En el restaurante - Cambios

Question

OK, I have no idea how to express or ask this. Frankly, not even a decent guess, or I'd be putting it up here, as I know is preferred.

When ordering from a menu in Spanish, and wanting to inquire about getting something extra (or request a deletion or substitution) how do I ask that? I guess that is really 3 related questions.

For example, when looking at a sandwich plate offering to which I'd like to add another topping, how would I ask:

1) Can I get bacon on that?

OR.

2) Could I get that without onions?

OR.

3) Could I get/have/order that with lettuce instead of peppers?

Something with recibir or conseguir?

Thanks in advance for any answers, ideas, or suggestions.

Answer 1

I know one mistake that many English speakers often make when asking for food is to say:

Puedo tener ..... Can I have ......

I think that this sounds strange in Spanish when ordering food and you're much better off saying 'me puedes dar ..... , me pudiera dar (very polite) or simply 'me da'

So, using that format how about saying something like ...

¿Es posible que me pudiera dar este or uno de estos con tocino?

or

¿Me pudiera dar este sin cebollas por favor?

or

¿Es posible me pudiera dar este con lechuga en vez/lugar de pimientos por favor?

but I'd be interested to see what a native speaker has to say on the subject.

Answer 2

Thanks very much Kiwi-Girl.

Yes, those are far from any wild guesses I´d have had. When I was just ordering blindly and directly from the menu, I´ve always used something with Quisiera pedir, but had NO idea how to proceed here. Thanks for all you suggestions, which ring very true. I´d never have guessed ´me dar´in any form, so thanks for pushing me in that direction

regards roger

de nada, let's just hope I haven't put you wrong jeje Hopefully you'll get some good answers too lol - Kiwi-Girl, Sep 18, 2012

Answer 3

Sorry, forgot to answer your direct questions.

I'd simply say:

• 1) Can I get bacon on that? (Con tocino, por favor).

• 2) Could I get that without onions? (Sin cebolla, por favor).

• 3) Could I get/have/order that with lettuce instead of peppers? (Por favor, sin pimientos pero con lechuga).

I like your answers, Mariana. - francobollo, Sep 18, 2012

Answer 4

Kiwi is right on point.

It was very difficult for me to get over asking "¿Puedo tener.....?" and moving on to "¿Me puedes dar.......?"

Take a look at what Lazarus says about "Can I have....?" and the examples that can replace that request. Good stuff......

Spanish does not use this approach, so asking literally "Can I have...?" sounds a bit like "Can I possess...?" It is weird. In Spanish you do ask people to do things for you (instead of asking whether we can have something from them), but we can use "usted", the conditional tense and other mechanisms to make the sentence more polite ....."¿Puedo tener...?" to order things in a restaurant sounds extremely weird.

Answer 5

When I ask for other toppings on pizza, they always use the verb "agregar" for additions to my order for toppings.