Eating Out and Restaurants
Learn 20 A2 English words for eating out - starter, main course, reservation, allergic, service charge - with a story and a quiz.
At A1 you could order food and ask for the bill. At A2 you can book the table, explain that you are allergic to something, ask what the waiter recommends, send back a dish that is overcooked, and work out whether the service charge means you still need to tip. Learn the 20 words, then come to my parents’ thirtieth anniversary dinner, which my sister and I organised badly and which went beautifully anyway.
20 words to learn
The 20 words
/ˈstɑːtə(r)/
The small first dish of a meal. Americans say appetizer.
We shared two starters between four people.
/meɪn ˈkɔːs/
The biggest and most important dish of the meal.
My main course took thirty minutes to arrive.
/dɪˈzɜːt/
The sweet dish at the end. Two s, and the stress is on the second part.
We had no space for dessert and ate it anyway.
/ˈsaɪd dɪʃ/
A small extra dish eaten with the main course.
The potatoes were the best side dish on the table.
/dɪʃ/
One particular kind of food. Not the plate it is on.
This dish is made with lamb and rice.
/ˈpɔːʃn/
The amount of food that one person is served.
The portions here are very small.
/ˌrezəˈveɪʃn/
A table kept for you at a certain time. British also say a booking.
I have a reservation for four at eight.
/ˈfʊli bʊkt/
With no free tables at all.
They were fully booked until the following month.
/ˌvedʒəˈteəriən/
Eating no meat or fish. Someone who eats no animal products is vegan.
Do you have a vegetarian option?
/əˈlɜːdʒɪk/
Your body reacts badly to a food. Always allergic to.
She is allergic to nuts.
/ˌrekəˈmend/
To say that something is good and worth choosing.
What would you recommend?
/sɜːv/
To bring and give food or drink to somebody.
They serve the coffee at the table.
/ˈsɜːvɪs/
How well the staff look after you. Uncountable.
The food was fine and the service was excellent.
/ˈsɜːvɪs tʃɑːdʒ/
A percentage added to your bill for the staff.
There was a ten per cent service charge already on it.
/splɪt ðə ˈbɪl/
To divide the cost between everybody.
Shall we split the bill?
/ˈkʌtləri/
Knives, forks and spoons together. Americans say silverware.
He put down his cutlery to tell the story.
/ˈnæpkɪn/
The cloth or paper you use to clean your hands and mouth.
A new napkin appeared without a word.
/ˌəʊvəˈkʊkt/
Cooked for too long, so it is dry or hard.
His lamb was slightly overcooked.
/reə(r)/
Meat cooked very lightly, still red inside. The scale is rare – medium – well done.
I asked for it rare and my father was alarmed.
/ˈfɪlɪŋ/
Food that makes you feel full quickly.
It was far more filling than it looked.
Now read the story
Story · all 20 words
Thirty Years
For my parents’ thirtieth anniversary my sister and I decided to take them somewhere expensive, which was the first mistake, and to keep it a surprise, which was the second.
I telephoned on the Monday and was told the restaurant was fully booked until the middle of the following month. My sister rang the same place forty minutes later, spoke to a different person, mentioned the anniversary in her second sentence, and came away with a reservation for Saturday at eight. I have never understood how she does this and she has never agreed to explain it.
The menu was four pages long. My father read every word, including the wine list, from which he does not drink, and then asked the waiter what he would recommend. The waiter said the fish. My father ordered the lamb.
My mother has been vegetarian since March, a fact this family has still not fully absorbed, and she is also allergic to nuts, so she asked about three different dishes before she chose. The waiter went to the kitchen and came back with a real answer instead of a guess, and my sister and I looked at each other, because that is the exact moment you know a restaurant is good.
The starters arrived quickly. They were beautiful and roughly the size of a postage stamp. My father studied his portion for a long moment and then said, very quietly, that it was very nice. My mother told him to be patient.
The main course was better. My lamb was rare in the middle, which I had asked for and which my father found genuinely alarming. His own was slightly overcooked, a fact he did not mention to anybody until we were in the car going home. The side dish of potatoes was the best thing on the table and we ordered a second one without discussing it. All of it turned out to be far more filling than it looked.
The service is the part I still think about. Nobody rushed us. When my mother dropped her napkin, a clean one appeared without a word and without a face. When my father put down his cutlery to tell a very long story about 1994, nobody came anywhere near his plate until he had finished it, twenty minutes later. They serve the coffee at the table there, in small cups, which my father approved of more than anything else that happened all evening.
The dessert arrived with a candle in it and the whole room clapped, which my mother pretended to hate and then talked about for six weeks.
Then the bill. There was a ten per cent service charge already added, which I did not notice, so I left a tip on top of it as well. My sister noticed, said nothing at the table, and has mentioned it approximately once a month ever since. We had agreed to split the bill between the two of us, and we did, and it was worth every dinar.
The order of a meal, and the word that causes real confusion:
British: starter → main course → dessert
American: appetizer → entrée → dessert
Be careful with entrée. In American English it means the main course. In French it means the starter. If you see it on a menu, look at the price.
Allergic always takes to: I am allergic to nuts – never allergic from or allergic of. This is a sentence worth memorising perfectly, because you may one day need it quickly.
Recommend does not take an indirect object the way many languages expect:
✓ What do you recommend? ✓ I recommend the fish.
✓ Can you recommend a good restaurant? ✗ Can you recommend me a restaurant?
You can also use it with -ing: I recommend booking early.
Dish or plate? A dish is the food itself – a lamb dish. A plate is the round object it sits on. So you say this dish is delicious, not this plate is delicious.
Service charge or tip? If the bill says service included or shows a service charge, the tip is already there and you do not need to add another one. If it says nothing, ten to fifteen per cent is normal in Britain.
Meat, from least to most cooked: rare → medium rare → medium → well done. And cutlery is uncountable in British English – say some cutlery, never cutleries.
The meal: starter, main course, side dish, dessert, dish, portion.
Before you go: reservation, fully booked.
What you say: vegetarian, allergic to, recommend.
At the table: serve, service, cutlery, napkin, rare, overcooked, filling.
At the end: service charge, split the bill.
Practise the four sentences you will actually need: I have a reservation for two at eight. Do you have a vegetarian option? I am allergic to nuts. Could we split the bill, please?
Now practise with the questions below.
Check your understanding
Answer the questions below. You will see instantly if you are right.
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