. A woman is la camarera.
Core restaurant vocabulary.
The menu
la carta
the menu
La carta is the written list of dishes the waiter brings. It is a false friend: here it does not mean a letter or a card.
You need it to ask for the menu and to read it.
Menu of the day
menú del día
menu of the day
A set lunch at a fixed price: first course, second course, bread, a drink and dessert. Many restaurants offer it only at midday, Monday to Friday.
The cheapest way to eat well in Spain.
Main course
plato principal
main course
The plato principal is the main dish, after the starter. On a menú del día it is called el segundo plato.
Helps you read a Spanish menu in the right order.
The bill
la cuenta
the bill
La cuenta is what you ask for at the end: La cuenta, por favor. In Spain the waiter waits for you to ask instead of bringing it early.
Essential for finishing a meal and paying.
Tip
propina
tip
Propina is the extra money left for service. In Spain it is small and not obligatory: one or two euros after an ordinary lunch.
Useful when you pay and want to do it the local way.
Grammar in context
Patterns from the text worth noticing after reading.
Hay: there is, there are
Hay pescados, carnes y verduras.
there are fish, meats and vegetables
Hay says that something exists or is available. It has one single form for singular and plural: hay mesa, hay pescados.
Lets you say and understand what a restaurant has.
Querer: quiero, quieres, quiere
¿Qué quiere comer?
what do you want to eat?
Querer changes its stem in the present: quiero (I), quieres (you, informal), quiere (you formal, he, she). The waiter uses the polite quiere and you answer with quiero.
Lets you understand the waiter and place your own order.
Está for a state
Está caliente y huele muy bien.
it is hot and smells very good
Está describes how something is right now: the soup is hot at this moment. For permanent qualities Spanish uses ser instead.
Useful for describing food while you eat it.
Pago: present, I form
Pago con tarjeta
I pay by card
Pago is the yo form of the regular verb pagar in the present. The article uses it for the last action of the meal.
Helps you talk about paying and other simple actions.
Pido, elijo: verbs that change inside
pido la cuenta
I ask for the bill
Some Spanish verbs change the vowel of the stem in the present: pedir gives pido, elegir gives elijo, preferir gives prefiero. The infinitive does not show the change.
Without this you will not recognise pido and elijo as pedir and elegir.
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