Languages

Ordering in Spanish without pointing

By Ren · Updated October 20, 2026

A restaurant is the most repeatable situation on a trip. The same eight or nine exchanges happen every time, which makes it the best possible place to use the language rather than study it.

The whole meal in ten phrases

"Quisiera" is worth memorising as a block. It is the conditional of "querer" and it is simply the polite way to order. You do not need to understand the conditional tense to use it.

The bill does not come on its own

In Spain and most of Latin America, bringing the bill unasked is rude — it implies you should leave. It will not arrive until you ask. This surprises visitors from the US and causes a lot of unnecessary waiting.

Tipping varies sharply and is worth checking for your specific destination: it is modest and optional in Spain, more expected in Mexico, and often already included as "servicio" elsewhere. Look at the bill before adding anything.

Allergies and restrictions, worded so they land

Vague wording gets vague results. Be concrete:

• Soy alérgico / alérgica a … — "I am allergic to …". Use the ending that matches you.
• ¿Lleva … ? — "Does it contain …?" More reliable than asking what is in it.
• Sin … — "without …". Short, and always understood.
• No como carne / pescado. — "I don't eat meat / fish." Note that in many places "carne" is understood as red meat specifically, so say both if you need to.

The fourteen allergen words

Restaurants in Spain work from the fourteen groups in Annex II of EU Regulation 1169/2011. The middle column starts with the key word from the regulation's Spanish text, so it matches the official list; the examples after a colon are the everyday words for what is on the plate. The right-hand column is for the words that change across the Atlantic. A dash means no variant is listed here, not that none exists.

Four words cause most of the confusion:

• Marisco is the everyday word for crustaceans and molluscs together. The Mexican DEM defines marisco as a marine invertebrate eaten as food, "en especial los crustáceos y los moluscos". Saying marisco covers both groups. If only one is the problem, name it with two examples: crustáceos: gambas, cangrejo.
• Nuez covers several nuts in Mexico. The DEM lists the pecan under nuez, while a walnut is nuez de Castilla and a cashew nuez de la India. A plain sin nuez can be heard as one nut. Name every nut you react to.
• Lactosa is not the same request as milk. Leche sin lactosa is still milk, and the regulation's milk entry reads "Leche y sus derivados (incluida la lactosa)". For an allergy, say alergia a la leche and add ni lácteos, which covers queso, mantequilla and cream (nata in Spain, crema in Mexico).
• Ajonjolí goes on more than bread rolls. The DEM entry mentions it on breads and stews "como los cocoles y el mole", so in Mexico ask about the mole by name.

Say how serious it is

Sin … tells the kitchen what to leave out. It does not tell them why, and the why changes what they check: the sauce, the oil, the knife. Add one of these:

Tengo alergia a … and Soy alérgico a … mean the same thing; the first spares you choosing an ending. Keep the article: a los cacahuetes, a la leche, al marisco (a + el becomes al).

What a restaurant in Spain has to tell you

In Spain this is a legal question as well as a polite one. The EU regulation's definition of colectividades names restaurants, and Spain's Real Decreto 126/2015 requires unpackaged food, including food served by them, to state which of the fourteen allergens it contains, "con una referencia clara a la sustancia" (article 4.1.b). Instead of labels by the food, article 6.5 allows other means on these conditions:

• The information can be given orally, but it must also be recorded in writing or electronically on the premises, where customers who ask for it can consult it.
• Unless the allergens are labelled on or next to the food, a visible notice must say where the information is, or that you can ask the staff.
• It must be available before the purchase is finished and at no extra cost.

Article 10 requires it "al menos, en castellano", so the allergen information may be in Spanish only even where the menu has an English version. The question that puts all of this to work is ¿Tienen la información de alérgenos?, or ¿Me puede enseñar la carta de alérgenos? These are EU and Spanish rules and do not apply in Latin America, so there go straight to the questions below.

Questions to ask before you order

1. ¿Este plato lleva …? — "Does this dish contain …?" One dish at a time.
2. ¿Y la salsa? ¿Y el pan? ¿Y el postre? — "And the sauce? The bread? The dessert?" Ask separately about the parts that come with the dish.
3. ¿Se fríe en el mismo aceite que …? — "Is it fried in the same oil as …?" The UK Food Standards Agency names shared oil as a route for allergens: gluten-free chips "can't use the same oil which has been previously used for cooking battered fish". Coated food is rebozado or empanado in Spain and empanizado in Mexico.
4. ¿Se puede preparar sin … y con utensilios limpios? — "Can it be made without … and with clean utensils?" The same guidance lists cleaning utensils before each use among the ways to prevent cross-contamination.
5. ¿Puede preguntarlo en la cocina, por favor? — "Could you check with the kitchen?" This asks the waiter to check rather than answer from memory.
6. Si no es seguro, prefiero pedir otra cosa. — "If you're not sure, I'd rather order something else." It gives the waiter an easy way to say no.

The replies you may hear

Se lo quitamos needs a follow-up, because taking the nuts off the top is not the same as making the dish without them: ¿Lo pueden preparar sin … desde el principio?

A printable allergy card

A card does the talking when the room is loud or the words go. Copy the text below, fill in the blanks, and print it or keep a photo of it on your phone. Hand it over before you order, not when the food arrives.

TENGO ALERGIA A: ______________
(I am allergic to: ______________)

Es una alergia grave, no una preferencia. Ni siquiera una cantidad muy pequeña: tampoco en salsas, caldos, aceite de freír ni utensilios.

¿Pueden confirmar con la cocina que mi plato no lleva ______________, que se prepara con utensilios limpios y que no se fríe en el mismo aceite que otros platos?

Si no es posible, dígamelo, por favor, y pido otra cosa.

¡Muchas gracias!

Filling in the blanks:

• Write the allergen in capitals, then the regional words in brackets: CACAHUETES (cacahuates, maní). One card then carries the words used in Madrid, Mexico City and Buenos Aires.
• For tree nuts, list each one: almendras, avellanas, nueces (nuez de Castilla), anacardos (nuez de la India), pistachos, pacanas, nueces de Brasil, nueces de macadamia. These are the eight nuts the regulation names; it calls the pistachio by its older name, alfóncigo. The brackets carry the Mexican names from the DEM.
• For coeliac disease, write SIN GLUTEN: SOY CELÍACO / CELÍACA and add the cereals on the official list, trigo, centeno, cebada, avena, plus pan rallado (breadcrumbs).
• For more than one allergen, put each on its own line in capitals, with the most serious first.
• Keep two copies: one in your wallet and one on your phone.

The menu words that change by country

Note the trap: in Spain el menú usually means the fixed-price set lunch, not the list of dishes. Asking for "el menú" when you want the list gets you a set meal.

Why this is the best place to practise

The exchange is short, the vocabulary is finite, the other person wants the interaction to succeed, and you get to repeat it two or three times a day. Rehearse the replies you are likely to hear, not only the lines you plan to say — being surprised by the answer is what makes people switch back to English.