At The Restaurant

At the start of your language learning journey, one of your first real-life opportunities to speak German may be at a restaurant.

Let’s make sure you’re ready for this experience by learning some key German restaurant phrases and important vocabulary, in addition to everything you’ve learned so far!

In this lesson, we’ll walk through a scenario where you and a friend are heading to a restaurant. As you enter, a waiter greets you.

The waiter asks:

Einen Tisch für wieviele?

Remember the numbers from the last lesson? You’ll use them here. Here are a few ways to respond:

At the very least, you can simply say Zwei (two).

Once you’ve been seated, you might want to ask for the menu. To do so, you can say:

Kann ich bitte die Speisekarte haben?

Well done! Now that you know how to get seated and ask for a menu, let’s move on to ordering food and drinks.

When the waiter is ready to take your order, they might say:

Möchten Sie bestellen?

The verb for "to order" is bestellen. When ordering, there are a few common phrases you can use:

Let’s explore what you can order at the restaurant:

das Bier

die Pommes

die Cola

das Hühnchen

Here are some full example sentences using these new words:

Ich hätte gerne eine Cola.

I'd like to have a cola.

Ich hätte gerne zwei Bier.

I'd like to have two beers.

Kann ich drei Pommes haben?

Can I have three (portions of) fries?

Ich möchte zweimal das Huhn bestellen.

I'd like to order two times the chicken.

You can simply state the number of items you want:

Or you can add the suffix -mal to the number:

You can also make it clear whether you’re ordering food or drinks by using these phrases:

Now your friend is ready to order.

Can you understand what they’re ordering?

Listen to the recording first:

Ich nehme das Schnitzel mit Kartoffeln und Salat. Zu Trinken hätte ich gerne ein Bier. Kann ich auch etwas Senf zu dem Schnitzel haben? Vielen Dank.

Bestellung Nr. 1

Bestellung Nr. 2

Bestellung Nr. 3

Which of the pictures above matches the order? Listen a few times if needed before guessing.

Good job! 🎉

You now know how to place an order at a restaurant!

After your meal, when you’re ready to pay, you can ask for the bill by saying:

Können wir zahlen, bitte?

Other alternatives:

When it’s time to pay, these helpful terms might come in handy:

... or these phrases:

Great! 🎉

You’ve now learned how to ask for the bill - the final step in this lesson!

Next, we’ll continue building your vocabulary by learning the German words for colors. When you’re ready, let’s move on!