Today I have some vocabulary and phrases that will be helpful for ordering food in English. If you travel to an English-speaking country this vocabulary will be very useful, as I am sure you will have to eat at some point :).  If you are not traveling to an English-speaking country anytime soon you can also set up a situation with other ESL learners to practice this vocabulary. If you want you could organize a potluck dinner, in which people get together and everyone brings food to share. Then at the dinner people can take turns acting as waiters for one another. Those who are the waiters have to get the food that the “customers” order. All of this has to be done in English of course. Then the waiters and customers change places, so everyone gets a chance to practice and eat! If you want to really make it feel like going to a restaurant you can ask people to say what they will bring to the potluck dinner ahead of time and create a special menu for the meal that the “customers” use to order from.

Now, here is conversation between a waiter and customer that illustrates common phrases and vocabulary used in ordering food at a restaurant.

Waiter: Hi my name is Alex and I will be your waiter this evening.
To start what can I get you to drink?
Customer 1: I’ll have an ice tea.
Customer 2: Just water for me.
Waiter: Okay. Do you have any questions about the menu?
Customer 1: No, we just need a minute to look it over.

Waiter: Here are your drinks. Are you ready to order?
Customer 1: Yes, I’d like the sesame-fried tofu.
Waiter: Okay. And for you?
Customer 2: I’ll have the special of the day.
Waiter: Okay. So that’s one order of the fried tofu and the special. Would you like anything else?
Customer 2: No that will be all for now thank you.
Waiter: I can take your menus for you then.

I want to point out just a few things about this conversation. First, you’ll notice that the waiter takes drink orders before the meal order. This is very common in the United States. Also, water is always free and often served to everyone at restaurant in the United States, whether you order water or not. A waiter is likely to take the meal orders from the customers when she/he returns to the table with the drink orders. A waiter may or may not ask if you have questions about the menu. You are also welcome to ask questions about the food if you have questions. Waiters often read back the entire order before leaving the table, to make sure they have understood and have not made any mistakes. Waiters usually take the menus away after you order your meal, but will bring them back after the meal is finished to see if you want to order dessert.