Моя подруга сказала, что креветки в этом кафе вкуснее, чем на прошлом курорте.

Because подруга is a feminine noun, and the possessive pronoun has to agree with it in gender, number, and case.

• мой = masculine singular
• моя = feminine singular
• моё = neuter singular
• мои = plural

So:

• мой друг = my male friend
• моя подруга = my female friend

Since подруга is feminine, моя is required.

It usually means female friend, but in some contexts it can also mean girlfriend.

So моя подруга could mean:

• my female friend
• sometimes my girlfriend

Context decides. If the sentence is just talking about what she said about shrimp, most learners would usually understand it as my female friend.

Also compare:

• друг = male friend
• подруга = female friend

Because Russian past tense verbs agree with the subject in gender and number.

The subject is моя подруга, which is feminine singular, so:

• сказал = he said / a masculine subject said
• сказала = she said / a feminine subject said
• сказало = it said / neuter subject
• сказали = they said

So Моя подруга сказала literally matches My female friend said.

Что here means that and introduces a subordinate clause.

So:

• Моя подруга сказала = My friend said
• что креветки... вкуснее... = that the shrimp are tastier...

This is very common in Russian after verbs of speaking, thinking, knowing, etc.

Examples:

• Он сказал, что придёт. = He said that he would come.
• Я думаю, что это правда. = I think that this is true.

In everyday English, that is often omitted, but in Russian что is normally kept.

Yes, креветки is the plural of креветка.

• креветка = one shrimp
• креветки = shrimp / shrimps

English uses shrimp for both singular and plural, but Russian does not. Russian clearly marks the plural.

Here креветки most naturally means the shrimp as a dish or food item in general.

Because в means in or at, and here it is used for location: in this café / at this café.

After в when talking about location, Russian usually uses the prepositional case.

• кафе is an indeclinable noun, so its form stays кафе
• этот has to change into the prepositional form этом

So:

• это кафе = this café
• в этом кафе = in/at this café

A useful thing to notice: even though кафе does not change, the word before it still does.

Because кафе is one of the Russian nouns that are indeclinable. That means the noun keeps the same form in different cases.

Examples:

• это кафе = this café
• в этом кафе = in this café
• из этого кафе = from this café

The noun кафе stays the same, but words that modify it, like этот, still change as needed.

This is very common with some borrowed words in Russian.

Вкуснее is the comparative form of вкусный (tasty).

• вкусный = tasty
• вкуснее = tastier

So the sentence says the shrimp are tastier here than somewhere else.

Russian often uses this simple comparative form instead of something like more tasty.

Compare:

• Этот суп вкусный. = This soup is tasty.
• Этот суп вкуснее. = This soup is tastier.

You could also sometimes see более вкусный, but вкуснее is the more natural everyday comparative here.

Because Russian usually omits the verb to be in the present tense.

So:

• Креветки вкусные. literally = Shrimp tasty
• natural English = The shrimp are tasty

And:

• Креветки вкуснее. literally = Shrimp tastier
• natural English = The shrimp are tastier

This is one of the most important differences from English. In present-tense statements, Russian generally does not use a separate word for am/is/are.

Чем is the usual word used in comparisons and here means than.

So:

• вкуснее, чем... = tastier than...

Examples:

• Он выше, чем я. = He is taller than I am.
• Этот фильм интереснее, чем тот. = This film is more interesting than that one.

So in your sentence, чем links the two parts of the comparison.

Because Russian normally uses на with курорт when meaning at a resort.

So:

• на курорте = at the resort
• на прошлом курорте = at the previous resort

This is one of those preposition patterns you mostly have to learn with the noun.

Also, after на in the meaning of location, Russian uses the prepositional case, so:

• прошлый becomes прошлом
• курорт becomes курорте

Hence:

• на прошлом курорте

Прошлом is the prepositional singular form of прошлый, which means previous, last, or sometimes former, depending on context.

Here на прошлом курорте means something like:

• at the previous resort
• at the resort we were at before

It does not have to mean last year’s resort specifically. It just points to an earlier one in the situation being discussed.

Yes, you can think of the sentence as slightly shortened.

The full idea is:

• креветки в этом кафе вкуснее, чем креветки были на прошлом курорте
• literally: the shrimp in this café are tastier than the shrimp were at the previous resort

Russian often omits repeated words when the meaning is obvious.

So after чем на прошлом курорте, the listener naturally understands something like:

• than they were at the previous resort
• than at the previous resort

This kind of omission is very normal and natural.

Yes, Russian word order is fairly flexible, but this version is the most neutral and natural.

Current sentence:

• Моя подруга сказала, что креветки в этом кафе вкуснее, чем на прошлом курорте.

This puts the focus in a straightforward order:

1. who said it
2. that-clause
3. what is being compared

You could rearrange parts for emphasis, for example:

• Моя подруга сказала, что в этом кафе креветки вкуснее, чем на прошлом курорте.

This is also natural and puts a little more attention on в этом кафе.

So the word order here is normal, but not the only possible one.