One of the nicest pleasures in life is to share delicious food with good company in a nice restaurant. Many people enjoy dining out and Spanish people are no different. Let's provide you with a selection of authentic, tasty Streetwise Spanish phrases you can easily use to spice-up your growing Spanish vocabulary to help you enjoy good food - la buena mesa - in style wherever you are in the Hispanic world!
Me gusta mucho la buena mesa and I enjoy dining out - me encanta cenar afuera - and I really am spoilt because here where I live in Barcelona there are several really good restaurants a dos dedos de mi casa. I will rarely dine in the expensive tourist eateries, I prefer to dine where the locals dine and this is a really canny move because not only will you save a small fortune, you will enjoy delicious food too! It's really easy to find these restaurants, just use the rule of thumb the locals use to decide whether a restaurant is worth a visit:
Un restaurante debería ser bueno, bonito y barato - good, nice and cheap. If you find a restaurant packed with locals, it's a pretty good sign that it is bueno, bonito y barato ¡por cierto!
Vale, now you've found a canny place to eat, here's a couple of Streetwise tips to help you make a great impression and enjoy first-class service - and maybe a drink or two on the house! One very big mistake guiris make is clicking their fingers and saying "¡hombre!" o "¡guapa!" o "¡amigo/a!" to attract the attention of los camareros. This can lead to a very embarrassing or humiliating rebuke. Bueno, the following phrase is by far the best to use and will earn you respect too:
¡Oiga Señor/Señorita/Señora!
If you're in Latin America, you may wish to substitute ¡oiga! with ¡disculpe! and perdone is also fine but less common. These are very polite and you will not cause any unintentional offence and you'll also receive good service. I always refer to las camareras as "Señorita" no matter what their age and it always earns me a smile and great service too!
You know when you're in two minds about what to order and you say "I'm in two minds, it's either the steak or the chicken", yes? It's so easy to say this in Spanish:
Estoy dudando entre el bistéc y el pollo - I'm choosing between the steak and the chicken.
Another tasty phrase I use a lot when dining concerns expressing that you fancy something, like this:
Me apetece algo dulce - I fancy something sweet
Me apetece una pizza - I quite fancy a pizza
And how about this for a another cracking authentic Spanish phrase to add to your growing vocab. You've smelt the appetizing aromas coming from the kitchen and you say "Mmm, something smells good!" yes? The equivalent phrase in Spanish - and you won't believe this - is vividly descriptive:
¡Huele de muerte! - It smells of death!
Why they say this I don't know but they do and it is a gem of a phrase used by very few guiris but you'll earn bucket-loads of admiration when you say this!
Bueno, you're enjoying a delicious meal and you want to express how good the food is. Here's another vibrant Spanish phrase that'll separate you from the guiris and gives more punch to the commonly used "¡Qué delicioso/a!" just by adding a nice easy extension, like this:
La paella está como Dios manda - ¡Qué deliciosa! - The paella is just how it should be - it's delicious!
And talking of paella, sometimes it can be really heavy and even when at its best I just cannot eat a full portion, it's so filling. The following Spanish phrase comes in ever-so-useful for these times:
Esta paella es deliciosa pero, llena mucho - This paella is delicious but it's very filling.
If you have a a sweet tooth and you want to leave room to enjoy desert, you're bound to use this phrase a lot:
Me reservo para el postre - I'm leaving room for desert
Enjoy using these authentic Spanish phrases, have fun y ¡buen provecho!
Hasta pronto