Vocabulary/ A1 Vocabulary lessons and / At the restaurant – A1 English Vocabulary
At the Restaurant
Learn essential vocabulary for dining out
About This Lesson
In this A2 Pre-intermediate Vocabulary Lesson about Restaurants, you will learn essential terms and phrases related to eating out at restaurants. The pictures, descriptions, and examples below will help you understand and remember the terms.
At the Restaurant
A vocabulary chart titled "At the Restaurant" featuring twenty images representing different nouns and verbs related to dining out. The images are labelled 1 through 20, showing items such as starter, main course, side dish, etc.
Definitions & Examples
starter
A small dish that you eat at the beginning of a meal.
We ordered garlic bread as a starter and chicken as a main course.
main course
A larger plate of food that you have after your starter.
We ordered garlic bread as a starter, followed by chicken as a main course.
side dish
A small dish of vegetables, salad, or potatoes that you have with your main course.
I’ll have the fish, with a side dish of chips.
dessert
A piece of fruit or a sweet dish such as ice cream or cake that you have at the end of your meal.
Whenever I eat at that restaurant, I order the chocolate cake for dessert.
cutlery
A word referring to knives, forks, and spoons.
I can eat my burger with my hands, so I don’t need cutlery.
napkin
A paper or cloth sheet that you use to protect your clothes and clean your mouth or hands while you’re eating.
When our food arrived, I put my napkin on my knee and started eating.
reservation
An arrangement made with a restaurant to use a table and have a meal at a particular time.
The restaurant is always busy. You need to make a reservation.
waiter / waitress
A man (waiter) or woman (waitress) who looks after you when you eat in a restaurant.
I asked the waiter for another beer.
customer
A person who dines at a restaurant and purchases food or drinks.
The customers asked the waiter for the menu when they sat down.
menu
A list showing all the food and drinks available in a restaurant. A set menu includes a starter, main course, and dessert for a fixed price.
There are many dishes on the menu.
If you order the set menu, you get a starter, main course, and dessert for just $20.
beverage
A drink that you order in a restaurant.
You can see all our beverages on the drinks menu.
special
Something that is not normally on the menu but that you can have on that day.
Our special today is chicken lasagne and salmon with spicy sauce.
order
The food or drinks you ask for. 'To order' also means to request food.
I’ll be back soon with your order.
Are you ready to order?
bill / check
A piece of paper that lists how much you need to pay for your meal.
After we finished eating, we asked the waiter for our bill.
tip
Extra money that you leave for the waiter to reward them for good service.
We left our waiter a £5 tip.
eat out
To have a meal in a restaurant or away from home.
We didn’t have any food in the house, so we decided to eat out.
book a table
To call a restaurant to reserve a table for a specific time.
I’d like to book a table for four people tomorrow night.
recommend
To suggest a dish because you think it is good.
Are there any dishes that you would recommend?
pay the bill
To give money to pay for your meal.
After we finished eating, we paid the bill and left.
leave a tip
To give extra money to the waiter for good service.
We always leave a tip if the service is good.
Capitalize Proper Nouns
Names of specific restaurants or dishes (like Le Bernardin or Caesar Salad) are capitalized. General food and service words (like starter, menu, waiter) are not capitalized unless they start a sentence.
❌ Incorrect: We ordered the caesar salad.
✅ Correct: We ordered the Caesar Salad.
❌ Incorrect: Let’s go to olive garden.
✅ Correct: Let’s go to Olive Garden.