--- title: "comida corrida" translation: "The set lunch. Soup, a main, and a drink for one price." type: "word" category: "slang" url: "https://consalsa.app/words/comida-corrida" canonical: "https://consalsa.app/words/comida-corrida" published: "2026-09-15" updated: "2026-09-15" author: "Andrey the Nomad" site: "ConSalsa.App" license: "https://consalsa.app/terms#ip" --- # comida corrida URL: https://consalsa.app/words/comida-corrida Translation: The set lunch. Soup, a main, and a drink for one price. Pronunciation: /koˈmi.ða koˈri.ða/ Category: slang Region: Mexico Register: everyday, neutral Variants: menú del día, comida del día, menú corrido Literal meaning: Corrida here is in the sense of run through - the courses come one after another without you choosing a menu. Published: 2026-09-15 Quick answer: - Comida corrida is a fixed-price set lunch served in small Mexican restaurants, usually between about two and four in the afternoon. - The sequence is soup, then a dry soup - rice or pasta - then a main you pick from two or three, plus agua fresca and often a small dessert. - It is the cheapest full meal in Mexico, and the place that serves it is a fonda or a cocina económica. What it means: - A whole meal for one price, decided by whoever is cooking. You get a sequence rather than a menu, and the only choice you usually make is which guisado you want as the main. - The usual shape is sopa aguada - the actual soup - then sopa seca, which is rice or pasta and is called dry soup for reasons nobody stops to explain, then the guisado, and often a small dessert. Plenty of fondas make you pick between the first two: ¿sopa o arroz? is a question you should expect. - El guisado is the word you will need out loud. It is the stewed or braised main - tinga, chicharrón en salsa verde, albóndigas, milanesa - and it is the one part of the meal you choose. Literal meaning: - Corrida is from correr, and here it carries the sense of run through or run in sequence. The meal runs; you sit there and it arrives. - Which is also what separates it from ordering. A la carta you build a meal. Corrida, somebody built it this morning and you are joining it partway through the day. - The format is older than it looks. It is usually traced to the Porfiriato, when European set-menu service reached Mexico City and the fondas rebuilt it around Mexican food and around workers who could not go home to eat at two. What survived is the sequence, the fixed price and the absence of a menu. How Mexicans use it: - It is the weekday lunch for a very large number of people. Offices empty around two, and the fondas nearest them fill with the same faces every day. - You order by asking for it: ¿tiene comida corrida? and then ¿qué hay de guisado? The answer is a list of two or three, spoken quickly, and you pick one. If you miss it, ¿me la repite, por favor? is completely normal. - Three more phrases carry the rest of the meal. ¿De qué es el agua? because there are usually two. Para llevar, because fondas do takeout constantly and will pack it in a tupper. And ¿me da la cuenta? at the end - tipping in a fonda is coins or around ten percent, not restaurant percentages. - The agua comes in a jug and refills are usually included. The dessert usually is too, and it is small on purpose. Coffee sometimes costs extra, and it is worth asking rather than assuming. - Prices vary a lot by neighborhood and have moved in recent years, so treat any figure you read online as out of date. What stays true is that it is reliably the cheapest way to eat a full cooked meal in the country. Common mistake: - Expecting a second bowl of soup. Sopa seca is rice or pasta, and a learner who has translated it literally spends the whole second course confused about what went wrong. - Turning up at six. Most fondas start around one and are packing up by five or six, with the peak between two and four. The evening meal in Mexico is lighter, later, and it is not this - a foreigner who waits until dinner time finds the kitchen closed. Examples: - ¿Tiene comida corrida? — Do you have a lunch special? - ¿Qué hay de guisado? — What do you have for the main? - De guisado hay tinga, milanesa y chiles rellenos. — For the main there's tinga, milanesa and stuffed peppers. - ¿La sopa seca es arroz o fideos? — Is the dry soup rice or noodles? Mini dialogue: A: Buenas tardes. ¿Tiene comida corrida? B: Sí, joven. Hoy hay sopa de fideo, arroz, y de guisado tinga o milanesa. A: Tinga, por favor. ¿Y el agua? B: De jamaica. Va incluida, y el postre también. A: Perfecto. ¿Y el café? B: Ese sí va aparte. FAQ: Q: What is comida corrida? A: A fixed-price set lunch served in small Mexican restaurants. You get soup, a dry soup of rice or pasta, a main chosen from two or three options, agua fresca and usually a small dessert. Q: What is sopa seca? A: Dry soup - rice, pasta or fideos. It is the second course of a comida corrida and it is not a mistake. The liquid one is sopa aguada. Q: What time is comida corrida served? A: Roughly one to five, busiest between two and four. La comida is Mexico's main meal and it sits in the afternoon; the evening meal is lighter and later. Q: How do you order comida corrida? A: ¿Tiene comida corrida? then ¿qué hay de guisado? The answer is a spoken list of two or three. If it goes too fast, ¿me la repite, por favor? is completely normal. Q: What is a guisado? A: The stewed or braised main course - tinga, chicharrón en salsa verde, albóndigas, milanesa. It is the one part of a comida corrida you get to choose. Q: What is a menú ejecutivo? A: The same idea one price bracket up, served in a proper restaurant near an office. Comida corrida is the fonda version; menú ejecutivo comes with tablecloths. Q: What is a fonda? A: A small family-run restaurant, often in or near a market - the kind of place that serves comida corrida. A cocina económica is close but skews cheaper and more takeout-oriented, sometimes with no table service. Q: Is the drink included in comida corrida? A: Usually yes, and refills too. Dessert is normally included and small. Coffee often costs extra, so it is worth asking rather than assuming. Q: What is the difference between comida corrida and menú del día? A: Nothing much. Menú del día is the slightly more restaurant-ish name and turns up on printed cards; comida corrida is what gets chalked on a board outside a fonda. Related words: echarse-un-taco, chela, tienes-cambio, chamba, con-confianza