Conversation in a restaurant
(Customer to customer)
- Answer to the exercise

    A:     Right, let's see. What are you going to have?
    B:     Hmm... the hamburger steak sounds nice. What do you reckon?
    A:     (In a low voice) Well, to tell you the truth, I had a hamburger steak here once before. It wasn't very nice... too greasy.
    B:      Oh, I see. Well, can you recommend anything else?
    A:      The grilled salmon's very nice. That's what I'm going to have.
    B:      OK. I'll try that, too.
    A:      And shall we order some wine?
    B:      Erm... I'd better not drink any wine. I'm driving.
    A:      Oh, that's right. I'd forgotten. Erm... Do you mind if I have a glass of wine?
    B:      No, not at all. Go ahead. I'll just have an orange juice or something.
    A:      And are you going to have some dessert?
    B:      I'll see how I feel after the main course.
    A:      OK. Shall we order, then?
    B:      Yeah.
    A:      (To the waiter) Excuse me...

    COMMENTS:
    • What are you going to have? This is a fairly standard phrase used when asking people what they want to eat in a restaurant. What are you going to have? is more common among native speakers than What are you going to eat? A could also ask, What are you going to order?
    • The hamburger steak sounds nice. If we are reading a menu, we would probably say sounds nice, but if we can see the actual food or (as in many Japanese restaurants) a plastic model of the food, we might say looks nice.
    • Well, to tell you the truth. This is a useful phrase to use when we want to show that we are giving our honest opinion of something. Well has many functions in English, but one (as in this case) is to introduce a long complicated statement. 
    • Well, can you recommend anything else? Well is used again. Here it means something like "if that's the case."
    • No, not at all. Go ahead. Compare this difference: (a) Do you mind if I have a glass of wine? No, not at all. Go ahead. (b) Is it OK if I have a glass of wine? Sure. Go ahead.
    We hope you've enjoyed this lesson and that you will have chances to use this type of language in the future. There are more than 100 one-point lessons on this site. Please click below if you want to see some others:
    Bob's One-Point Lesson Archive

    © Robert E. Jones, 2005