I love eating in restaurants with my friends – mostly because I don’t have to do the washing up after!

Going to an English restaurant can be hard if you don’t feel confident speaking English.

Have you ever opened your mouth to ask a waiter a question, but you forget every English question you know! So you just close your eyes and point on the menu and hope you get something you like?!!!

Here are some useful questions to help you feel comfortable asking English questions in restaurants!

Watch the video HERE:

To ‘book a table’ is to speak to the staff at a restaurant ask them to keep a table for you and your guests at the time you want to eat. You do this BEFORE the time when you want to eat.

When you ‘book a table' you will also need to tell the staff how many people will be eating and what time you will arrive.

Can I book a table for 4 people, at 7pm?

You might go to the restaurant to ask this question, but more often you would do this over the phone.

You may have heard the verb reserve used in this same way. The verbs book and reserve are the same. Reserve is a more formal way of asking the same question.

Can I reserve a table?

This is an important question if you need to find out specific information about what food and drinks are available at the restaurant.

Do you serve alcohol?                              No, I’m sorry. We don’t.

Do you serve vegetarian food?             Yes, we do.

Do you serve pizza?)                                We sure do, have a look at our menu!

A polite way of asking for something or for assistance. Making a request

Can I have the menu?                            

Can I have the wine list?                        

Can I have the bill please?

You can ask the same question even more politely by replacing can with could or may.

Could I have the menu?

May I have the wine list?

Remember that if you are interrupting someone from their job (waiter), it’s polite to say “excuse me?” and then ask your question (when you are sure they are listening to you).

Excuse me, can I have the menu?

Excuse me, what’s in the quiche?

But you DON’T need to say “excuse me” if you are already talking to the person you want to address.

Do you have a question? Write it in the comments box below 🙂

mmmEnglish Video Lessons are a series of video lessons created to build confidence in English learners and focus on English in daily life. Download them and watch them anywhere! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel to be the first to get my new videos, and come and say hi on my Facebook page!!