63 Learn English through the BEST Listening Practice | Talking about RESTAURANTS & EATING OUT

Eating out in an English-speaking country? Want to sound more natural when talking about restaurants? This lesson is for you! Learn useful restaurant phrases, understand cultural differences between the UK and the US, and get real listening practice to boost your fluency.🗣️

What You'll Learn in This Lesson• How to ask where to eat
• Ordering food at a restaurant
• Talking to servers and making requests
• Paying the bill/check and tipping
• Describing your dining experience
• Common restaurant idioms

📖 Essential Restaurant Phrases
Should we eat out tonight?
• Where should we go for dinner?
• I'm in the mood for Italian food.
• What about that place we went to last time?
• Do we need to book a table or can we just show up?
• Do you have a reservation?
• For how many?
• We have a 30-minute wait. Would you like me to put your name on the list?
• Is there room at the bar?
• Can I get a water as well? (British vs. American pronunciation: water vs. wah-der)
• Are you ready to order or do you need a few more minutes?
• I think we’re ready.
• I'll have the pasta with chicken, please.
• Can I get the burger but without onions?
• How is everything?
• Excuse me, I ordered fries, not broccoli.
• Can I get these out of your way? (When they take your empty plates.)
• Can we get the check, please? (US) / Can we get the bill, please? (UK)

Tipping in the US
• Standard tip = 20%
• If the meal is $50, you leave a $10 tip.
• It’s not obligatory, but it’s expected.Talking About the Restaurant Experience• I should have ordered the burger.
• I should have left a bigger tip.
• The food was okay, but it wasn’t worth the price.
• Those portions were way too small.
• That was one of the best meals I’ve had in a long time!
• The server was really rude. / The server was great!

🍕 Takeout, Delivery & Fast Food• In the UK, it’s called takeaway. In the US, it’s takeout.
• I rarely get takeout, but sometimes I do on a Friday night.
• Drive-throughs are common in the US, especially for coffee.

🏆 Restaurant Idioms

• Bite off more than you can chew – Taking on too much responsibility.
• Have a lot on your plate – Being very busy with many responsibilities.
• Leave a bad taste in your mouth – Having a negative experience that stays with you.

🎯 What to Do Next:
✅ Rewatch the lesson and repeat the phrases.
✅ Check the description for learning resources.
✅ Share this lesson with a friend!

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
This podcast episode, this English lesson is going to be
super useful if you want to learn common phrases and
also get some really good listening practice because I'm going
to talk about language use and also just what it's
like going to restaurants in the USA and also in
the UK. The topic for today is restaurants, and the

(00:23):
first phrase I want to teach is eating out. Okay,
to eat out, and this means to go to a
restaurant or to go somewhere to eat. So someone might say,
should we eat out tonight? Should we eat out tonight?
And that is the most common way to talk about
going to a restaurant, especially in the USA. And before

(00:44):
we continue with the lesson, be sure to subscribe to
the channel or follow if you're listening on Spotify or
Apple podcasts. And then also share this lesson with a friend,
So just click that share button and send it to
one of your best friends or a friend who's not
your best friend. Before we go into the phrases, two,

(01:04):
I want to say from my experience, and this is
just my experience, in the UK, people don't go to
restaurants as much as people in the United States of America,
so it's more common, in my opinion, to go to
a restaurant when you live in the USA. There are
also more international food options available for you. And if

(01:28):
you go to the USA too, you'll notice there are
a lot of Mexican restaurants, whereas in the UK it's
more common to see Indian restaurants. But before you even
go to a restaurant, there's a little bit of planning
involved here. You have to decide where to go if
you need a reservation, and also think about the type
of food you feel like eating. A super common phrase

(01:50):
here is to say where should we go for dinner tonight?
Where should we go for dinner tonight? Before deciding where
to go, maybe you need to decide if you want
to go or not, so you might ask a question,
should we eat out tonight? Should we eat out tonight
or just have something here? And this is when you
and your friend or your partner decide if you want

(02:11):
to go to a restaurant or not. If you decide
to go, you'll say where should we go? Where should
we go for dinner tonight? Someone usually says something like, well,
I'm in the mood for Italian food, I'm in the
mood for this is like saying I feel like having
Italian food, or very directly, I want Italian food. I

(02:32):
want to go to an Italian restaurant. And then if
you know your restaurants in the town you're in, then
usually you have a little brainstorming session where you say,
what about this place or what about that place? And
this is when you have a good debate or maybe

