Shadowing Practice: How to Order in a Restaurant In English (Come to 4 Restaurants With Me!) - Learn English Speaking with Video

Do you want to get something to eat?

We went to four different restaurants, and we recorded the audio. Yes, what you are about to hear is the real audio from real restaurants. So, we're going to take a look, and then I will be here to help you build your confidence so that you can walk into a restaurant and order in English. Let's get started!

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Let's look at restaurant number one. Restaurant number one is a typical British pub. Bez and I went in there to order a Sunday roast dinner, which is a very common dish in Britain on a Sunday. It has meat, potatoes, vegetables, Yorkshire puddings, and gravy. Oh, it's delicious! So, let's see what happened at restaurant number one.

So, the first thing we hear is, "What can I get you guys to drink?" This is a super common question. You will hear this if you go to a restaurant. Probably, "What can I get you guys to drink?" That just means, "Give me your drinks order." And I ask for some tap water for the table as well. Some water for the table—this is something I often ask for. I have my main drink, usually a Diet Coke or a Diet Pepsi, and then some water for the table, please. So, that means give me a jug of water and some glasses for the people at the table.

Now, with the water, I specifically ask for tap water. Tap water is free, so often, if I want water, I will ask for tap water. If you don't want tap water, you can ask for bottled water.

Now, if you watched my video on how to order a coffee, you will remember that a very common phrase I used was "Could I get" and "Can I get." So, if you're in a restaurant and you want to order, a very useful phrase to have is "Could I get." It's slightly more polite than "Can I get," but "Can I get" isn't rude. They're not going to look at you like, "Geez," if you say "Can I get." But "Could I get" is slightly more polite.

"For starter, could I get the wild mushrooms on toast?" Bez then asks a question about his drink. He says, "Is that Jester any good, do you reckon?" So, he's talking about one of the beers. They've got a selection of beers on the bar, and he's seen one and says, "Is that any good, do you reckon?" "Is that Jester any good, do you reckon?" So, if you've seen a drink and you want to ask the server, you can say, "Is that any good?" or "Would you recommend it?" "Would you recommend the Jester?" It's slightly more formal to say "Would you recommend." So, if you're in a bit more of a posh restaurant, you can say, "Would you recommend the steak?" But if you're in a pub, you can be a bit more informal and say, "Is that any good?" The waiter then asks, "A pint of?" What he's saying is, "Do you want a pint of that drink you just ordered?" But he shortens that to "pint of." So, if you order a drink that can be served in multiple sizes, if you don't specify a size, they might ask you.

Then we hear a very common question: "Are you ready to order?" "Are you ready to order?" Learn this one if you are going to an English-speaking restaurant. They will probably say this: "Are you ready to order?" Now, when you've got a menu, it's quite common to say "the" in front of the dish you are ordering.

So, "Could I get the steak, please?" "Could I get the chicken supreme, please?" When you're ordering your food dish from a menu, "Could I get the..."—very natural, just how natives say it.

She then says, "What can I get for you?" Another super common question, "What can I get for you?" You definitely need to know this one because you will be asked this. That just means, "What do you want?" Now, if in the audio, I start to ask a question, but then I answer my own question. So, I say, "And then the roast beef for the main. Um, does that come with...? Oh yeah, Yorkshire pudding." "Roast potatoes, yeah." "Roast beef." The roast beef—does that come with roast potatoes? So, if you want to know what is included on the plate, you can say, "Does that come with...?" If you're asking and it doesn't come with what you want, but you want it, you could say something like this: "The chicken—does that come with fries?" "No, sorry, it doesn't come with fries." "Could I add some fries to that?" "Thank you." So, you could ask to add something to your dish if it doesn't come with it.

The waitress then relays the order. She says, "So, that's the mushroom toast and the pita to start, and then a roast beef and a roast pork." If all is correct, you can say something like, "Yes, that's great, thank you," or "Yes, that's perfect, thank you." Let's move on to restaurant number two. Now, I love going out and eating at restaurants, but I want to be able to make that kind of quality stuff in my own home, you know? And today's sponsor, Skillshare, makes it so easy.

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Restaurant number two was a very posh brunch restaurant in London. So that gives you a bit of context as to the type of restaurant it is. It was quite posh, in London, quite busy, and this is what it sounded like...

Now, the first question we get here is "Would you like some coffee?" or "You like coffee?" That's a bit more of a specific question, and I think that's because it was early morning and we were definitely there for breakfast. So, he asked, "Would you like some coffee?" And we did, so we say, "Yes, please, could I get a blah blah blah?" and then we order.

But if they ask you a specific question and you don't want that, you could say something like this: "Would you like some coffee?" "Um, I think we're okay for coffee, but could we get some tap water for the table?" So, "I think we're okay for that" means we don't want it. For example, "I'm okay for more wine, but could I get a Pepsi Max or something?" So, let's say you've already had enough, or you just don't want any. You could say, "We're okay for that." So, "Would you like some coffee?" "I think we're okay for coffee, but could we get some orange juice, please?" Then we hear again, "Are you ready to order?" I told you, you would hear that one a lot! So, they say, "Are you ready to order?" and we say, "Yes, please, can we get blah blah blah blah blah?" and we go into our order.

