Breakdown of En este bar se come muy bien.
Questions & Answers about En este bar se come muy bien.
In En este bar se come muy bien, se is not reflexive. It’s an impersonal “se”.
- It doesn’t mean someone eats themself.
- It means people in general eat (well) here / you eat well here.
Spanish often uses se + 3rd person singular verb to talk about what people generally do, without saying exactly who does it:
- Se vive bien en España. – One lives well in Spain / You live well in Spain.
- Aquí se trabaja mucho. – People work a lot here.
So se come ≈ people eat / you eat (here) in a general way.
In this sentence, se come is impersonal, not really passive.
Impersonal “se”: no specific subject; a general idea about what people do.
- En este bar se come muy bien. – People/you eat very well in this bar.
Passive “se” (also called “pasiva refleja”) usually has a thing as the grammatical subject and the verb agrees with it:
- Se venden tapas. – Tapas are sold.
- Se comen tapas. – Tapas are eaten.
Compare:
En este bar se come muy bien.
No expressed subject → general statement → impersonal.En este bar se comen tapas.
Tapas is plural and is the thing being eaten → the verb is plural → more like a passive structure (tapas are eaten).
Grammatically, with impersonal se we say there is no concrete subject expressed.
- Se come is like saying one eats / people eat / you eat in general.
- Spanish prefers this construction over la gente come or tú comes when the statement is impersonal and general.
So:
- En este bar se come muy bien.
= La gente come muy bien en este bar.
= Aquí se come muy bien (en general).
The idea is about the place and its quality, not about any specific person.
Because in the impersonal “se” construction, the verb is always 3rd person singular, regardless of how many people are involved.
- Se vive bien aquí. – People/you live well here.
- Se trabaja mucho. – People work a lot.
Only when there is a clear grammatical subject after se, does the verb agree in number:
- Se comen muchas tapas aquí. – Many tapas are eaten here. (tapas → plural → comen)
- Se come muy bien aquí. – People eat very well here. (no explicit subject → come)
Bien means well.
Muy bien means very well.
- En este bar se come bien. – The food is good; it’s okay / good.
- En este bar se come muy bien. – The food is very good; clearly praising it more.
Muy intensifies bien, just like very intensifies well in English.
In se come muy bien, come is a verb, so we need an adverb to describe how people eat:
- bien = well (adverb, describes the action)
- bueno / buena = good (adjective, describes a noun)
So:
- En este bar se come muy bien. – You eat very well (the action of eating goes well).
- La comida de este bar es muy buena. – The food in this bar is very good (the food is good).
Both praise the place, but:
- se come muy bien focuses on the experience of eating there.
- la comida es muy buena focuses on the quality of the food.
They are similar in meaning but with different focus and tone:
En este bar se come muy bien.
- Impersonal, general statement.
- Focus: overall experience of eating there (food, maybe price, atmosphere).
- Very common, natural way to recommend a place.
La comida en este bar está muy buena.
- Directly describing the food as very tasty.
- Slightly more concrete and literal.
In practice, both can be used to praise the place’s food; you’ll hear both in Spain.
Yes, the word order here is quite flexible, with small differences in emphasis:
En este bar se come muy bien.
Neutral, with a slight focus on this bar.Aquí se come muy bien.
More conversational; aquí (“here”) is common in speech when you’re already in the place.Se come muy bien en este bar.
Slightly more emphasis on se come muy bien (the quality of eating) and then adding where.
All three are grammatically correct and natural. Context decides which sounds best.
Because bar is masculine in Spanish.
- bar → masculine noun → este bar (this bar)
- If it were feminine, e.g. cafetería, you’d say esta cafetería (this café).
Quick reminder:
- este – masculine singular (este bar, este restaurante)
- esta – feminine singular (esta cafetería, esta tienda)
- estos – masculine plural (estos bares)
- estas – feminine plural (estas cafeterías)
Here en means in / at and marks the location:
- En este bar se come muy bien. – You eat very well in/at this bar.
The structure a este bar se come muy bien is not correct in Spanish.
- en → place where something happens: en este bar, en casa, en España
- a is used more for direction or movement:
- Voy a este bar. – I’m going to this bar.
Come is 3rd person singular present indicative of comer.
You can change the tense while keeping the same impersonal se pattern:
Past (imperfect, “used to / generally in the past”):
- En este bar se comía muy bien. – You used to eat very well here (before; not necessarily now).
Past (perfect, a specific known period):
- En este bar se ha comido muy bien durante años. – People have eaten very well here for years.
Future:
- En este bar se comerá muy bien. – You will eat very well here. (Sounds a bit formal / literary, but correct.)
The structure stays: en + lugar + se + [verbo] + muy bien.
Not in standard usage. For reflexive eating (which is rare and usually only figurative), Spanish would use comerse with a direct object, not se come alone:
- Se come las uñas. – He bites his nails (literally “eats his nails”).
- Se comió todo el pastel. – He/She ate the whole cake.
If you only said se come, with nothing after it, native speakers would not interpret it as eats himself; it would usually be understood as part of an impersonal or passive structure, depending on context.
Not exactly. In Spain, un bar is often closer to a mix of bar + café + snack place:
- You can usually get coffee, soft drinks, alcohol.
- Very often you can also get food: tapas, sandwiches, daily menus, etc.
- It’s a normal, everyday place, not necessarily a night-only drinking spot.
So En este bar se come muy bien often means This bar serves very good food, not just that you drink there.