Spanish for restaurants

Para plus a number is how Spanish books anything for a group: una mesa para dos, a table for two. And hay que plus a verb asks about a rule with no person in it, which is why ¿hay que esperar? is the natural way to ask whether there is a wait.

¿Qué lleva? asks what something carries, and it is how Spanish asks what is in a dish. It is more useful than any list of ingredients, because the answer tells you everything at once, and it works for drinks and sauces too.

Ordering in Spanish is mostly naming the thing: para mí, el pollo, for me, the chicken. The question form ¿me trae?, will you bring me, is softer than an order and is what people actually say to a waiter.

Más, a little more, and otra, another, cover most of what you ask for once the food arrives. Esto no es lo que pedí uses lo que, the thing that, which lets you point at a dish without knowing its name.

La cuenta, por favor is enough on its own. Waiters rarely bring the bill until you ask, because rushing a table is rude, so asking is not impatience: it is the only way the bill arrives.

la carta is the list of everything the kitchen makes. el menú, or el menú del día, is usually a fixed price set meal. Asking for the wrong one gets you a perfectly good lunch that is not the one you meant to choose.

In most Spanish speaking countries, bringing the bill before it is asked for implies the table should leave. The waiter is not ignoring you. Ask, and asking is expected.

Politeness has no place here. soy alérgico a, or no puedo comer, said flatly and repeated, is safer than a softened sentence that gets lost in a busy kitchen.