Placeholder Image

Subtitles section Play video

  • Are you hungry to expand your English vocabulary?

  • Then grab a seat and get ready to chow down a lot of useful new English words and phrases.

  • From ordering your meal to paying the bill, we've got all the vocabulary that you need to navigate a restaurant like a true English pro.

  • We'll take a tour of the menu and explore some keywords and phrases that you will need if you are dining out in an English-speaking country.

  • So without any further ado, let's get ready to eat out.

  • Our first piece of vocabulary is the phrasal verb, eat out.

  • It is a common and relatively informal way to speak about going to a restaurant or cafe to eat and is usually used to talk about casual meals.

  • "I don't want to cook today. Let's eat out."

  • Personally, I like to cook dinner almost every day, but I do love to eat out at lunchtimes.

  • And my favorite place to eat out is in sushi restaurants.

  • Tell me in the comments, where is your favorite place to eat out?

  • So now we've decided to eat out, let's make a reservation.

  • This means to reserve a table or spot at a restaurant, and is usually used for popular restaurants, special occasions or for larger groups.

  • For example, "Should we make a reservation for Saturday night?"

  • It can get really busy.

  • A slightly less formal way of saying this is make a booking. An alternative form of make a reservation is reserve a table.

  • So we might say, "There's 10 of us. I think we should reserve a table."

  • If you go to a nice restaurant without a reservation, you might try asking, "Do you take walk-ins?"

  • And a walk-in is someone who visits a place without an appointment or reservation.

  • This can be used in restaurants but can also be used in other situations where you need a reservation or appointment, such as seeing a doctor or a lawyer.

  • There are many places where you do not need a reservation at all, and this includes at a fast food restaurant.

  • These are restaurants that specialize in cheap meals that are quick and easy to make and serve.

  • These are popular all over the world, and they tend to sell meals that we think of as rather unhealthy.

  • I try not to eat in fast food restaurants too often because I don't think they're good for my stomach or my diet, but they are very tempting and they are a lot more common than they were when I was young.

  • Has fast food culture came to your country?

  • And do you think that fast food restaurants are a good thing or a bad thing?

  • Let us know in the comments.

  • Next, we're going to look at cafes, and we're going to look at two very different types of cafe.

  • One is European style and one is a more British style.

  • A European style cafe is a small establishment that sells coffee, maybe some alcohol, maybe some snacks and a few bites to eat.

  • It is pronounced cafe and is spelt with an accent over the e, cafe.

  • A British cafe is a little bit different and can be pronounced as cafe or as caff.

  • It is different culturally too.

  • A British caff often specializes in cheap fried food and would be the perfect place to find a traditional English breakfast.

  • We sometimes call these caffs a greasy spoon but maybe you don't feel like going to a cafe or a caff, you're a little bit hungrier than that and you want something substantial.

  • So why not try out the all-you-can-eat buffet?

  • This is a restaurant where you pay a set amount for an unlimited amount of food.

  • But let's get back to the restaurant where we made our original reservation and let's order a starter.

  • A starter is a small portion of food that you eat before your main meal.

  • For example, "We had the prawn cocktail as a starter."

  • Now you might hear speakers of American English call this an appetizer.

  • It is very, very similar, but here in the UK, in British English, we call it a starter.

  • Next, it's time to order the main. The main is the most important or biggest part of the meal.

  • For example, "For my main, I think I'll have steak and chips, please."

  • We can also say main course.

  • For example, "Angelica ordered the spaghetti bolognese as her main course."

  • Again, in British English, we would say main or main course, but in American or Canadian English, you are more likely to hear entrée.

  • English is a language where we often try to keep an element of the original language when we take a word.

  • So you can hear entrée has a touch of the original French where the word was taken from.

  • Now, when ordering a main or main course or an entrée, you might want to check whether the restaurant has a special available.

  • A special is a meal that is not on the usual menu.

  • It is available for a limited time only.

  • This might be because the ingredients are seasonal, the chef wants to try something new, or because the restaurant wants to add a bit of variety and spice to the typical menu.

