Polish Food Vocabulary: What to Say at a Restaurant
Eating out is the fastest way to use Polish in the wild — and the app’s café lesson plus the At a Café and At a Restaurant role-plays rehearse exactly this scene. Here is the survival kit.
The magic ordering pattern
Poproszę… (“I’ll have…”, literally “I will ask for…”) + the item in the accusative case. One pattern orders everything:
| Polish | English |
|---|---|
| Poproszę kawę | One coffee, please |
| Poproszę herbatę | One tea, please |
| Poproszę rachunek | The bill, please |
Words you’ll read on menus
| Polish | English |
|---|---|
| chleb | bread |
| ser | cheese |
| ryba | fish |
| kurczak | chicken |
| sałatka | salad |
| lody | ice cream |
| woda | water |
| piwo | beer |
| mleko | milk |
With the waiter
| Polish | English | Note |
|---|---|---|
| kelner / kelnerka | waiter / waitress | To call them over, a Przepraszam! (“Excuse me!”) works better than shouting a title. |
| Ile to kosztuje? | How much is it? | Also useful in shops; cena means “price”. |
| Smacznego! | Enjoy your meal! | Say it to your companions — and expect to hear it from staff. |
| Dziękuję | Thank you | Floating staff, floating smiles. |
One cultural note
Poles generally don’t split hairs over the bill the way some cultures do — but offering to pay your share is always smooth: Proszę as you hand over cash covers a multitude of situations. Practice the whole scene in the app’s restaurant role-play before your trip.