(02:53):
sometimes even an argument over where you should go. So
you'll say, what about that place that we went to
the last time, what about this restaurant? And then some
places you need to have a reservation. It's not always necessary,
but some places require a reservation. And if you're deciding

(03:14):
just to go out for that evening, then usually you'll
go to a place that's not as formal with the reservations,
and they always have space and tables available for you.
So a question you might ask here is do we
need to book a table or can we just show up?
And just show up means go to the restaurant without

(03:34):
booking a table or making a reservation. When you get
to your restaurant of choice, after you've done the research,
you've had your arguments, you've looked on the Google map
for the reviews you've looked on Google Maps for the reviews.
You arrive at the restaurant. Now, sometimes it's difficult to
park at the restaurant. Some restaurants in the US have

(03:58):
parking and lots of park Others are on high streets
or main streets where you have to park somewhere else
and walk to the restaurant. But you get there, you
open the door and there's someone at the front who
will say something like, oh, do you have a reservation?
Or how many four? So normally you don't make that

(04:20):
first choice of saying something. So in a lot of
English courses, you'll hear people say oh, when you get
to a restaurant, you say, hi, we have a reservation
or do you have a table for four? However, in
most cases they're gonna say the first thing, which is good,
so they'll say like, for how many, or they'll notice

(04:42):
that there are two of you and say for two.
And then the words you don't want to hear are
something like, well, we have a thirty minute wait. Would
you like me to put your name on a list?
We have a thirty minute wait? Would you like me
to put your name on the list? And that's when
you have to make the decision of if you're going

(05:03):
to stay at that restaurant or go somewhere else. In
most cases, I tend to go somewhere else, Or I
might say, is there room at the bar? Is there
room at the bar, and that's when you can sit
at the bar and have your meal there. But luckily,
in this situation, there's a great table for two by

(05:24):
the window, so you can people watch. People watch. I
love people watching. It's one of my favorite things to do,
and it just means you're sitting there watching the world
go by, watching people do their thing. And you can
do that if you get a table by the window.
Like I mentioned before, there are lots of different types

(05:45):
of restaurants, and in the US, a very common restaurant
is the grill, which is similar to the English pub.
It's not as good, but it's very similar to that
where you're going to get you can think of burghers
and fries and different types of sandwiches. You can also
get salads as well, and then they have cheap beer

(06:09):
there too. Those places are more casual. There are also
some places as well where you go order your food
at the counter and then you take a number to
your table and they bring the food over when it's ready.
But as you probably know, the US is all about
service service. I'm going to talk about how this relates

(06:33):
to pay in later. But usually someone comes over after
you're sat at the table and they'll say, hey, my
name is Louise, and I'll be taking care of you tonight.
Can I get you started on a drink? I tend
to order some type of drink and say can I
get a water as well? And sometimes they look at

(06:55):
me in a confused way because they don't understand. They
say water. I say, yeah, oh, water, water, And this
is the big pronunciation difference between British and American English,
where you say water in the UK or water water,
and also in the US it is water water or

(07:18):
something like that. And then the server will also ask
are you ready to order or do you need a
few more minutes? Are you ready to order? Or do
you need a few more minutes? And for some reason
everyone says here, I think we're ready. No, I think
we're ready, Not we're ready. I think we're ready. And

(07:39):
this is just sounding more polite and not as direct
to say no, we are ready. Right now, we're saying
I think we're ready When it's time to order, you'll
use a phrase like I'll have the pasta with chicken please,
or can I get can I get the burger but

(08:01):
without onions? Again? In the US, when your food comes,
the server will often come over and say how is everything?
How is everything? They tend to do this. They usually
do this when you're taking your first bite and your
mouth is full of food, and then you have to
respond and go like, yeah, it's good, it's good, it's good.

(08:23):
Something I hate doing is talking about or telling the
weight staff the servers that there's a mistake, but I
do it. So let's say they bring you broccoli instead
of French fries. Then I'm going to say something and say,
excuse me, I ordered fries and didn't order broccoli, And

(08:45):
they'll say, oh, I'm so sorry. I'll just go get
you a quick basket of fries right now. I'll be
right back. Then you go on eat your food. The
server comes over and they see some to plates and
they'll say, can I get these out of your way?
Can I get these out of your way? Which means

(09:06):
can I take these plates away from your table? They'll
ask if you want anything else, but if you're ready
just to pay and leave the restaurant. In the US,
you'll say can we get the check please, or could
we have the check please? In the UK you'll say
can we get the bill please? Can we get the bill?

