CUE CARD: RESTAURANT

Đề: Describe a meal that you enjoyed at a restaurant.

You should say:

• where the restaurant was

• what food you ordered

• who was/were with you

and explain why you enjoyed it so much.

Model Answer:

After eating home-cooked food for a long period of time, when you get an opportunity to eat your favourite dish at one of your favourite restaurants with your friends and relatives, you know that you are in luck to have a great time. The same thing happened to me when some of my friends invited me to eat one of my all-time favourite dishes at one of my favourite restaurants during the weekend, I knew that I was going to enjoy it all!

It was a very famous and busy restaurant called “Dandylion”, located in the city of Toronto, which was not very far away from where I lived at that time. Since it was a really busy food place, we needed to reserve for our seats well in advance in order to avoid the unnecessary waiting period.

Anyway, finally the much-awaited weekend had arrived, and we were ready to enjoy our “weekend special” at "Dandylion" restaurant. We all ordered our Sirloin Steaks and mashed potatoes with some fresh salads on the side.  While our main dishes were being prepared, my friends and I were busy eating the desserts which were some of the best in the town. Of course, our Sirloin steaks arrived while we were still busy with our desserts. So, it wasn’t really necessary to wait any longer, and we were busy putting the slices of our steaks into our mouths in no time. In fact, we were eating them like they were going “out of style” soon.

Well, our meals were over, and we were pretty full in our stomach. But, we still felt like we wanted to eat them even more. We enjoyed the meal so much because the items were just cooked and prepared to perfection. In fact, I always enjoyed eating at that restaurant because of its “unique yet minimal decoration” with bare brick walls. Besides, it was a rare opportunity for our friends to get together on a weekend because we are just not able to make it any other time because of our busy life schedule. On top of that, the waiting staff were really friendly to us. In fact, they treated us like their family members, which was quite refreshing. Finally, I really enjoyed the food because it allowed me an opportunity to “change my taste” as I was getting really tired of eating the same kind of “home-cooked” foods for a long time!

TỪ VỰNG CHỦ ĐỀ “RESTAURANT”

• Eat out/dine out: ăn ngoài, ăn ở nhà hàng (to go to a restaurant to eat your evening meal)

• Dine in: ăn ở nhà

• Home-cooked food: thức ăn nhà làm

• Make a booking (=reserve): đặt chỗ

• Ready meal /ˈred.i ˌmɪəl/ (n): bữa ăn với thức ăn chế biến sẵn (a meal cooked and bought at a shop but taken somewhere else, often home, to be heated and eaten)

• Appetizer /ˈæp.ə.taɪ.zɚ/ (n): món khai vị (a small amount of food eaten before a meal)

• Savoury /ˈseɪ.vɚ.i/ (adj): vị cay hoặc mặn nhiều hơn là vị ngọt (salty or spicy rather than sweet)

• Within walking distance (of): gần (not very far)

• To foot the bill: thanh toán hóa đơn (to pay for something, esp. something expensive)

• Condiment /ˈkɑːn.də.mənt/ (n): gia vị (a substance, such as salt, that you add to food to improve its taste)

• Poultry (= white meat) /ˈpoʊl.tri/ (n): thịt gia cầm (the meat from birds such as chickens)