Questions You Might Be Asked at a Restaurant (+ how to answer)

Hi, everybody.

Welcome to www.engvid.com.

I'm Adam.

Today's video is actually very, very important for those of you who are going to especially

live in English-speaking countries, but even if you're just going to travel a little bit

and you're going to go to tourist areas and you're going to go to restaurants, what I'm

going to tell you today are things that you need to know before you go to a restaurant

so you'll have a much more pleasant experience.

Now, more specifically, I'm going to look at certain questions that the wait staff,

the waiter, waitress, server, whatever you want to call them, may ask you, and you should

have a good idea of the questions that will come because if you're very slow to answer

or if you have to ask them what does that mean, what does that mean, some of these wait

staff will be a little bit impatient.

You have to remember, they're very busy people.

They're running around tables, kitchen, back and forth, getting food.

It's a very high-stress job.

You don't want to add to the stress.

You want to be polite and patient.

You want them to be polite and patient.

So it's a two-way street, so knowing some of the things that they will ask you and how

to answer those questions will be very useful and will make it a much more pleasant experience

for you.

Okay?

So let's look at some questions.

We're going to start with questions they might ask you about your food order, okay?

The most common question they will ask you is how would you like your, or how would you

like it, if you already mentioned something.

How would you like your steak?

Or how would you like your eggs done?

Or how would you like your steak done?

There are different ways to cook different things, and you should understand the way

that you want it cooked, right?

So let's...

I'm going to just give you a few examples.

So obviously, menu, there are different restaurants, different menus, all kinds of different things

you can order, but these are some of the basics.

If you order a steak or other types of meat, like red meat, they will ask you how would

you like it done?

How would you like your steak cooked, for example?

Or how would you like your steak?

You can have a steak rare, means cooked very little bit.

It's brown on the outside, very red on the inside, almost not cooked at all.

Some people like it that way.

Medium means it's brown on the outside, cooked a little bit through, and in the center, it's

pink, reddish pink.

You can say rare, you can say medium rare if you want, somewhere between here.

And then there's well done.

Well done means it's cooked all the way through, all the way through the steak.

No red, no pink, all brown, okay?

And you can, again, you can go in the middle, you can say medium well.

So a little bit more of the medium, a little bit less than well done.

Now keep in mind that in more fancy restaurants, if you order a steak well done, the chef might

not be happy with you, because steaks shouldn't be eaten well done, but that's a little tip.

You order what you like, but make sure you get the right order.

If you say to them well done, and they bring you a steak that's hard and a little bit dry,

and it's cooked all the way through, that's what you ordered.

If you wanted it a little bit pink, you have to say medium.

So it's very important to understand these words so you get the order you want.

Now, if you want eggs, and I've seen a lot of people have some trouble with eggs for

some reason.

You can have fried egg, means just open it onto a grill or onto a pan with a little bit

of oil, sizzle, sizzle, sizzle, and take it off.

Scrambled means they just mix it up, it's like a...

You can blend cheese and stuff and all that in it, and it's just like a pile of eggs.

Or you can have it poached, where it's cooked in water, in boiling water, or almost boiling

water.

And then when you open it, all the yellow, the yolk, actually that's a good word to know.

The yolk is the yellow part, and then you have the white part.

So when you...

A poached egg will look like a little white ball, and then when you cut it, all the yellow

spills out nice, and thick, and tasty.

Or you can have it hard boiled, and then you crack open the shell, take off the shell,

and eat it like that.

You can also have soft boiled.

Soft boiled means it's almost hard boiled, it's halfway, so you can take the top of the

shell off and spoon it out, or do whatever you like with it.

Now, if you ordered fried eggs, they will ask you, "How would you like your eggs?"

Or "How would you like your eggs done?"

So what their meaning is, do you want it just plain on the pan, which is sunny side up,

so the yellow part is up, or over easy.

Do you want them to flip it over?

Now, you can have over easy, over medium, over well.

Over easy means they flip it over and take it off the pan.

Over medium, they flip it over, wait 10-20 seconds, and take it off the pan.

Over well, they flip it over and let everything cook, including the yolk, and then take it

off the pan.

So, very important to know how you want your eggs done, right?

And again, the faster you understand the question and the faster you answer the question, the

better relationship you will have with your waiter or waitress.

Now, if you ordered bacon, they might ask you, "How would you like your bacon?"

Crispy, like crunchy when you chew it, or chewy, like a little bit more rubbery, like

you have to chew it a little bit more, right?

It doesn't break.

Crispy, if you go like this to the bacon, it will break.

Chewy, it will just bend, right?

I personally like chewy, it's much tastier.

Salad dressing, how would you like your salad dressing?

Do you want it mixed in?

Sometimes they might use the word "tossed in", like a salad is tossed, like when they

mix the salad, they say "tossing".

Do you want it tossed in, do you want it mixed in, or do you want it on the side, so you

can put as much as you want by yourself, so make sure you know what you want.

Now, "on the side" is a very useful expression for many things.

If you want...

Anything that comes with a sauce, if you want the sauce on the side, separately, you can

ask for it on the side, or anything else that comes with the dish.

Now, if you order something that comes with a potato, side dish...

Oh, so let's talk about "side dish".

So, for many meat dishes, they come with a potato as a side, so how do you...

How would you like your potato, french fried, basically means french fries; mashed, like

they mash it, it's like a little bit creamy; or baked, means it's whole, and they didn't...

They cut it open, you can put some butter and sour cream inside, and eat it like that,

with a spoon.

So, these are the different ways to have the basics.

