Food and Ordering in a Restaurant

Ordering in a café or restaurant is one of the first things you'll actually do in Czech, and it packs a surprising amount of grammar into a few short phrases. Every order forces a case choice (what you order goes in the accusative), most orders use a politeness softener that is marked for your gender, and quantities ride on the genitive. This page gives you the templates to walk in, order confidently, and ask for the bill — and explains the grammar quietly humming underneath each one.

The three ways to order

Czech has three everyday frames for "I'll have / I'd like," from most casual to most polite. All three take their object in the accusative.

Dám si is what you'll hear most: it's relaxed but perfectly polite. The waiter opens with Co si dáte? ("What will you have?") or Dáte si něco k pití? ("Will you have something to drink?"), and you answer in kind.

Here polévku (from polévka, feminine) and guláš (masculine) are both accusative objects. The feminine noun visibly changes (polévka → polévku); the masculine inanimate guláš happens to look the same in the accusative, which is exactly why beginners forget that a case choice is even happening.

Why the si matters: dát si

Dám si literally means "I'll give to myself." That little si is a reflexive dative — it turns "give" into "have / order for oneself." Drop it and you change the meaning entirely: Dám kávu means "I'll give a coffee" (to someone), while Dám si kávu means "I'll have a coffee." In a restaurant you almost always want the si version.

The polite softener: Chtěl bych / Chtěla bych

When you want to sound especially courteous, use the conditional of chtít ("to want"): Chtěl bych… / Chtěla bych… ("I'd like…"). The plain present Chci kávu ("I want a coffee") is grammatically fine but lands blunt, almost childish — like demanding rather than requesting. The conditional is the standard adult softener.

The catch English speakers always miss: the conditional carries a past participle, so it is marked for gender. A man says Chtěl bych; a woman says Chtěla bych; a group says Chtěli bychom. You cannot order politely without knowing your own gender ending.

For the full machinery of bych / bys / by and why the conditional softens a request, see polite requests and the politeness of the conditional.

Quantities: the partitive genitive

To order "a glass of water" or "a cup of tea," Czech does not use a word for "of." Instead, the container or measure word is followed directly by the substance in the genitive — the partitive genitive, marking a portion taken from a whole.

The container itself takes whatever case the sentence needs (sklenici is accusative after přinesete), but the substance hanging off it stays genitive. More on this on the partitive genitive page.

"For me" and getting the bill

To single out who an item is for, use pro + accusative (pro mě, "for me") or the dative pronoun mně / mi. And when you're done, two phrases get you the bill: Zaplatím, prosím ("I'll pay, please") or simply Účet, prosím ("The bill, please"). The waiter will often ask whether you're paying together or separately.

Special requests: bez, se, místo

Real orders rarely stop at the menu name — you leave something out, add something, or swap. Each little word brings its own case. Bez ("without") and místo ("instead of") take the genitive; s / se ("with") takes the instrumental.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Order with Dám si…, Prosím si…, or the polite Chtěl/Chtěla bych… — and put what you order in the accusative (Dám si kávu, polévku, guláš).
• The si in dát si is obligatory: Dám si kávu = "I'll have a coffee," Dám kávu = "I'll give a coffee."
• The conditional softener is gender-marked: Chtěl bych (m.), Chtěla bych (f.), Chtěli bychom (pl.).
• Quantities use the partitive genitive with no word for "of": sklenice vody, šálek čaje, láhev vína.
• Ask for the bill with Zaplatím, prosím or Účet, prosím; pay kartou (by card) or in cash.