Learn Hardcore Russian: После прогулки мы зашли в кафе и заказали кислый лимонад и солёный суп. - After the walk we went into a cafe and ordered sour lemonade and salty soup.

После прогулки… – uses a noun (after the walk). It’s short and a bit more neutral.
После того как мы погуляли… – uses a clause (after we had a walk). It emphasizes the action and who did it.

Both are correct; После прогулки is simply more compact.

What exactly does «зашли» mean here, and how is it different from «пошли» or «ходили»?

Зашли is past tense, plural, perfective of зайти (paired with заходить).
Basic idea: зайти (в …) = to go into / to pop into (a place), with focus on entering briefly.

мы зашли в кафе – we went into the café / we popped into the café

Comparison:

мы пошли в кафе – we went (set off) to the café (focus on the direction, not on entering or staying briefly).
мы ходили в кафе – we went (there and back, or as a completed trip); can imply we went (and spent some time there).
мы зашли в кафе – we stopped by a café, usually on the way somewhere else; the act of entering is important.

So in this sentence, зашли suggests a brief stop: After the walk, we stopped by a café…

Why is it «в кафе» and not something like «в кафéте»? Does кафе change?

Кафе is one of those Russian nouns that are indeclinable: its form does not change for case or number.

So you get:

в кафе – in/into a café
из кафе – from a café
около кафе – near a café

It stays кафе in all these cases.

Grammatically it behaves like a neuter noun, but its form never changes.

Is the word order «После прогулки мы зашли в кафе…» fixed, or can I move things around?

Russian word order is flexible. The given order is neutral and natural, but you could say:

Мы после прогулки зашли в кафе… – slight emphasis on после прогулки.
Мы зашли в кафе после прогулки… – emphasizes зашли в кафе, with the time phrase added after.

All three are correct. The original:

После прогулки мы зашли в кафе…

puts the time frame first, which is very common in Russian storytelling.

Why is there no comma before «и заказали»?

In this sentence:

мы зашли в кафе и заказали…

we have one subject (мы) and two verbs/predicates (зашли and заказали) joined by и.

Russian rule: when two predicates share the same subject and are simply joined by и, there is normally no comma:

Мы зашли в кафе и заказали напитки.
Он пришёл домой и лёг спать.

A comma would appear if you had two independent clauses with their own subjects, or certain other more complex structures. Here, it’s just a simple compound predicate, so no comma.

Why is it «заказали кислый лимонад и солёный суп» in the accusative, not «кислого лимонада» etc.?

The verb заказывать / заказать (to order) normally takes its direct object in the accusative case:

заказать что? – чай, кофе, суп, лимонад

Here:

кислый лимонад – masculine inanimate, nominative = accusative
солёный суп – masculine inanimate, nominative = accusative

So the form looks like nominative but functions as accusative:

Мы заказали (что?) кислый лимонад и солёный суп.

You might see a genitive (e.g. лимонада) when you talk about quantity or some (not all) of something:

выпить чая – to drink (some) tea
налить супа – to pour (some) soup

But with заказать in a normal restaurant context, you order a portion/a glass/etc., so the accusative is standard.

Does «кислый лимонад» mean the lemonade is bad/“off,” or just sour?

In Russian, кислый literally means sour, but it also has a negative nuance in some contexts (off, gone sour), just like in English.

кислый лимонад could mean:
- simply sour lemonade (e.g. strongly lemony, not sweet),
- or, depending on context, lemonade that tastes unpleasantly sour.

If you want to be clear it’s just tart and refreshing (not spoiled), people might say:

лимонад с кислым вкусом – lemonade with a sour taste
лимонад с лимоном – lemonade with lemon
освежающий лимонад – refreshing lemonade

Context and tone decide whether кислый sounds negative here.

Is «солёный суп» a normal thing to say? Isn’t soup always salty?

Literally, солёный суп = salty soup (with noticeable saltiness).

It can be neutral: soup that is clearly salty (for example, a recipe that is meant to be salty).
It can also be negative: soup that is too salty.

In everyday speech, if someone says:

Суп получился солёный. – The soup turned out salty.

this often implies “a bit too salty” unless context says otherwise.

So it’s a normal expression, but it often hints that the saltiness stands out.

How do adjectives agree here: why «кислый лимонад» and «солёный суп»?

In Russian, adjectives must agree with the noun in:

gender
number
case

Both лимонад and суп are:

masculine, singular, accusative (but inanimate, so accusative form = nominative)

Therefore the adjectives also take the masculine singular accusative/nominative form:

кислый лимонад
солёный суп

If the nouns changed, the adjectives would change too:

кислое вино (neuter)
солёная рыба (feminine)
солёные огурцы (plural)

What are the correct stresses in the words of this sentence?

Stresses (stressed syllables in bold):

По́сле
прогу́лки
мы
зашли́
в кафе́
и
заказа́ли
ки́слый
лимона́д
и
солёный
суп

Note: ё is always stressed, so солёный is stressed on -ё- by definition.

Why is «солёный» written with ё? I often see е instead of ё in Russian texts.

Officially, the word is солёный (with ё), and that’s how it’s pronounced: [салёный].

However, in most everyday Russian printing and typing, people often write е instead of ё, especially in unstylized texts:

соленый суп (printed) but pronounced солёный суп

So:

Correct spelling with diacritics: солёный
Very common practical spelling: соленый

When reading, you have to know which е should actually be pronounced as ё. In learning materials and dictionaries, ё is usually written explicitly to help with pronunciation.