(09:28):
So check in American English, check and bill in British English.
The hard part is knowing how much to tip. In
the US, at the moment, it's standard to leave twenty percent,
and although this is not obligatory, it's something that everyone

(09:50):
just does. It's the custom thing to do. So you
add twenty percent on to how much it costs. So
if the meal is twenty dollars, you leave four dollars,
if it's fifty, you leave ten, and then you do
some math, add things up, and then you leave the
total amount and sign the check. Now, oftentimes after the meal,

(10:16):
or even during the meal, you'll talk about your experience,
what you like, what you dislike, how the food is,
and sometimes you have some regrets as well. For example,
you might say, oh, I should have ordered the burger.
I got a salad, but I should have ordered the burger,
which means along the lines of I wish I had

(10:39):
ordered the burger, the burger would have been better. Another
one is I should have left a bigger tip. I
should have left a bigger tip, meaning that you left
a tip that you don't think is enough. Maybe you
didn't tip enough, I should have left another tip. If
you didn't enjoy the experience, you might say the food
was okay, but it wasn't worth the price. It wasn't

(11:03):
worth the price, which means that the food was too
expensive for what it was. It wasn't worth the price.
You might complain that you're still hungry and say I'm
still hungry. Those portions were way too small. Those portions
were way too small, which means they didn't give you

(11:24):
enough food on your plate. If it was really good,
you might say something like, that was one of the
best meals I've had in a long time. That was
one of the best meals I've had in a long time.
Or the burger was so good and this is where
you really emphasized this, so the burger was so good.

(11:45):
People often talk about the service as well. They might
say that server was really rude, that server was really rude,
or that server was great. That server was great. Now
so sometimes instead of eating out at a restaurant, you'll
get takeout or in British English, you'll hear take away.

(12:09):
A lot of people use things like Uber Eats or
delivery to have the food delivered to their home, but
you can also order restaurants and go pick it up.
To pick it up, It's very rare that I get takeout.
I'd prefer to either cook at home or oftentimes go
to a restaurant, But every now and then I'll get

(12:32):
takeout and use an app, especially if it's a Friday night.
Everyone is feeling tired and we just want to get
something easy. And then there are also the fast food
restaurants that are very popular in the US with dry fruits,
where you go in your car, you order from your window,

(12:52):
and then you go to the next window and your
food is delivered. This is very common as well to
get coffee, especially at the Starbucks chain. There are Starbucks
all over the US, and a lot of them have
drive throughs, especially in normal sized cities. Let's finish the
lesson with three restaurant idioms. The first one is to

(13:15):
bite off more than you can chew. And you can
imagine somebody eating something in their mouth, but they can't
chew it all because they have put too much food
in their mouth. Now, This is used to mean to
take on more than you can handle. So let's say
that you have a job, and then you get another job,

(13:36):
and then you do some extra freelance work or contracting
work on the side. You might say, oh, with all
this work, I've bitten off more than I can chew.
I have bitten off more than I can chew something similar.
An idiom similar is have a lot on your plate.
To have a lot on your plate. So you might say,

(13:59):
for example, I wanted to go out for dinner, but
I have a lot of my plate with work this week.
And this means to have a lot of responsibilities or
things to do, and lots of tasks to do, to
have a lot on your plate. And you'll hear people
say I have a lot on my plate at the moment.
I have a lot on my plate at the moment.

(14:21):
And the third one is leave a bad taste in
your mouth. To leave a bad taste in your mouth,
and this means to leave a negative impression. And talking
about a restaurant, you might say that experience left a
bad taste in my mouth, and don't think I'll come back.
I don't think I'll come back. It left a bad

(14:42):
taste in my mouth. Okay, so those are the different
restaurant phrases and the listening practice related to restaurants. What
to do now is to take more lessons with me,
more podcast episodes, and also if you're on YouTube, explore
the YouTube channel. If you're listening on Apple or Spotify,

(15:04):
look back at some older episodes and just start listening
to those ones too, and just keep learning English. Keep
going with it. Listen to these podcast episodes and take
my advice that I talk about in the description so
you can better improve your English. Thank you so much
for learning with me, and I'll speak you soon. Bye

(15:25):
for now