Dining out

Eating in restaurants and cafés, otherwise known as dining out, can be a daily activity, part of weekend socialising or something saved for special occasions. However, when we are in a foreign country we usually make the most of the opportunity to try new food and dishes and tend to dine out more, and even if we are not in an English-speaking country, English is often the common language spoken. This post takes you through the steps of reserving a table, commenting on the menu, asking for advice, ordering your food and drink, and making complaints in a restaurant. 

 

The First Step: Getting a Table

You don’t always need to reserve a table, but it is often a good idea. Phoning a restaurant to book (reservar) a table is usually a short conversation and will probably be something like the one below.

Restaurant:    Hello, FAB Restaurant.

Wendy:           Hello, I’d like to reserve a table for four, for tomorrow night, please.

Restaurant:    Certainly. At what time?

Wendy:           Nine o’clock, if that’s OK.

Restaurant:    That’s fine. So, that’s a table for four people, for tomorrow night at nine. 

Wendy:           That’s right. Thank you. Goodbye.

Step 2: Choosing your Food

It’s easy when you know exactly what you want to order, but sometimes the choice (elección) is so good that it is difficult to decide. Talking about what is on the menu is often part of the decision making process, since we get ideas and are influenced by what other people say. Look at the following structures that use look, fancy and feel like to exchange ideas and get information. 

► look / sound + adjective

Look is usually used when you can see a picture or photograph of the dish while sound is usually used when referring to the description of a dish in a menu or a verbal recommendation.

Mmm, the lasagne looks very good.

The sirloin (solomillo) steak doesn’t look very appealing.(apetecible)

The Asian salad sounds delicious.

Hmm, ‘Prawns with Pineapple’ doesn’t sound very tasty.

 

► fancy / feel like + -ing  and fancy / feel like + noun

Using  fancy is similar to saying like, but also has the idea of appeal contained in the meaning, which makes it a little different, and it is used more in Britain than in the United States. Using feel like is very similar to fancy and relates to your mood (estado de ánimo) or desire for something at the time of speaking.

I fancy having something with fish in it.

I fancy trying ‘Mushrooms baked (setas asadas) with blue cheese and thyme’.(tomillo)

 

 

How do you Like your Food?

We definitely enjoy our food in a lot of different ways: we can have it raw (cruda), fried, seared,(vuelta y vuelta) grilled, baked, boiled (hervida), steamed (al vapor), poached (escalfada), roasted, toasted or barbecued. Almost everyone is interested in food, with the big question being: what does it taste like? So here is a list of adjectives to describe flavours, as well as a range of words with a colour guide for appearances and textures.

APPEARANCE &/OR TEXTURE	SPANISH TRANSLATION	FLAVOUR	SPANISH TRANSLATION
appealing A	apetecible	bland	soso
appetising AT	apetitoso	tasty	sabroso
chewy AT	fibroso	juicy	jugoso
crunchy / crispy T	crujiente	mouth-watering	hacer la boca agua
dry AT	seco	rank / rancid	rancio, fétido
greasy AT	grasiento	rich	empalagoso
heavenly A	maravilloso	scrumptious / divine	riquísimo
tough AT	duro	sharp / sour / tart	ácido, agrio
withered A	marchito	stale	pasado