سعر القهوة بالمطعم غالي شوي.

A common Levantine-style pronunciation would be:

siʿer il-ʔahwe bil-maṭʿam ghāli shway

A few notes:

• سعر is often pronounced siʿer or seʿer, not like formal Arabic siʿr.
• القهوة in Levantine is usually il-ʔahwe.
• بالمطعم is bil-maṭʿam.
• غالي is ghāli, with gh for غ.
• شوي is often shway.

So the full sentence sounds smooth and conversational, not overly formal.

In Arabic, especially in present-tense sentences like this one, you usually do not say a word for is.

So:

• سعر القهوة بالمطعم غالي شوي literally looks like:
• The price of the coffee in the restaurant expensive a little

But naturally it means:

• The price of the coffee in the restaurant is a little expensive
• or more naturally in English: The coffee is a bit expensive at the restaurant

This is very normal in both spoken Arabic and Standard Arabic.

سعر القهوة means the price of the coffee.

Breakdown:

• سعر = price
• القهوة = the coffee

This is an idafa structure, often called a possessive construction:

• سعر القهوة = coffee’s price / the price of the coffee

A key thing to notice:

• the first noun (سعر) does not take ال
• the second noun (القهوة) can take ال

So you say:

• سعر القهوة not
• السعر القهوة

Because in an idafa construction, the first noun usually does not take ال, even when the whole phrase is definite.

So:

• سعر قهوة = a price of coffee / coffee price
• سعر القهوة = the price of the coffee

Even though سعر by itself has no ال, the whole phrase becomes definite because القهوة is definite.

This is one of the most important noun patterns in Arabic.

بالمطعم means in the restaurant or at the restaurant.

Breakdown:

• بـ = in / at
• المطعم = the restaurant

Together:

• بالمطعم = in the restaurant

The بـ is attached directly to the noun, which is very common in Arabic.

Also notice the sound change:

• ب + المطعم becomes
• بالمطعم

In Levantine, بـ is very common for location, and in many everyday cases it can overlap with في.

Yes, often you can.

Both can mean in the restaurant or at the restaurant, but in Levantine:

• بالمطعم sounds very natural in everyday speech
• في المطعم is also understandable and common

Sometimes بـ feels a little more colloquial and tightly connected to the noun, while في can feel a little more separate or explicit.

So these are both possible in many contexts:

• سعر القهوة بالمطعم غالي شوي
• سعر القهوة في المطعم غالي شوي

The first one sounds especially natural in spoken Levantine.

Because غالي agrees with سعر, and سعر is masculine.

In Arabic, adjectives agree with the noun they describe in gender and number.

Here:

• سعر = masculine singular
• so the adjective is غالي = masculine singular

If the noun were feminine, you would usually use غالية.

For example:

• القهوة غالية = The coffee is expensive

So compare:

• سعر القهوة غالي = The price of the coffee is expensive
• القهوة غالية = The coffee is expensive

Yes, غالي usually means expensive in this kind of sentence.

But it can also mean dear/precious depending on context.

For example:

• هالشي غالي = This thing is expensive
• إنت غالي عليّ = You are dear to me

In your sentence, because we are talking about price, the meaning is clearly expensive.

شوي means a little, a bit, or kind of.

So:

• غالي شوي = a little expensive
• more natural English: a bit expensive

It softens the statement. Without شوي, the sentence sounds stronger:

• سعر القهوة بالمطعم غالي = The price of the coffee at the restaurant is expensive

With شوي, it becomes more like:

• The coffee is a bit pricey at the restaurant

In Levantine, شوي is extremely common in everyday speech.

Yes. In Levantine, both شوي and شوية are common.

Depending on region and speaker, you may hear:

• شوي
• شوية
• sometimes pronunciations like shway or shwayye

All of these relate to a little / a bit.

So you might hear:

• غالي شوي
• غالي شوية

Both are natural.

Yes, Arabic allows some flexibility, but this order is very natural.

Current sentence:

• سعر القهوة بالمطعم غالي شوي

This starts with the topic:

• the price of the coffee at the restaurant

Then gives the comment:

• is a bit expensive

That is a very common Arabic sentence pattern.

You could also hear things like:

• القهوة بالمطعم غالية شوي = The coffee at the restaurant is a bit expensive
• سعر القهوة غالي شوي بالمطعم = possible, though less neutral depending on emphasis

The original version is good because it focuses specifically on the price.

It is clearly natural in Levantine spoken Arabic.

A few clues:

• القهوة pronounced in dialect as il-ʔahwe
• شوي is very common colloquial wording
• the whole sentence has a spoken, everyday feel

In more formal Standard Arabic, you might expect something like:

• سعر القهوة في المطعم غالٍ قليلًا

But that sounds much more formal and less like everyday conversation.

So your sentence is a good example of normal spoken Levantine.

It is a complete sentence, and it sounds perfectly normal in casual spoken Arabic.

Spoken Arabic often leaves out things that English requires, such as:

• is
• some formal endings
• very explicit structure markers

But that does not make it incomplete. For a native speaker, this is a full, natural sentence.

It is the kind of thing someone might say in conversation after seeing a menu:

• سعر القهوة بالمطعم غالي شوي.

A few natural translations would be:

• The coffee is a bit expensive at the restaurant.
• The price of the coffee at the restaurant is a little high.
• Coffee at the restaurant is kind of pricey.

Even though the Arabic literally says the price of the coffee, English often sounds more natural if you just say the coffee is a bit expensive.