How to order food in Spain like a local?

Food and locals are the best things about Spain, so when you are traveling there, you need to know how to communicate with them, or at least you should know what to say when you are in a restaurant. It isn´t just about learning the words, but also about knowing the cultural norms of each situation. Today we are going to show you all the things everyone should know before ordering food in Spain and you will also find a “Ordering food in Spanish» script sentence by sentence.

Ordering food in a Spanish restaurant

Doesn´t matter if you are going to a local restaurant in a small town or a luxury one in a big city, the treat and conversations are going to be similar, so with this step-by-step guide about how to order in Spain, you should be good to go.

How to make a restaurant reservation in Spanish?

Of course, it is not required to make a reservation, but it is true that if you are visiting a touristic city, by doing it you will avoid problems and save some time. Just in case you want to go a head and do it, this is what you should say:

Arriving

Once you arrive to the restaurant, there will be two different type of conversations depending on whether you have made the reservation or not:

With reservation

Without reservation

Ordering food and drink in Spanish

Most of the times they will give you the menu right after arriving, but if they don´t, just ask for it. Ordering drinks in Spain is usually the first thing, they will come ask you what do you want to drink and a few minutes later they will ask you about the food:

Serving the food:

Whenever they bring the food, if you are more than one at the table, they will sure ask who ordered what:

While eating

As we said, Spaniards are usually super friendly in restaurants, so don´t be surprised if they ask you how everything is going between each plate. If you need anything else, use those moments to ask them:

Desserts:

It is quite common to order desserts and we totally recommend you doing it. Some of them are super good. As soon as you are done eating the second dish, the waiter will come, get the plates and ask you:

How to order the bill in spanish

Waiters are usually fast when they have to bring you the food or take the plates away, but when it is time to leave, they might take a little bit longer (unless the restaurant is super full). If this happens to you and you are in a rush, we recommend you doing the same thing every spaniard would do:

Leaving

Once you have paid, if you want to be friendly with them, you can always tell them:

Other sayings that might help you while ordering food in Spain.

This is what a common conversation at a restaurant will look like, but of course, this is not like ordering food online, the sentences can perfectly change, and the waiters can say other things. Therefore, here you have a few others sentences that will help you while ordering food in Spain.

You can start ordering food in Spain!

You should be ready to go now! We hope you have enjoyed and learned from our «How to order food in Spain like a local» guide. These are some of the most common sayings, but if you have any other words/sentences you would like to know before ordering in Spain, let us know so we can improve the article!