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Je vais à la cafétéria, tu veux y manger avec moi ?

Je vais à la cafétéria, tu veux y manger avec moi ?
I am going to the cafeteria, do you want to eat there with me?
From Lesson 107:The pronoun of place (y)·French

Questions & Answers about Je vais à la cafétéria, tu veux y manger avec moi ?

What exactly does y mean here, and what is it replacing?
In this sentence, y means "there". It replaces the location mentioned in the first half of the sentence: à la cafétéria. Using y saves us from having to repeat "at the cafeteria" a second time.
Why is y placed right before manger instead of before veux?
When you have a conjugated verb followed by an infinitive (like veux manger, meaning "want to eat"), the pronoun goes right before the verb it actually connects to. Since you are eating there (and not wanting there), the y must go directly before manger.
Could I just say là to mean "there" instead of using y?
While là does mean "there" (as in pointing to a physical place), y is the natural and grammatically correct way to say "there" when referring back to a specific location you just introduced. Saying tu veux manger là would sound a bit clunky, like you are physically pointing at the cafeteria.
Why do we say avec moi instead of avec me or avec je?
After prepositions like avec (with), pour (for), or chez (at the home of), French requires a specific set of pronouns called stressed pronouns. The stressed pronoun for "me" is moi.

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