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B1 Vocabulary & Pronunciation • 20 minutes

🍽️ Eating Out and Restaurants

Learn 10 everyday restaurant words, practice them in real sentences, and train your speaking with shadowing.

📋 How to use this lesson

For Teachers

Teach this 20-minute lesson with the whole class or have students work in pairs.

Check the answers together after each practice part and listen to two or three student recordings.

For Learners

Read the word table and study the memory tips first.

Answer the 16 practice questions, then record your voice in the shadowing tasks.

Word Table

Review the 10 words, how they are used, and easy tricks to remember them.

1. At the restaurant

Word	Meaning	Common collocations	Word forms	Example sentence	Memory tip
starter	food you eat before the main course	order a starter, a light starter	–	"We ordered a hot soup as our starter."	Think of 'start'—it is the dish that starts your meal.
dessert	sweet food eaten at the end of a meal	order dessert, chocolate dessert	–	"I left room for a tasty chocolate dessert."	Double 's' because you want sweet stuff twice; desert with one 's' is dry sand.
cutlery	knives, forks, and spoons used for eating	polish the cutlery, lay the cutlery	–	"The waiter brought clean cutlery before the steak arrived."	Think of 'cut'—cutlery is the tool you use to cut your food.
chef	a professional cook in a restaurant	head chef, hire a chef	–	"The head chef came out to greet the guests."	'Ch' sounds like 'sh' in 'shop': say 'shef'.

2. Ordering

Word	Meaning	Common collocations	Word forms	Example sentence	Memory tip
vegetarian	a person who does not eat meat or fish	vegetarian option, strict vegetarian	–	"This café has three good vegetarian dishes."	Starts with 'vegetable'—eats only plants, no meat.
takeaway	a meal you buy to eat somewhere else	order a takeaway, Indian takeaway	–	"We were too tired to cook, so we got an Indian takeaway."	You literally 'take' it 'away' from the shop to your home.
serve	to give food and drinks to people at a table	serve dinner, serve customers	service (n)	"They serve breakfast until eleven every morning."	Sounds like 'service'—giving good care to guests.

3. Describing the food

Word	Meaning	Common collocations	Word forms	Example sentence	Memory tip
spicy	having a strong, hot flavor from spices	spicy curry, spicy sauce	spice (n)	"The chicken wings were very spicy and made me drink water."	'Spicy' has 'ice' in sound, which is what your tongue needs when it burns!
tasty	having a very pleasant flavor	tasty meal, simple and tasty	taste (n, v)	"My grandmother makes a simple but tasty tomato pasta."	From 'taste'—full of good taste.
stylish	fashionable and attractive	stylish interior, stylish restaurant	style (n, v)	"We celebrated her birthday in a stylish new bistro downtown."	Has great 'style'—looks cool and modern.

Practice

Complete 16 tasks from easy to hard to master all 10 words.

Part A: Collocation Match (Items 1–4)

4 items

Choose the natural noun that pairs with each verb.

1. Which noun pairs with the verb: order?

____ a. a starter ____ b. the cutlery ____ c. a vegetarian

2. Which noun pairs with the verb: polish?

____ a. a starter ____ b. the cutlery ____ c. takeaway

3. Which noun pairs with the verb: serve?

____ a. a chef ____ b. the cutlery ____ c. dessert

4. Which noun pairs with the verb: become?

____ a. a vegetarian ____ b. a starter ____ c. the cutlery

Part B: Gap-fill with Word Bank (Items 5–8)

4 items

Word Bank

chef takeaway stylish spicy

Item 5

"The head ____ planned a special five-course dinner for our anniversary."

Item 6

"Nobody wanted to wash dishes tonight, so we ordered a hot Indian ____."

Item 7

"I loved the modern art and warm lighting; it is such a ____ place to eat."

Item 8

"Be careful with that red sauce—it has extra chilies and is extremely ____!"

Part C: Choose the Word (Items 9–12)

4 items

All three choices fit the grammar of the sentence, but only one matches the meaning.

9. "Excuse me, I dropped my fork on the floor. Could you please bring some clean ___?"

____ a. cutlery ____ b. starter ____ c. dessert

10. "We were not very hungry before the steak, so we only ordered a small soup as our ___."

____ a. takeaway ____ b. starter ____ c. dessert

11. "My sister never eats meat, fish, or chicken because she has been a strict ___ for five years."

____ a. chef ____ b. takeaway ____ c. vegetarian

12. "The roast chicken was cooked with just salt and lemon, making the meat very tender and ___."

____ a. tasty ____ b. spicy ____ c. stylish

Part D: Word-formation (Items 13–16)

4 items

Change the word in brackets into the correct form from our lesson list.

Item 13 • Base word: serve

"The waiters were polite, but the overall ____ was quite slow on Friday night."

Item 14 • Base word: spicy

"You can sprinkle a little extra ____ over the noodles to add more heat."

Item 15 • Base word: tasty

"This homemade lemonade has a fresh, sweet ____ of lemon."

Item 16 • Base word: stylish

"The new dining room has a relaxed, simple ____ that customers enjoy."

Shadowing

Listen, repeat, and record each phrase. All sentences use everyday words and stay under 10 words.

Part 1: 4 Collocations

1. Collocation 🔊 Listen

"order a starter"

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

2. Collocation 🔊 Listen

"serve hot food"

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

3. Collocation 🔊 Listen

"a stylish café"

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

4. Collocation 🔊 Listen

"sweet chocolate dessert"

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

Part 2: 4 Short Sentences

5. Sentence (8 words) 🔊 Listen

"The chef prepared a tasty lunch for us."

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

6. Sentence (7 words) 🔊 Listen

"Can you bring some clean cutlery, please?"

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

7. Sentence (7 words) 🔊 Listen

"We grabbed a quick takeaway after work."

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

8. Sentence (8 words) 🔊 Listen

"This curry is too spicy for my friend."

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

Part 3: 2 More Sentences

9. Sentence (7 words) 🔊 Listen

"The waiter will serve our drinks soon."

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

10. Sentence (7 words) 🔊 Listen

"Is there a good vegetarian meal today?"

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

Part 4: 2 Hard Words (Pronunciation focus)

11. Hard word (5 syllables) 🔊 Listen

vegetarian

/ˌvedʒ.əˈteə.ri.ən/

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

12. Hard word (stress on 2nd) 🔊 Listen

dessert

/dɪˈzɜːt/

[Bài tập luyện nói]

____

Vocabulary & Pronunciation: Eating Out

🍽️ Eating Out and Restaurants

📋 How to use this lesson

Word Table

1. At the restaurant

2. Ordering

3. Describing the food

Practice

Part A: Collocation Match (Items 1–4)

Part B: Gap-fill with Word Bank (Items 5–8)

Part C: Choose the Word (Items 9–12)

Part D: Word-formation (Items 13–16)

Shadowing

Part 1: 4 Collocations

Part 2: 4 Short Sentences

Part 3: 2 More Sentences

Part 4: 2 Hard Words (Pronunciation focus)

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