At The RestaurantGerman Phrases For Eating Out
Would you like a starter? How many bottles of wine? Learn how to order food & drink at a German restaurant.
01.12.2023
Would you like a starter? How many bottles of wine? Learn how to order food & drink at a German restaurant.
At the beginning of your language learning journey, one of the first opportunities to speak German 'in the wild' may well be at a restaurant.
Let's make sure that you are prepared for this experience, equipped with some helpful German restaurant phrases and important vocabulary, on top of all that we have learned so far!
In this lesson, let's walk through an imaginary scenario. In it, you are heading to a restaurant with a friend. As you enter, a waiter comes to greet you.
At the door, the waiter asks:
Remember the numbers you learned in the previous lesson? They'll come in handy, here.
Here are some suitable replies, for you to answer with:
Zu zweit is an expression that roughly means 'two together', as in 'we are a pair of people'.
At the very least, you may also reply with a simple "Zwei".
Once you have sat down at your table, you would like to ask for the menu.
To do so, you may ask:
If you ever need to get a waiter's attention, you may politely do so by saying: Entschuldigung? or Entschuldigen Sie? This means "Excuse me".
Well done! 🎉
You've now learned a few helpful phrases to get you comfortably sitting down at a table, with a menu in your hands. Now, let's learn how to order some food & drink.
Ready to take your order, your waiter says to you:
The verb for 'to order' is bestellen.
Now, when ordering food & drink, there are a few helpful phrases that are commonly used:
Let's see what we can order at the restaurant today:
Here are some full sentences, using these phrases, with examples:
Notice that you may either simply state the number of the item you would like to order:
or you may also add the suffix -mal to the number:
Alternatively, you may also distinguish between what you would like to eat and drink, by using these phrases:
Ready with his order, your friend tells the waiter what he would like to have.
Let's see if you can understand his order, in the exercise below.
Listen to the recording first:
Which picture below reflects the order correctly? Listen to the recording a few times if necessary, before taking a guess.
Good job! 🎉
You have learned how to order at a restaurant.
After your meal, you are ready to pay. To do so, you may ask the waiter:
Other alternatives:
When paying, it may also come in handy to learn these helpful terms:
... or these phrases:
Great! 🎉
Now you know how to ask for the bill: the final important step in this lesson!
Next up, we will further develop our vocabulary, by learning the German colors. Whenever you're ready, let's go.
