INTRODUCTION

I live near a small village in Andalucia Spain. I receive a lot of visitors who know little or no Spanish and know nothing about Spain.

Unless I go with them they end up ordering the wrong thing, not getting what they want and arrive back disgruntled.

If you go to a village it is likely that nobody speaks any English. Sometimes even in big cities nobody speak English. The guidance below is written for Spain and may not be so useful for South America.

This text is the absolute minimum you need.

There is a free flashcard system to help you learn some simple restaurant vocab here

There is some more simple Spanish restaurant vocab here

Let's say you want to go to a bar and have some drinks and something to eat.

You sit down at a table:
The waiter will probably come over and says.
¿que quiere beber?
¿que quiere tomar?
¿para beber?
or something similar.

He is probably saying.
What would you like to drink?
The waiter will almost always ask what you want to drink first.

Here is some help ordering a drink:

Cerveza - Beer - pronounced THER - VAY- THA
Beer normally comes in 2 sizes.
Una Caña (25cl) prounced OONA CANYA
Un tubo (33cl) prounced OON TOOBO

Vino - Wine - pronounced BEE NO
Normally comes in
Tinto - Red - pronounced TIN TOE
Blanco - White pronounced BLAN KOE

Let put this into a dialogue:

Camarero: ¿que quiere tomar?
Person 1: Un vino tinto
Person 2: Una cerveza or Un tubo de cerveza

When the Camerero brings your drinks he might bring you a free tapa.
The is very common in the province of Granada.
If you are not very hungry the tapas might be enough food.

If you are more hungry then you could ask for:
Una racion - pronounced OONA RATH EE ON
Un plato combinado - pronounced OON PLAT O KOMBIN ARDO
Menu del dia - pronounced MEN OO DEL DEE A

Una Racion is a plate of food - The average person could probably eat 1 2 or maybe 3 to themselves
depending on the appetite and the size of them. (Look at other tables to see how big they are)
If you are with a few people you can order several raciones and share them. They will bring out some forks.

Un plato combinado - is a plate of food which contains several ingredients.
For example:
Patatas Fritas - pronounced PA TA TAS FREET ASS - Chips
Huevos Fritos - pronounced WAY VOS FRI TOSS - Fried eggs
Chorizo - pronounced CHO REE THO - Spanish spicy sausuage
Morcilla - pronounced MORE THEE YA - Spanish black pudding

Menu del dia - Is a fixed menu meal with 3 courses.
It normally costs between 9 and 12 euros.
It is beyond the scope of this lesson to explain the menu del dia because you will have to understand the menu.
(did you know that will google translate you can put your smartphone up to a text and it will translate it)

If you know next to nothing in Spanish just order egg and chips with a beer.
Huevos con patatas fritas con una cerveza.

Here are a few more words to help you.

To attract the attention of the waiter. - Oiga pronounced - OYGA
Fork - Tenedor - pronounced - TENE DOOR
A plate - Un Plato . OON PLATTOE
It is very tasty - ¡que rico! - KAY REEKO
The toilets - Los servicios - LOS SERVITH EE OS
The bill please - La cuenta por favor - LA KWENTA POR FA VOR

SOME NOTES:
Un menu in Spanish - pronounced MEN OO (Not MEN YOU) means a fixed price meal (not a menu)
A menu (list of all food) is called - la carta pronounced - LA CARR TA
A nice drink in the summer is - Tinto de verano - pronounced TIN TOE DE BERR ARNO - It is red wine with soda.

There is more Spanish restaurant vocabulary here

There is an entire section on Spanish food here