Neil Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. In this podcast, we help you understand everyday English conversations. I’m Neil.
Georgie And I’m Georgie. Don’t forget to go to our website to find a text version of this episode to read along: bbclearningenglish.com.
Neil Hi, Georgie. How are you?
Georgie I’m great, thank you, Neil. I just had a delicious lunch.
Neil Oh, nice. What did you eat for lunch?
Georgie I had pasta. What did you eat?
Neil I had a chicken sandwich.
Georgie Mmm. Well, today’s episode is all about restaurants and food.
Neil Great. I love it when we talk about food.
Georgie Me, too.
Neil, do you go to restaurants often?
Neil Not that often. Maybe when I meet some friends. How about you? Do you go to restaurants often?
Georgie No, I don’t go often. Probably once a month.
Neil OK, and when you go to a restaurant, what’s your favourite part of eating there?
Georgie I like to be around lots of people. I really love it when a restaurant has a good atmosphere. I love spending time with friends. What about you? Why do you like eating in a restaurant?
Neil Well, I like to go to a restaurant that serves food that I don’t know how to cook.
Georgie Yep, that’s a good point.
Neil So, restaurants with food from countries that I don’t know very well or that are very different types of food to the food I make.
Georgie It’s really nice to eat out and that means to eat not at your home because you don’t have to make the food and you don’t have to wash up.
Neil That’s true, yes.
It’s also nice to eat out for a special occasion. So, like a birthday or a celebration.
Georgie Yes and another special occasion could be something like Christmas and we at BBC Learning English are eating out for that special occasion. We’re having a celebration, aren’t we?
Neil Yes, every year we have a Christmas party and we usually eat out in a restaurant.
Georgie So, Neil, you said you like eating out in lots of different types of restaurants. What do you usually order?
Neil Well, I really like spicy food like Indian curries and I like fish. So I like to get fish curry.
Georgie Mmm that sounds delicious! And we have a special way of ordering don’t we? What are some phrases we can use to order things in restaurants?
Neil Yeah, so we can say, I’ll have the Fish curry. I’ll have the fish curry, please.
Georgie Yes, and you can also say, can I have the fish curry, please, as well.
Neil OK, Georgie, what do you usually order in a restaurant?
Georgie I also usually get the fish. Or a risotto.
Neil OK, so let’s say we are in a restaurant now. I’m the waiter. I say to you: are you ready to order?
Georgie Yes, I am.
Neil And what would you like?
Georgie** Can I get the** risotto, please?
Neil Yes, of course.
Georgie So we can also say, can I get the risotto as well as can I have the risotto. And notice that we say the risotto, not a risotto.
Neil That’s right.
Let’s recap the language we learned during the conversation. We had eat out which means eat a meal at a restaurant rather than at home.
Georgie** Special occasion**, a birthday, anniversary, or other reason to celebrate.
Neil And we learned that when we order in a restaurant, we usually say I’ll have the something… fish… chicken… risotto.
Georgie Or can I get the, and what you want to order. So, for example, when I eat at my favourite restaurant. I always get the risotto.
Neil Thanks for listening to Real Easy English. If you like restaurants. You could try our drama series The White Elephant all about a busy restaurant kitchen. There’s a link in the notes for this programme.
Georgie Next time on Real Easy English, we’re talking about clothes and fashion.
Neil See you then, goodbye.
Georgie Bye.