Ordering without Portuguese: a mini phrasebook for restaurants

Portuguese sounds harder at first hearing than it needs to be for ordering dinner. People here are patient, many speak some English, and everyone appreciates an attempt in Portuguese anyway.

The eight phrases

• Bom dia (morning) · boa tarde (afternoon) · boa noite (evening) — you always greet the room on entering.
• Uma mesa para dois, por favor. — A table for two, please.
• A carta, por favor. — The menu, please.
• Água com gás / sem gás. — Sparkling / still water.
• Um café, por favor. — An espresso. For a milky coffee, say um galão.
• A conta, por favor. — The bill, please. (It never arrives unasked.)
• Obrigado if you’re male, obrigada if you’re female — the form follows the person saying thank you, not the person being thanked.
• Não falo português. Fala inglês? — I don’t speak Portuguese. Do you speak English?

What’s on the menu

A few words that keep appearing: lapas are limpets, usually baked with garlic butter. Polvo is octopus. Queijo fresco is a mild fresh cheese that often arrives as a starter. And bolo lêvedo is the slightly sweet griddle bread served with almost everything here.

One small note: the bread and nibbles that appear on the table unasked (couvert) are not free. If you don’t want them, just politely push them back.

Two practical things

Ring ahead. Many restaurants have closing days you can’t guess from outside, and in season they fill up. And bring cash — in small places it’s often the simpler option.

If you’d rather cook: the long table in the house has room too.

Here you can see when the house is free.

Frank, Bärbel, Maren & Simon