Eating & drinking out
By the end of this lesson
- Order food and drinks in a café, bar or restaurant
- Ask for the bill and pay (card or cash)
- Handle small problems: missing item, wrong order, no change
You already know quería from Lesson 12 and the polite «por favor / gracias» from Lesson 3. Today you put them together in a real café.
The dialogue
Marta walks into a busy café in Madrid. Tap any line to reveal the translation. Tap ▶ to hear it.
Three patterns to lock in
Each pattern below has a 3-item drill. Try it before checking.
- Quería un café, por favor.I’d like a coffee, please.
- Quería dos cervezas, por favor.I’d like two beers, please.
- Quería la carta, por favor.I’d like the menu, please.
- ¿Me cobra, por favor?Can I pay, please?
- ¿Nos cobra, por favor?Can we pay, please?
- La cuenta, por favor.The bill, please. (shorter, also fine)
- Con tarjeta, por favor.Card, please.
- En efectivo.Cash.
- ¿Aceptan tarjeta?Do you take card?
Vocabulary
Regional differences marked. Most differ between Spain (ES) and Latin America (LAT).
| Spanish | English | Region |
|---|---|---|
| Drinks | ||
| un café con leche | a coffee with milk | — |
| un café solo | an espresso | ES |
| un tinto | a black coffee | LAT (Colombia) |
| una caña | a small beer (on tap) | ES |
| una cerveza | a beer | — |
| un zumo / un jugo | a juice | ES / LAT |
| un agua | a water | — |
| Food | ||
| una tostada | a piece of toast | ES |
| un bocadillo | a sandwich (baguette) | ES |
| un sándwich | a sandwich (sliced bread) | — |
| tapas / raciones | small / larger sharing plates | ES |
| Paying | ||
| la cuenta | the bill | — |
| cobrar | to charge / take payment | — |
| en efectivo | in cash | — |
| con tarjeta | by card | — |
| la propina | the tip | — |
- In Spain, tinto usually means red wine. In Colombia, it means black coffee. Easy mix-up.
- «Un agua» is grammatically masculine here even though «agua» is feminine — Spanish does this with feminine nouns starting with stressed «a».
- Tipping in Spain is tiny or zero (round up). Don’t transplant US habits.
Do you still remember?
Three items from earlier lessons that connect to today. If anything feels rusty, jump back.
Quick check
Type the Spanish. Answers appear in green or red.
Practice
Complete each line of the dialogue.
From English to Spanish.
Say it out loud
Five key phrases. Listen, then repeat aloud three times each. Track yourself with the counter.
Roleplay
You walk into a café in Madrid.
It’s 10am. You’re hungry. You want a coffee with milk, a toast with tomato, and a small juice. After eating, you want to pay by card.
Roleplay both parts (you + waiter), or record only your lines and play the waiter in your head.
Did you get it?
Five questions on today’s dialogue.
- Quería ___, por favor.
- ¿Me cobra, por favor?
- En efectivo / con tarjeta.
Practice ordering aloud three different things you’d actually want in a café. Lesson 20 (Shopping in a store) reuses the same quería pattern — you’ll get to use it again with prices, sizes and quantities.
Answer key (open if you’re stuck)
Exercise A: 1. Quería · 2. cobra · 3. tarjeta · 4. cincuenta · 5. más
Exercise B: 1. Quería la carta, por favor. · 2. La cuenta, por favor. · 3. ¿Algo más? — No, gracias.
Quiz: 1·B 2·C 3·A 4·B 5·C