Ordering in a Bar Whose Menu You Cannot Read

Espresso is espresso nearly everywhere, and it is the safest first order in an unfamiliar bar because it is the drink with nowhere to hide. If it is good, everything else on the bar will be at least competent. If it is thin and sour or heavy and burnt, you have learned what you needed to know for the price of the cheapest item.

Beyond that, the two words that travel are americano and filter. Milk drinks are where naming diverges wildly — the same words describe different volumes and ratios in different countries, and arguing about it at the counter is pointless. If you want coffee with milk and you do not want a surprise, say coffee with a little milk and accept the local interpretation.

The one question worth asking

Ask what they recommend today. In a bar that changes its coffee this produces a real answer and often a better drink than anything you would have chosen. In a bar that does not, it produces a shrug, which is also an answer.

The last practical note is size. In much of southern Europe the default coffee is small and drunk standing at the bar for a fraction of the seated price; in much of northern Europe and North America the default is large and seated. Neither is wrong, but ordering a large one in the first kind of place marks you out and ordering a small one in the second leaves you hungry for more.