Shadowing Practice: How to Take Customer Orders Like a Pro | Restaurant Staff Training - Learn English Speaking with Video

Taking Guests Orders In this lesson, we'll be looking at how to take guests' orders.

This is quite an important step.

If you get the guest's order wrong, you'll ruin their dining experience.

We'll be looking at timing when taking orders, taking orders step by step, and tips for taking orders.

Let's start with timing when taking orders.

If your establishment adheres to LQA standards, the food order should be taken within 10 minutes of the guest being seated.

Make sure you know the standard at your establishment.

But also be aware of other signs that the guest is ready to order.

For example, if you can see they are in a rush, they have closed their menus, or they are trying to catch your eye.

Children can become unhappy and irritated when they are hungry.

So, it's great service to ask the adult guests whether they would like you to take the children's orders earlier

so that they can eat first.

Remember that happy children are happy parents.

Similarly, elderly guests may also want to order slightly earlier in the evening than some of your other guests.

Sometimes elderly guests don't stay up quite as late as younger guests and so may want to eat sooner.

Now let's look at taking orders step by step.

Let's take a step by step look at how to take the guest's order.

Step 1.

Fetch your prepared docket book and a working pencil or pen.

Step 2.

Approach the table and stand somewhere where you're out of the way of other servers.

Don't stand too close or too far from the table.

Remember that body language should be positive, bending forward slightly, to show guests that you are attentive and talking specifically to them.

step three walk around to each guest and take their order individually

so that you can make your service personalized

and hear each guest properly remember to write down the guests

order at their position numbers on the docket remember to ask about cooking temperatures

and preferences for example

if the guest orders a steak ask how they would like it done also recommend side dishes such as vegetables

or sauce, where appropriate.

Finally, let's look at tips for taking guests' orders.

Let's start with shorthand.

Work with your colleagues and the kitchen to find shorthand for the dishes on the menu.

For example, F .C for fish curry or B .S for broccoli soup.

The docket must always be neat and easy to read.

Shorthand will help you keep it neat.

Let's finish with off -menu requests.

If a guest would like to order something that is not on the menu, try to accommodate them as best as possible.

Find out from the kitchen what is possible.

If the kitchen can't accommodate the guest, suggest alternatives or a similar item.

So to recap, In this lesson, we looked at timing when taking orders, taking orders step by step and tips for taking orders.

Good luck following these tips and steps when taking guest orders.

Let's take a look at how to stagger the orders at your establishment.

We'll be looking at understanding staggering, speeding up service and slowing down service.

Let's start with understanding staggering.

Sometimes, servers can get very busy, with lots of guests arriving at the same time.

You might also have a fast -paced server style, or have guests who are in a hurry.

You can then help the kitchen by staggering your table's orders.

In other words, timing the order process to help the kitchen.

You learnt in the lesson on the orientation that you usually deliver the menu to the guest after you have seated them.

From there, there is a standard flow that you have seen.

Do your orientation and inform the guest you'll be back in a few minutes to make a recommendation and take drinks orders.

Return and make a recommendation tailored to your guests.

Give the guests a few minutes to consider the recommendations.

and return and take their order.

There are a number of ways in which you can combine these steps to speed up or slow down service.

Let's look at speeding up service.

If you have guests who need to be somewhere at a certain time, or your style of service is fast -paced, there are a number of ways in which you can speed up service.

You can shorten the time between delivering the menu and delivering your recommendations.

Make your recommendation when delivering the menu.

Or you can combine the recommendations and ordering process.

You might recommend the Lionfish and a guest will immediately say, I'll have that.

This is why you always have your docket book with you.

This might be the case for guests who have a meeting after lunch, or have a show to get to after dinner.

Now, let's look at slowing down service.

Just as you can combine the steps in the ordering process to speed up service, you can also draw the process out by leaving more time between the steps,

seating the guest, then delivering the menu a few minutes later, and then going back after that to recommend dishes,

giving them a while to think about it before taking orders.

Some examples of tables where you could apply this approach is with couples on a romantic dinner, or guests on holiday.

So in this lesson, we looked at the following points

Understanding staggering Speeding up service And slowing down service Good luck adjusting your service for your establishment and

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Vocabulary and speaking notes for this lesson

This video has 71 sentences and 921 words to shadow. The speech runs for 6:44. The speaker talks at a steady 137 words per minute, a comfortable pace for shadowing. 83% of the words are among the 3,000 most common in English; the rest is worth studying before you start.

Key vocabulary in this video

15 words from the video worth learning, with pronunciation and meaning:

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
menu noun	/ˈmɛn.juː/	The details of the food to be served at a banquet; a bill of fare.
recommendation noun	/ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/	An act of recommending.
lesson noun	/ˈlɛs.ən/	A section of learning or teaching into which a wider learning content is divided.
establishment noun	/ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ.mənt/	The act or process of establishing; a ratifying or ordaining; settlement; confirmation.
server noun	/ˈsɝvɚ/	A program that provides services to other programs or devices, either in the same computer or over a computer network.
dish noun	/dɪʃ/	A vessel such as a plate for holding or serving food, often flat with a depressed region in the middle.
combine verb	/kəmˈbaɪn/	To bring (two or more things or activities) together; to unite.
pace noun	/peɪs/	A step taken with the foot.
elderly adjective	/ˈɛldɚli/	old; having lived for relatively many years.
orientation noun	/ˌɔː.ɹi.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/	The determination of the relative position of something or someone.
accommodate verb	/əˈkɑməˌdeɪt/	To render fit, suitable, or correspondent; to adapt.
rush verb	/ɹʌʃ/	To hurry; to perform a task with great haste, often not properly or without thinking carefully.
hungry adjective	/ˈhʌŋ.ɡɹi/	Affected by hunger; having the physical need for food.
romantic adjective	/ɹoʊˈmæn(t)ɪk/	Fantastic, unrealistic (of an idea etc.); fanciful, sentimental, impractical (of a person).
arrive verb	/əˈɹaɪv/	To reach; to get to a certain place.

Phrasal verbs you will hear

Word	Pronunciation	Meaning
speed up verb	/spiːdˈʌp/	To accelerate; to increase speed.
slow down verb		To decelerate.
go back verb		To return to a place or state after having been there at a previous time.
stay up verb		To remain awake; to not go to bed.
write down verb		To produce or set (something) down in writing; to record something.

Grammar in this video

The structures the speaker uses most, with the exact words from the video:

Structure	In the video
Conditional sentences if + clause, will/would + verb — a condition and its result	If a guest would like
Present perfect have/has + past participle — a past action that still matters now	have closed · have seated · have seen

Pronunciation to watch

The speaker uses 10 contractions and reduced forms, such as we'll, don't, you'll. Say them the short way, as you hear them.

The “sh” and “zh” sounds: recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, establishment /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ.mənt/, dish /dɪʃ/, orientation /ˌɔː.ɹi.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/, rush /ɹʌʃ/
Long words — get the stress right: recommendation /ˌɹɛkəmɛnˈdeɪʃən/, establishment /ɪˈstæb.lɪʃ.mənt/, orientation /ˌɔː.ɹi.ənˈteɪ.ʃən/, accommodate /əˈkɑməˌdeɪt/, similarly /ˈsɪm.ə.lə.li/

How to practise with this video

Listen to the whole video once without speaking and note the words you do not know.
Shadow it sentence by sentence at normal speed, repeating each one until your rhythm matches the speaker.
Record yourself and compare with the original, paying attention to words like menu, recommendation, lesson.

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 technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

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