Restaurant

- Fast food restaurant.

- a place where you can buy meals to take away: take-away (AmE take-
out restaurant); the food that you buy: take-away (AmE take-out). Is
there a Chinese take-away near here? We got an Indian take-away

- a small restaurant that serves light meals: café

- (in the United States) a small restaurant beside a main road: diner

- a restaurant where you collect your food yourself from a counter (= a

long flat surface): self-service restaurant

- a place in a school, office, factory, etc where people can buy and eat
cheap meals: cafeteria, canteen
- tray

- a small place where you can buy sandwiches or other light food: snack
bar, sandwich bar

- a small meal, for example a sandwich, that you can eat between main
meals: snack

- light food and drinks served in public places: (rather formal)

refreshments. Light refreshments will be available.

- a formal party to celebrate a wedding: wedding reception.

- a small place that serves coffee and sometimes light food: coffee bar

- (in Britain) a place that serves alcoholic drinks and sometimes food: pub.
Pub food has improved a lot recently. Pub lunches

- a machine (often found in bars and pubs) which you can play games on:
fruit machine, slot machine

- a machine which plays music: jukebox. Shall I put something on the

jukebox?

People in a pub
- a man who serves you drinks from behind the bar: barman (AmE
bartender); a woman who serves you drinks: barmaid
- the man/woman who owns or manages a pub: landlord/landlady
- a person who usually goes to one particular pub: regular. They know me
well here. I'm a regular.

Drinking in a pub

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- to choose a drink: have sth. What'll you have? I think I'll have a gin and
tonic.

- to fetch a drink (for example from a bar): get sth. Could you get me
another gin and tonic?

- to get a drink for another person: buy sb sth. I'll buy you a beer.

- A drink for each member of a group: round. Shall we have another

round? It's my round! (= It's my turn to buy the drinks.)

- the times that a pub is open: opening hours.

- the time that a pub closes: closing time. We'd better finish our drinks -
it's almost closing time.

- the last ten or twenty minutes before closing time: drinking-up time

- to visit a lot of different pubs in an evening: go on a pub crawl. 'What

are you doing tonight?' 'I'm going on a pub crawl with some friends’.

Having a meal in a restaurant

- to go to a restaurant for a meal: eat out, go out for a meal, (formal) dine out.
We're eating out tonight so I don't have to cook. Let's go out for a meal.

- book (a table)I've booked a table for four

- fully booked, booked up. 'Can I book a table for eight o'clock tonight?' 'I'm
sorry, madam, I'm afraid we're fully booked.'

- the most senior (= chief) waiter: head waiter

- the chief cook in a hotel or restaurant: chef

- a person or business that provides food or drink, for example for a party or a
public occasion: caterer. We can get caterers in for the wedding.

- the activity or business of providing food or drink: catering (noun U). She runs
a successful catering company.

- order sth. Could we order some drinks first?

- The waiter/ waitress takes your order. I wish the waiter would hurry up and
take our order.

- the waiter/waitress serves you; noun (U): service. We waited ages to get
served. I'm not going there again - the service was terrible.

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- Menu. Could I see the menu, please?

- Dish. an Indian dish

- à la carte. The menu is à la carte

- A meal at a fixed price.

- wine list.

Paying for a meal

- the bill (AmE check). Can I have the bill please?

- the extra amount of money you sometimes have to pay for service: service
charge. Is the service charge included?

- Tip(sb). Shall we leave a tip? How much should I tip the waiter?

Things we use when eating a meal

- tablecloth.

- a small piece of material that you put under a hot dish, plate, etc: mat. a table
mat
- napkin, serviette.

- Plate. A dinner plate. A side plate (= a small plate used at the side of a bigger
plate)

- a small round plate that you put under a cup: saucer.

- Dish. Put the vegetables in the serving dishes.

- Bowl. Would you like a bowl of soup?

- the general word for all cups, plates and dishes: crockery (noun U). Where do
you keep the crockery?

- plates, cups and saucers that are made of a high quality white clay: china
(noun U). A china teapot
- cup/mug/glass

- pour sth (for sb), pour sb sth:Shall I pour the tea? She poured him a glass of
beer.

- fill sth (up):Your glass is almost empty. Shall I fill it up?

- if a cup, etc is filled right to the top edge, it is full to the brim

- spill sth. I spilt coffee all over the carpet.

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 - if a plate, bowl, cup, glass etc has a small piece broken off it, it is chipped; if it
is broken so that you can see a thin line, but it is not broken into pieces, it is
cracked.

knife/fork/spoon

- the general name for all knives, forks and spoons used for eating: cutlery (noun
U).

knives

- a knife used for preparing food in a kitchen: kitchen knife

- a knife used for cutting bread: bread knife

- a large knife used for cutting pieces of cooked meat: carving knife

- a small knife that you can carry in your pocket, with one or more blades that fold
down into the handle: penknife, pocket knife.

- a knife that cuts very easily is sharp; opposite: blunt. Slice the ham with a
sharp knife

- to make sth sharp: sharpen sth. The carving knife needs sharpening.

- if a knife is a good one, it cuts (well)This knife doesn't cut very well. Have you
got a sharper one?

Spoons

- the amount one spoon can hold: spoon, spoonful a spoon of sugar. Two
spoonfuls of medicine.

- to serve sth using a spoon: spoon (sth) (out). Spoon the sauce over the fish.

- stir sth. Stir the porridge to prevent it sticking.

- a small spoon used for stirring tea: teaspoon.

- a spoon used for eating sweet things: dessertspoon.

- a spoon used for eating soup: soup spoon

- a large spoon used for measuring or serving food: tablespoon. Add two
tablespoons of flour.

