Experiencing new foods and flavors is one of the best things about traveling to a new destination. Successfully ordering food in another language can make it even more rewarding! Below you’ll find ideas for preparing yourself to order in a restaurant in Spanish and links to help you build your culinary vocabulary.
First of all, familiarizing yourself with local dishes will give you more confidence while looking at a menu in Spanish. If you’re traveling to Oaxaca with me this fall, check out these links for examples of local food dishes: Comida Oaxaqueña: Una delicia mexicana and the food I was able to try in August 2023: blog post.
While looking at a menu in Spanish, remember to have patience with yourself. It’s easy to be overwhelmed with all the food vocabulary. Even in your native language, there may be new spices or ingredients on the menu that you haven’t heard of before. If it can happen in your first language, it’s bound to happen in your second language, too! Don’t be hard on yourself if you don’t recognize all the words on the menu. Restaurant menus and sports commentators can be the toughest language comprehension tests. :)
Practicing your Spanish at Restaurants:
If the restaurant has both a Spanish & English menu available, try reading the Spanish menu first and see how much you understand before defaulting to the English. Even flipping back and forth between the two languages is better practice than automatically reading the English menu. When it’s time to order, order in Spanish.
What if there is only a Spanish menu available? I like to have my phone handy with a Spanish-English dictionary to look up food words as needed. If you can’t find the translation, doing an online image search to see pictures of the ingredient can at least give you an idea if it’s a vegetable, spice, meat, or other. Most restaurants have free wifi available if you don’t have data while traveling.
If you know what restaurant you’ll be visiting before your travels, look up the menu beforehand. Check out the links to our Oaxaca reservations below and take a look at their menus online. What would you order for dinner in these restaurants? What questions would you have for the server? Do you need to share any dietary restrictions, and how would you communicate them? Do some brainstorming and look up words that you’ll need in a restaurant. If you need new words or phrases or questions, write them in your Spanish notebook or flashcards to review later.
Oaxaca Restaurants 2024:
If you're joining me this October in Oaxaca, México, we currently have reservations at the following restaurants. Check out the links for the menus:
Time to Practice!
After checking out menus in your destination country, pretend like you are at the restaurant and it's time to order. Play out the situation and think about what you would say in the moment by forming your order in Spanish and saying it aloud. The real practice here is talking out loud! It may feel silly, but it's good practice.
Stuck? It's fine to look up words. But after looking up what you need, say your answer again WITHOUT looking at notes or a dictionary. This helps build confidence in your speaking and you can work on pronunciation. Say your answers a few times with different inflections to build confidence in your Spanish-speaking voice.
Need some restaurant phrases to get started? Check out these links to outside resources:
Listening comprehension practice:
Listen to native speakers talk about restaurants and ordering from the menu in the following two videos.
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