Learn Hardcore Portuguese (Portugal): Para a próxima vez, o restaurante vai reservar uma mesa melhor, porque já conhece as nossas escolhas na ementa. - Next time, the restaurant is going to reserve a better table, because it already knows our choices on the menu.

Para a próxima vez = for next time / for the next occasion
Emphasises preparation or planning for that future occasion.
> Para a próxima vez, o restaurante vai reservar uma mesa melhor.
“For next time, the restaurant will reserve a better table (it’s arranging this in advance).”
Da próxima vez = next time (when it happens again)
Very common, neutral way to say “next time” in European Portuguese.
> Da próxima vez, o restaurante vai reservar uma mesa melhor.
Na próxima vez = on the next occasion
Also possible, but used less often with vez than da próxima vez.

In your sentence, para a próxima vez fits well because the action (reserving a better table) is consciously planned for the next visit.

Why do we need the article a in a próxima vez? Why not just próxima vez?

In European Portuguese, time expressions with “vez” almost always take the definite article:

da próxima vez
para a próxima vez
na última vez
desde a primeira vez

Saying just próxima vez (without a) is unusual in this kind of sentence and would sound incomplete or very telegraphic.

Compare:

Natural: Da próxima vez chegamos mais cedo.
Odd in European Portuguese: Próxima vez chegamos mais cedo. (sounds like a note or headline, not normal speech)

So a próxima vez is the standard, idiomatic form.

Why is the future written as vai reservar instead of reservará?

Portuguese has two main ways to talk about the future:

ir + infinitive: vai reservar
simple future: reservará

In modern spoken European Portuguese, option 1 (ir + infinitive) is by far the most common, especially in everyday conversation:

O restaurante vai reservar uma mesa melhor.
The restaurant is going to reserve a better table.

Reservará is grammatically correct but sounds more formal, written, or distant. You’re much more likely to hear vai reservar in normal speech.

There is also a nuance: vai reservar often implies a planned or arranged future, similar to English “is going to reserve”.

Why is it uma mesa melhor and not uma melhor mesa, like “a better table” in English?

In Portuguese, adjectives usually come after the noun:

uma mesa grande – a big table
uma mesa bonita – a pretty table
uma mesa melhor – a better table

Putting the adjective before the noun is possible, but it often changes the tone or creates emphasis, and with melhor it can sound more literary or more like “the best possible”:

uma melhor mesa – unusual here; can sound like you are strongly contrasting it with a clearly worse option, or trying to sound particularly rhetorical.

So the natural, neutral way to say “a better table” is uma mesa melhor.

Also, remember that melhor is the irregular comparative of bom:

bom → melhor (good → better)
mau → pior (bad → worse)

What exactly does porque do here, and could I use por isso instead?

In this sentence:

…o restaurante vai reservar uma mesa melhor, porque já conhece as nossas escolhas…

porque introduces the reason/cause:
The restaurant will reserve a better table because it already knows your choices.

porque = because (introduces a cause/explanation)
por isso = therefore / so (introduces a consequence)

If you used por isso, you would need to change the order:

O restaurante já conhece as nossas escolhas na ementa, por isso vai reservar uma mesa melhor.
“The restaurant already knows our choices on the menu, so it will reserve a better table.”

So:

porque → “cause: X happens because Y”
por isso → “result: Y happens, so X”

What does já add in porque já conhece as nossas escolhas? Could I just say porque conhece as nossas escolhas?

You could say porque conhece as nossas escolhas, but já adds an important nuance.

já conhece = “already knows / by now knows / now knows”
It suggests that:
- there have been previous visits or contact, and
- as a result, at this point the restaurant knows your preferences.

Without já, it’s just a bare fact:

porque conhece as nossas escolhas – because it knows our choices (stated neutrally)

With já, you highlight the change over time:

Before: it didn’t know your choices.
Now: it already knows them.

In English you might or might not say “already,” but in Portuguese já is very natural here.

Why do we use conhece and not sabe in já conhece as nossas escolhas?

Portuguese distinguishes two verbs for “to know”:

conhecer – to know / be familiar with people or things
saber – to know facts, information, or how to do something

Here, as nossas escolhas na ementa (our choices on the menu) are treated as things the restaurant is familiar with:

O restaurante já conhece as nossas escolhas.
The restaurant already knows (is familiar with) our choices.

Using sabe directly with a noun like this is not idiomatic:

✗ já sabe as nossas escolhas (sounds odd on its own)

But saber would be fine if followed by a clause:

O restaurante já sabe quais são as nossas escolhas.
“The restaurant already knows what our choices are.”

So:

conhecer + noun: conhece as nossas escolhas
saber + clause: sabe quais são as nossas escolhas

Why is it as nossas escolhas and not just nossas escolhas?

In European Portuguese, possessives almost always take a definite article:

o meu carro – my car
a tua casa – your house
os nossos amigos – our friends
as nossas escolhas – our choices

So as nossas escolhas is the normal, idiomatic form.

Dropping the article (nossas escolhas) is much more typical of Brazilian Portuguese. In European Portuguese it sounds either Brazilian or very marked.

Also, the forms agree grammatically:

as (feminine plural article)
nossas (feminine plural possessive)
escolhas (feminine plural noun)

Why is escolhas in the plural? Could it be a nossa escolha instead?

Both are possible, but they mean slightly different things:

as nossas escolhas na ementa – our choices on the menu
Suggests more than one choice:
- maybe several dishes you usually order, or
- the pattern of what you tend to choose over time.
a nossa escolha na ementa – our choice on the menu
Suggests a single current choice, e.g. what you chose this time.

In your sentence, the idea is probably that the restaurant has learned how you tend to choose (across visits or across the menu), so the plural escolhas feels natural.

What does na mean in na ementa, and why is it na ementa and not do menu or da ementa?

Na is the contraction of em + a:

em (in/on) + a (the, feminine singular) → na

So na ementa literally means “in the menu” / “on the menu”.

The sentence:

…as nossas escolhas na ementa

means:

“our choices on the menu”
i.e. the items we choose from within the menu.

If you said da ementa (de + a = “of the menu”), it would focus more on origin or possession, like “the menu’s choices” rather than “our choices within it.”

About the word ementa:

In Portugal, ementa (or sometimes carta) is the usual word for the list of dishes – what English calls the “menu”.
menu in Portugal often means a fixed-price set meal (e.g. “menu do dia”).
In Brazil, the common word for the list of dishes is cardápio, not ementa.

So na ementa here is standard European Portuguese for “on the menu.”

Can já move to another position, like conhece já as nossas escolhas?

In contemporary European Portuguese, the neutral position for “já” is before the main verb:

já conhece
já sabe
já decidiu

You can say conhece já in some contexts, but:

it sounds more emphatic or stylistic, and
in everyday speech, já conhece is by far more natural.

So in your sentence, porque já conhece as nossas escolhas is the standard, idiomatic word order.