- a large spoon used for serving food: serving spoon

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- a large spoon with a long handle used for serving soup: ladle.

- a spoon made of wood used for cooking: wooden spoon. She stirred the soup
with a wooden spoon.

Before the meal

- make, cook: “Who'll make the lunch?”. “I can't stay. I've got to go and cook the
supper”.

- to cook sth too much: overcook sth; opposite: undercook sth

- food which has been cooked too much is overcooked, overdone; food which
has not been cooked enough is undercooked, underdone. Overcooked
vegetables. I'm sorry, the fish is a bit underdone.

- Raw. Raw vegetables/meat

- Rare, medium (medium-rare), well done. He prefers his steak well done.

- taste sth. Can you just taste this and tell me if it's OK?
- lay the table.

- if you see sth nice to eat and the smell makes you feel hungry, it makes your
mouth water. Mm, that smells delicious, it's really making my mouth water.

- a bit hungry: peckish. To feel a bit peckish

- very hungry: famished, ravenous, starving. I'm absolutely famished. What’s

for lunch? I’m absolutely ravenous.

- the desire or need for food: appetite (noun C/U). Jack's got a huge appetite -
you'd better make enough for four. I don't think she's well - she's got no
appetite. The walk gave me a good appetite. Don’t spoil your appetite by eating
between meals.

- To become hungry because of working: work up an appetite

During the meal

- serve (sth). Shall I serve out the fruit salad?

- if you want people to serve themselves during a meal, you say: help
yourself, serve yourself. Help yourselves - there's plenty more in the
oven.

- when you want people to start eating, you say: please start.

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- the amount of food for one person: helping, (especially in a restaurant)
portion. “Who would like a second helping?” “They're very small
portions, aren't they?”

- the amount of food on a plate: plate, plateful. He was eating a large

plate of chips.

- Taste. I don't know what you put in it but it's got a really strange taste.

- Anything which a person can eat is edible; opposite: inedible. The food
at the hotel was barely edible.

- taste + adjective, taste of sth, taste like sth. That fish didn't taste very
nice, did it? The wine tasted of strawberries. What does it taste like?

- the smell and taste of food or a particular type of taste: flavour. Do you
think a little salt would improve the flavour?. ‘What flavours have you
got?' 'Strawberry or vanilla.'

- to add sth to food to give it a particular flavour: flavour. I flavoured the

soup with lemon and parsley. A strawberry-flavoured milk shake
Different kinds of taste

- sweet, sour, bitter. The wine left a bitter taste in my mouth.

- if sth tastes good, it is tasty, good, delicious. A very tasty meal. Good
wine.

- if sth has no flavour or taste, it is tasteless.

- disgusting, revolting, horrible. The restaurant looked nice, but the

meal was disgusting.

- if sth tastes bad because it is old, it is bad, off (not before a noun). That
milk tastes a bit off - somebody must have forgotten to put it in the fridge.

- strong; opposite: mild. A strong taste of onions. A mild chocolate flavour

- hot, spicy; opposite: mild. The curry was too hot. Spicy Mexican food.
Mild mustard/cheese

- if a drink is made with very little water or a lot of alcohol, it is strong;

opposite: weak. Strong coffee. Strong beer. Weak tea.

- tasting like fish, nuts, sugar, pepper, salt: fishy, nutty, sugary, peppery,
salty. Salty food.

- Savoury. Having a taste that is salty not sweet; having a pleasant taste
or smell: Savoury snacks. A savoury smell from the kitchen

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- pinch of salt. Add a pinch of salt.

- the container that you put on the table for salt: salt cellar (AmE salt
shaker)

- a container in which you grind pepper (= make it into a fine powder):

pepper mill

- the leaf of a plant used for giving food flavour: herb; some common
herbs are mint (noun U), parsley (noun U), basil (noun U). Dried herbs.
A herb garden

- to add salt, pepper, spices, etc to food: season sth; noun (U):
seasoning. The recipe says 'season well' so you could put in a bit more
pepper. I think the soup needs some more seasoning.

The parts of a meal

- course. A three-course dinner

- starter; main course; sweet, pudding, dessert. I haven’t made a

sweet today. Would you like some more sweet? What’s for pudding? I
haven’t made a pudding today

- a type of food prepared in a particular way: dish. What a delicious dish!

You must give me the recipe. An Indian dish

After the meal

- leftovers (noun plural). Put the leftovers in the fridge and we'll have
them for dinner tomorrow.

- when you have had enough to eat you are (informal) full (up). 'Would
you like some more?' 'No thanks, it was lovely but I'm full.'

- if you cannot eat any more, then you can't manage sth. That was a
lovely meal but I'm afraid I can't manage any more

- clear the table, clear (sth) away. I'll clear away the plates and make
some coffee

- wash (sth) up, do the washing-up, do the dishes. Shall I wash up? I
hate doing the washing-up. Let's do the dishes first and then we can
relax.

- to dry the plates, etc after they have been washed up: dry (sth) up, do
the drying-up. I’ll wash and you can dry up.

- have indigestion. Onions give me indigestion.

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- air that you swallow when you are eating or drinking; the gas in your
stomach. wind (noun U). I can’t eat beans—they give me wind. Try to
bring the baby’s wind up.

- to bring the gas up through your mouth: belch, (informal) burp. He

wiped his hand across his mouth, then belched loudly.

- the sound that you make when you bring gas up through your mouth:
belch, (informal) burp. To give a burp.

- to bring food up through the mouth when you are ill: be sick, throw up,
(formal) vomit; to avoid vomiting: keep sth down. He can't keep
anything down. He was sick three times during the night and then he
threw up again this morning.