Lesson 6 - Restaurants
Let's eat out – at a restaurant! In addition to the general word “restaurant,”
we have a number of different words in English for places to eat:
• A café – Usually serves coffee, tea, and small snacks and foods like soups and sandwiches
• A diner – An inexpensive restaurant with a LARGE variety of foods.
Diners often have booths rather than chairs.
• A pizzeria – Restaurant specializing in pizza
• A food cart – A place where you can get something to eat on the street
• Having a picnic – Eating outside (ex. in a park) with food that you
prepared before, like sandwiches
• Having a barbecue – Eating outside and cooking meat on a grill
• Some restaurants have a buffet where you can take as much of each type of food as you want.
When you enter a restaurant, you'll sit down at a table with chairs. If you have
a baby, you can ask for a high chair.
The table may be covered by a tablecloth, and it may also have a candle. At
the table, there are utensils (this word refers to the set of a fork, knife, and spoon) and a napkin for each person.
Next, you'll look at the menu – the list of dishes available at the restaurant.
The menu is often divided into different sections:
• Appetizers or starters are small amounts of food that are eaten before the main dish.
• Main dishes or entrees are the biggest and most important parts of the
meal, eaten after the appetizers and before dessert. This can also be
• Combos is short for “combinations” - two or more foods that are ordered together as a single item (for example, at McDonald's you can order a combo of a hamburger, french fries, and soda for one price).
• Side dishes or sides are small portions of food that can be ordered to accompany the main dishes – for example, you can order a steak with a side of mashed potatoes.
• Desserts are sweet foods eaten after the main dish, like ice cream, cakes, pies, etc.
• Beverages is another word for drinks.
After you've decided what you want, a person will come to take your order
(your request for food). This person is called the waiter if he is a man, the
waitress if she is a woman, or the server – this word can be used for men or
women. The person who prepares the food is called the chef.
To make your order, use the phrase “I'll have…” for example, “I'll have the
chicken salad.” If you and another person want to divide one dish, you can say
“We'll share…” or “We'll split…” for example, “We'll split an order of
Your food might be covered with a liquid, which can be called sauce or
dressing. With meat and pasta, we use the word sauce. With salads, we use
the word dressing: If you want to add flavor to your food, you can use a condiment – this is the
general word for things you can put on your food. Some common condiments are:
ketchup (red) and mustard (yellow) mayonnaise or mayo salt and pepper olive oil hot sauce
After you finish eating, when you want to pay, you can ask the server for the
check – the piece of paper with the total price. In the United States, you
should always add a tip – an extra payment of 10-20% - to thank your server for their help.
If you have leftovers (extra food that you didn't eat, but you want to eat later),
you can ask the server to wrap it up or to give you a box so that you can take the extra food home.
Now continue to the exercises to practice the vocabulary you've learned.
restaurant, café, diner, booth, pizzeria, food cart, picnic, barbecue, chair, high
chair, tablecloth, candle, utensils, napkin, menu, appetizers, starters, main
dish, entree, main course, combo, side dish, dessert, beverages, waiter,
waitress, server, chef, I'll have, We'll share, We'll split, sauce, dressing,
ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, mayo, salt, pepper, olive oil, jelly, jam, honey,