Walk ‘n’ Talk Essentials #18 – Let’s learn how to order food at a restaurant

Welcome to another episode of Walk ‘n’ Talk! Do you like to go out to eat? Let’s learn the most natural ways to order food and to ask for recommendations. Enjoy this lesson by Taylah, teacher from Fluency Academy!

The Dialogue:‍

A: Good evening, gentlemen! Here’s the menu.
B: Umm, what would you recommend?
A: The specialty of the house is mushroom lasagna.
B: Sounds good to me.
A: Great choice. And what would you like to drink?
B: Can I have a large iced tea, please? No ice.
A: Sure. Anything else?
B: I’ll also have some fries, some tomato salad and… cheesecake for dessert. That’s all.

‍Vocabulary Expansion:‍

‍Dish
This word isn’t used in the dialogue we saw this time, but it is very relevant in this context. When you are talking about a portion of any type of food that has been prepared, that is called a dish, so the customer here orders the dish called “mushroom lasagna”.

Other famous dishes around the world include pizza, burrito, sushi, shawarma, carbonara pasta and so on. Check out some examples:

What dish would you recommend from that restaurant?
My favorite dish from this restaurant is the green chicken curry.
Pizza is not a healthy dish, but it is delicious.

‍Sounds good
This is a typical sentence in casual conversation! When someone makes you a good offer, something you want to accept, you can express that you like it with the phrase “sounds good”, it emphasizes that what you heard seems like a nice option to you. Here are some possible interactions using the phrase:

My mom is making cake tonight, do you want to come over? Sure, sounds good. I love cake.
Do you want to come to a music festival with us? Sounds good, I’d love to.
See you at the pub after work? Sounds good. See you there.

You can make this reply more intense when you really love the idea and the offer is very attractive to you, using stronger words like awesome or amazing. You can also use it when the other person is just describing something interesting to you:
You have to watch that movie, it’s really funny and Keanu Reeves is in it. Wow, sounds awesome. I’ll watch it tonight.

And lastly, you can change it to a negative description word if what the person talks about doesn’t give you a good impression, or when the person is describing something bad that happened:

I spent two hours in traffic yesterday. Oh no, sounds terrible.

‍I’ll have
What sentences can you use to order food in English? The structures that are used in these contexts can seem strange if we try to translate them to our language, but because they are the most natural options, it’s very important to keep them in mind. So let’s check out the most common sentences used in restaurants to order food:

Can I have a mushroom lasagna?
Could I have a slice of cheesecake?
I’ll have a portion of fries, please.
Can I please get a large iced tea?
I would like one pepperoni pizza, please.

We hope this content was helpful and that you enjoyed the episode! Don’t forget that you can listen to it as many times as you want and that the more you practice, the more confident you will feel. See you next time!