Now, again, all kinds of restaurants, all kinds of dishes, each one will have their

specific questions, but for example, if you go to a Thai restaurant, all the dishes are

pretty much set.

You don't really have that many options.

If you go to an Italian restaurant, and you order a pasta, it's pretty much a set pasta,

right?

So, there's not too many options.

These items will always come with options.

Make sure you're prepared for this particular question, how you want this particular dish

done for you.

Okay?

We're going to look at some more questions that will help you out a lot in a restaurant.

Okay, so now you're going to have some options about your food.

Depends on the place, again, how many options you're going to get, but some of the basic

ones, they're going to ask you if your meal comes with bread.

Let's say you're going to a breakfast restaurant, and you're ordering eggs, and potatoes, and

bacon, etc., and it comes with toast, or with bread of your choice.

So, if you ordered, like, a bagel, or bread, whatever bread, they're going to ask you,

first of all, what type of bread, like plain bread, white bread, rye bread, etc.

And then they're going to ask you, do you want it toasted, buttered, or plain, right?

Do you want the bread toasted, or not toasted?

Do you want butter on the bread, or no butter, or do you want it just plain, just a piece

of bread, with nothing, not toasted?

Okay?

If you order anything with chicken, especially barbecue chicken, they're going to ask you

if you want white or dark meat.

So, white meat is the chicken breast, dark meat is the chicken thigh and leg, I guess

you could say, the drumstick and the thigh, so make sure you understand what kind of meat

you're getting.

White meat, the breast, is a bit drier, but healthier.

The dark meat is a little fattier, but tastier, so make sure you know which one you want.

Now, when it comes to drinks, there are also questions involved with drinks.

If you order a beer, they will ask you, do you want tap or bottled?

In some places, they'll ask you, do you want draft or bottled?

Tap and draft, same thing, means they're pouring it from the big keg, and it's a bit more fresh.

Bottled means in the bottle.

They will ask you the size you want, do you want a pint or half pint?

Or if you're in a group of people, they may offer you, suggest you to get a pitcher, which

is a bigger thing that you can share with all your friends.

Now, I'm not going to get too much into the beer vocab here, but if you want to learn

more about beer, I actually made a lesson about that, there's a video lesson right here

on www.engvid.com, there's a link actually in the box below, you can follow it and watch

my beer lesson, it's actually kind of interesting.

And then water.

They may...

Again, this is a little bit more fancier restaurants, but in a lot of places where they sell you

the water, they will ask you, do you want still or sparkling?

Still water means plain water, like spring water, maybe.

Sparkling means with bubbles, like soda.

So, speaking of pop and soda, it's actually important to know the difference, because

in the US, soda means like a sugary, bubbly drink, like Coke, Sprite, etc.

In Canada, pop is a sugary drink, Coke, Sprite, soda.

In Canada, a soda is basically, it's called club soda.

It's just water with bubbles, no taste, no sugar, nothing inside of it, right?

So, very important to know which one you're ordering.

Sparkling and soda in Canada mean the same thing, okay?

So, be careful about that, depending where you're going to be ordering.

So, basically, this is what you need to know about the food and drinks, but there are going

to be a few more questions that they may ask you that you might need to be prepared for.

Let's look at those.

Okay, so now we're going to look at a few more questions that might come up.

You also have to keep in mind that these are just some suggestions that I'm giving you.

They could ask you other questions, they could ask you all of these questions in different

ways, but as long as you are prepared for what might come, you might be ready for any

questions that do, in fact, come.

So, here are a few more.

Would you like your salad appetizer first?

So, generally...

Generally speaking, the salad or the appetizer does come first, but not always.

Sometimes they bring everything together.

If they ask you for an ordered meal, just say yes or no.

The other question might be, would you like me to bring everything out at once, or to

bring everything out all together?

So, do you want your appetizer, salad, and main dish at one time, or do you want, you

know, in steps?

So, they might ask you that.

They might ask you, when you're finished ordering, will that be all?

And are you finished ordering, or do you want to order something else?

Or very simple, anything else?

If no, they will go place the order.

When you're finished your meal, the waitress or waiter will come by and say, any dessert

today?

Or do you want any dessert?

Would you like to order dessert, etc.?

And then some waitstaff, some servers, technically they all should do this, but they don't all

do it, but some of them will do it, and they'll say, okay, I'll just read back your order.

So, they want to make sure that they got everything correctly, so they will repeat the order before

they go to the kitchen to give it to them.

Okay?

So, these are some questions you might know.

Now, as you get better and better with English, and as you get more and more comfortable speaking

to native speakers, you can just go ahead and tell them what you want instead of waiting

for them to ask.

So, you can say, I'll have the steak, medium, please, or I'll have the egg, sunny side up.

I'll have the butter, the bread, toasted and buttered, but I'll have the potatoes on the

side, please, or anything like that.

Whatever you want, you can order it right away.

The waiter or waitress has fewer questions for you, right?

So, the more you know, the better prepared you are, the better your experience all around

will be.

Okay?

Make sure you brush up on your restaurant and food vocabulary as well.

It will be very helpful to you.

So, if you have any questions about any of these questions or any of these topics, please

go to www.engvid.com and you can ask me in the comments section.

There's also a short quiz there that you can take to practice some of these new expressions

and vocabulary.

And that's it.

If you like the video, don't forget to give me a like.

Don't forget to subscribe to my channel, and come back next time for more useful tips on

ordering food in North American restaurants, or anywhere else, for that matter.

Okay?

See you then.

Bye-bye.

So, in the States, they say "pop", oh sorry, okay, "pop", "pop", "pop", "pop", "pop", "pop",