Now, on the menu at this place, it said "scrambled eggs on sourdough," and then it had a little note that said "+2 for mushrooms." So, the mushrooms didn’t come with the dish—they were extra. If you wanted to have the mushrooms, you had to ask for them and pay £2 more. So, I said that: "Can I get the scrambled eggs on the sourdough with the mushrooms added?" You have to specify that. So, you can say, "With this, can I get the scrambled eggs on sourdough and with the mushrooms?" Then they ask if we want anything else. That’s another thing to learn: "Do you want anything else?" The food was nice at that place, but we were in London, so when we saw the price and the bill, we were shocked. It's expensive in London!

Let’s move on to restaurant number three. Now, restaurant number three was a little bit different because we paid and ordered at the bar. So, it wasn’t table service; it was ordering at the bar. A lot of restaurants in the UK are like this, specifically pubs. So, if you go into a restaurant in the UK, or anywhere, and you're not sure where to order, you can just ask. You can ask anyone who works there and say, "Excuse me, do we order at the table or at the bar?" So, "Do we order at our table or at the bar?" Here, I had to order at the bar.

So, the first thing I do is I ask, "Do we order here?" I just clarify, and then I tell them where we're sitting. The very first thing I say is, "We are sat at that table," or "We are sitting at that table," and I show her. I describe it a little bit: "That little one down there." At this place, we both wanted the same thing—chili con carne. So I said, "Could we get two of the chili con carnes with garlic bread and rice, please?" I'm pluralizing it and making it two.

For example, "Could we get two of the beef roast dinners, please?" That’s how I ordered.

I'm never sure in restaurants whether they serve Pepsi or Coke, because some restaurants only serve Pepsi, and some only serve Coke. So, I normally say, "Could I get a Diet Pepsi or a Diet Coke?" because I don’t really mind, so I order both options.

She then asks, "Pints or halves?" That’s similar to the question we had in restaurant one, where he said, "Pint of...". She just made it a little bit different by saying "Pints or halves?" So, do you want a full pint of your Diet Coke, or just a half pint? I wanted a pint, but you can have whatever you want, obviously.

One thing to be aware of in UK pubs is that they might say, "Ice and a slice." That’s quite a common phrase. "Ice and a slice" means, do you want ice and a little slice of fruit like lemon or lime? So, you could say, "Yes, please," or "Yes to the ice, no to the slice," or "No fruit, please." Sometimes people say, "No fruit, please." Then I wait while she makes my drink. If you go to a UK pub and order at the bar, you can take your drink straight away. You order, they make your drinks, and then you sit down.

I wasn’t sure when to pay, so I asked, "Do I pay now, or...?" I didn’t even need to finish the question because she knows the ending. But the full question would be, "Do I pay now or at the end?" Okay, let’s go to our last restaurant. This is restaurant number four.

So, the first thing we hear is the waiter coming over and saying, "Shall I get your drinks?" You might hear someone say this, or you might hear, "Can I get you some drinks to start?" Then we order our drinks. We know the drill by now—we’re getting used to this.

When ordering the drinks, you'll notice that he says, "Do you want lemon?" That’s like what I was saying about the fruit, but he’s making it specific: "Do you want lemon in the Coke?" He doesn’t mean lemon juice; he means a slice of lemon. So, "Do you want lemon?" At this restaurant, we were ordering starters, so I made it clear that I was ordering a starter.

I said, "Could we get to start the mixed starter?" So if you want to order a starter, you can say, "Could I get the mushrooms to start, please?" or "Could I get to start the mushrooms, please?" Then you could say something like, "And then for main, could I get the pepperoni pizza?" "Could we get to start the, um, is it the mixed starter?" "Yeah, the mixed starter." Then we ate our starter, and it was absolutely delicious. The waiter comes over and says, "Your fish." I wanted to ask him a question because, genuinely, I wanted to bring some of my friends to this restaurant, and I’ve got some vegan friends. So I said, "Do you have any vegan options?" You could also say, "Do you have vegan food on this menu?" Or, if you want to book a table, you could say, "Hello, I’d like to book a table at your restaurant. Do you cater for vegans or vegetarians?" Something like that.

The other thing that might be useful for you if you have allergies is the allergen menu. Restaurants have to have an allergen menu, which tells you what allergens are in what dish. So if you’re allergic to peanuts, you can ask for the allergen menu, and that will tell you which dishes have peanuts and which don’t. If you have allergies, you can walk into the restaurant and say, "Hello, could I see the allergen menu, please?" Actually, a lot of restaurants now ask as soon as you walk in, "Do you have any allergies or dietary requirements we should be aware of?" That’s when you can tell them if you have a serious allergy.

And there you have it! I hope that was useful for you. Please tell me in the comments where else you would like me to secretly record. Are there any everyday things you struggle with or any everyday English you’d like to hear? Let me know in the comments down below.

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Thank you so much for watching, and I will see you next time. Tata!

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing Practice: How to Order in a Restaurant In English (Come to 4 Restaurants With Me!) - Learn English Speaking with Video

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What is the Shadowing Technique?