  • So you might hear something like," Today's special is chicken vindaloo."

  • So next time you are in a restaurant, why not try asking, "Do you have any specials?" and you might discover something wonderful.

  • We also commonly put the definite article "the" before the word special.

  • For example, "I'll try the special, please."

  • Wow. Learning all these new words has been thirsty work, hasn't it?

  • I think it's time to order some drinks.

  • Now, if you don't want to spend too much money, you might want to order the house wine.

  • This is a relatively cheap wine option, and you won't know too much about it until it arrives.

  • The only thing you are likely to know is that it costs less than the other wines on the menu.

  • But maybe you don't drink or you don't want to drink alcohol. What should you order then?

  • How about a nice refreshing soft drink?

  • A soft drink is a non-alcoholic drink.

  • It is usually served cold, has bubbles and contains sugar and a natural or artificial flavor like orange or lemon or cherry, for example.

  • Or maybe you want to stay very healthy, and you can order a sparkling water.

  • This is carbonated water that has lots of bubbles in it.

  • You might also hear it called fizzy water.

  • But wow, I am hungry. In fact, I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse.

  • "I could eat a horse" is an idiom, meaning that you are very, very hungry.

  • You can use the full idiom, "I'm so hungry, I could eat a horse," or you can use the shortened phrase, "I could eat the horse."

  • Ah, the food has finally arrived. Let's eat.

  • Before we start our meal, we need to decide which cutlery we need to use.

  • Cutlery are the tools that we use to eat.

  • So let's go through some of the most common ones.

  • We have a knife and fork.

  • A spoon.

  • A teaspoon.

  • We might use a pair of chopsticks.

  • To serve a soup from the middle of the table, you might use a ladle.

  • So we've used the correct utensils to finish our starter and our main.

  • And now it's time for my favorite part of the meal: the dessert.

  • Dessert is a sweet dish served at the end of a meal.

  • So think of ice cream or fruit or cake.

  • It can be countable or uncountable.

  • If you're talking about your individual dessert, it is uncountable.

  • "I'd like some dessert, please."

  • But if you're talking about different types of dessert, it becomes countable.

  • We had three different types of dessert between us.

  • Wow, that was a good meal.

  • We had a nice starter, a lovely main and a delicious dessert.

  • We had some fantastic drinks, but now unfortunately, it is time to get the bill.

  • A bill is a written or printed statement given to you by the restaurant that shows you how much money you owe for the drinks and food you have just consumed.

  • So at the end of the meal, you might catch the eye of the waiter and ask, "Can I get the bill, please?"

  • In American English, you are more likely to hear the word check.

  • "Can I get the check, please?"

  • It's time to pay and now comes the decision on whether you want to split the bill.

  • Split the bill is when you pay evenly between all the members at the table.

  • So if there are five people and the bill is £100, everybody puts in £20.

  • But if you're feeling a little bit more generous, you can say, "It's on me."

  • This is a useful phrase if you'd like to volunteer to pay the bill for everybody.

  • "Put your wallet away, Raheem. This one is on me."

  • Once you've paid, it's time to decide whether you want to leave a tip.

  • Leaving a tip means giving extra money to the server or staff to thank them for their service.

  • Now that you've feasted on these delicious dining vocabulary words, you're all set to confidently savor your next meal at a restaurant.

  • Enjoy your appetizers, relish your mains and of course, always remember to appreciate good service.

  • You can find all of today's vocabulary scrolling down the side.

  • So be sure to practice them.

  • Why not write your own example sentences in the comments below to practice them and put these words into your long-term memory?

  • It is time to hit that like button.

  • Subscribe and let us know about your dining stories and experiences in the comments section.

  • If you enjoyed today's lesson, I'm sure you would love our lessons on travel or going to the supermarket.

  • Bon appetit, happy dining and see you next time.

  • Bye.

Are you hungry to expand your English vocabulary?

Subtitles and vocabulary

Click the word to look it up Click the word to find further inforamtion about it