Speaking Portuguese
How to tell a restaurant about a food allergy, in Portuguese
If you are in the chair right now
Sou alérgico a frutos do mar. Pode confirmar com a cozinha?
I'm allergic to seafood. Could you confirm with the kitchen?
If that gets brushed off
É uma alergia séria. Não posso comer nada que leve frutos do mar.
It's a serious allergy. I can't eat anything with seafood in it.
Alérgico if you are a man, alérgica if you are a woman. The dish «leva» its ingredients — carries them — so «leve» is the verb in that second sentence. And say alergia, not intolerância, if it is one: kitchens rank the two very differently.
Every phrasebook has the word for allergy. None of them prepare you for the part that matters: a waiter who nods warmly, means it, and does not go and ask. Getting the question as far as the kitchen is a different skill from knowing the noun, and it is the one worth practising.
If you need more than one line
softest
Esse prato leva camarão?
Does this dish have shrimp in it? Levar — to carry — is the verb for what a dish contains.
neutral
Sou alérgica a amendoim.
I'm allergic to peanuts. Swap in: a castanhas, a glúten, a lactose, a ovo.
neutral
Pode perguntar na cozinha, por favor?
Could you ask in the kitchen, please? The question that actually protects you.
firmest
Se levar, prefiro pedir outra coisa.
If it does, I'd rather order something else. Gives them an easy way to say yes.
Two things worth knowing
The word for allergy is the easy part.
Alergia and intolerância are not treated the same
Both words translate cleanly and land differently in a kitchen: intolerância is heard as a preference to accommodate when convenient, alergia as a medical constraint. If yours is real, say alergia, add séria, and let the adjective agree with you — alérgico, alérgica. Precision here matters more than politeness, and Brazilians will not find the directness rude.
Ask them to check, not to remember
«Tem camarão?» invites an answer from memory, and a busy waiter will give you one, kindly and instantly. «Pode confirmar com a cozinha?» asks for an act, and it is much harder to perform casually. The grammar is not the difficult part of this conversation — knowing which of the two questions to ask is.
What Isabela actually said
What you have to get done
- Say what you can't eat
- Ask what's in a dish
- Have them check with the kitchen
Isabela
Good evening — have you decided, or do you need another moment?
You
I still need a moment, please — I have a serious seafood allergy; could you confirm whether this dish contains any?
Isabela
I understand, it's a serious allergy; I'll confirm with the kitchen right now whether this dish contains seafood.
You
Thank you so much for checking — could you also confirm exactly what the ingredients are and whether there's any risk of cross-contamination?
Isabela
Of course, I'll confirm all the ingredients and the cross-contamination risk with the kitchen before serving; thank you for telling me, I'll be right back with the answer.
The whole conversation, unedited
A real run in the app, nothing scripted on the waiter's side. The transcript above is taken from this recording, and the objectives tick off on screen as they are met.
Turn sound on to hear it.
Now say it yourself
Reading that is not the same as producing it with someone waiting, which is the entire difficulty. You can have this exact conversation in the app: Isabela is a third of the way through, and you have three things to get done.
It is free, it takes about a minute to start, and the first attempt is allowed to be terrible.
Practise this conversation
