A la mesa

Saber is to know. Saber is also to taste: sabe a limón, it tastes of lemon. Sabor is flavour.

English had this once. Sapient and savour are the same Latin root, and we kept the knowing and let the tasting drift off into a fancy word. Spanish kept both in one everyday verb and finds nothing strange about it.

The meal, and the verb that goes with it

Spanish makes a verb out of each meal. Cenar is to have dinner. Desayunar is to have breakfast. Almorzar is to have lunch. English needs three words where Spanish needs one, and you will feel the difference the first time you try to say we had dinner late and find it is just cenamos tarde.

comida is a trap

Comida is food. Comida is also lunch, in Spain and Mexico particularly, where the midday meal is the main one. So ¿a qué hora es la comida? is asking when lunch is, not what time food happens.

Drinking

Beber is to drink and is perfectly correct, but tomar is what people usually say when offering one. ¿Quieres tomar algo? is do you want a drink. ¿Bebes? on its own tends to mean do you drink alcohol, and in Mexico tomar on its own carries the same hint.

The table

Plato is a plate and a dish in the culinary sense, exactly as in English. Copa is a wine glass, specifically stemmed; vaso is a tumbler; taza is a cup with a handle. Wine in a restaurant usually comes in a copa; un vaso de vino is what you get at a plain bar counter, where the house wine is often served in a tumbler.

Cuchillo is a knife. Cuchara is a spoon. They are close enough to swap under pressure and the mistake is harmless.

probar

Probar is to try, to taste and to prove. Pruébalo is try it, said of food or of anything else. It is one of the most useful verbs in this session and it does not translate cleanly into a single English word, which is usually a sign that a word is worth learning properly.