Restaurant Vocabulary

Now before we go on to our actual example here let’s just make sure we’re clear on all the words you can write these down again.

You can look these up very easily.

These are not the only words you need to know but an on tray is often the main dish and will include for example of some meat and then a couple of other things on the plate like a vegetable and then maybe another thing like mashed potatoes and vegetables or corn and bread or some other small dish.

So usually that’s called an entree.

And so on that on a plate then you have an appetizer which is something that comes before and that’s meant to give you something to eat before you get your your main course.

Your main course now main course is not something that’s only used in a restaurant that’s used for eating in general in English.

It’s the main food that you eat but it’s the idea of relieving your hunger right at the beginning and you’ll see that usually those are a little bit cheaper and they say appetizer.

The menu is the thing you order from the wine list is also a type of menu but it’s it’s usually for just wine and sometimes they have a drinks menu as well which is another separate menu where they have alcohol so other types of alcohol might be on yet another menu.

OK.

Just to be clear this is red wine and white wine and this might include whiskey bourbon Gin Gin and Vodka cocktails and cocktails are mixed drinks.

Right these are straight straight alcohol bourbon whiskey gin vodka cocktails are a mix.

Maybe they’re sweeter.

They have other things inside and they include whiskey bourbon gin vodka rum as well.

There are lots of different types of of alcohol OK a dessert actually what.

Wait a second.

Here’s my second s.

Here’s an interesting mistake that can teach us something.

One way to remember the correct spelling of the word dessert is that you always want more dessert because it’s sweet.

So you have two S’s because you always want more.

That’s how you spell dessert.

If there’s one s That’s dessert which is a very very dry place.

So this is an accident but I’m trying to use it as as a teaching point.

So desert is a dry place.

It’s very dry and a desert D E S S E R T V cake or pie or something sweet after you eat which is what I meant to write host and hostess as we talked about the person who greets you and then a waiter waitress the person who brings you your food the person who will get your tips directly in a western restaurant especially in America especially in America.

Tips are very important.

That’s extra money that the waiter or waitress and also the host or hostess will get at the end of a day and they get that from money that the customers in the restaurant give.

They choose how much.

We’ll talk about that later sides basically these things might include a small salad or another little thing that you order maybe it’s not an appetizer but like an appetizer that comes with your entree.

OK.

Catch of the day.

Sometimes you’ll see this catch.

It’s for fishing.

So this is going to be a fish.

Whatever fish they have.

This is going to be the catch of the day.

This is what they have today.

Dressing dressing is a kind of sauce.

There are many different types of dressing.

It goes on salad.

Put it on your salad.

So if you order a salad you might get a thousand island you might get Italian you might get vinaigrette vinaigrette is my favorite.

OK and then toppings might be for a salad.

These are things that you add to the top of the salad maybe extra like cheese like onions like other vegetables and also for example if you order a pizza you also maybe add toppings.

So the cheese is usually not considered a topping on a pizza because that’s an important part of pizza.

Green peppers and onions and black olives or sausage or whatever else you like to put on that.

That is called a topping toppings.

OK.

As we talked about a reservation or a booking but at a restaurant it’s usually called a reservation.

When you call before and you get a time and pasta is a very popular thing at Western restaurants especially in America.

They might often have some kind of pasta.

This is basically noodles but it’s Italian style noodles and there are many different forms of that.

And it’s not only noodles.

Actually many different forms it’s a special thing that’s basically only Italian and noodles are always long and thin.

Pasta is not always long and thin.

All right.

So those are some words I just want to make sure you know and I’m sure you know many of those.

But I just want to make sure you know those before we go on to our example.