Hello, English learners.
Welcome back to another great podcast here at EnglishPod.
My name is Marco.
And I'm Erica.
And today we're going to be talking about one of our favorite topics as always.
Food.
Food.
We're going to be at a restaurant.
And you know, one of the most difficult or embarrassing things to deal with at a restaurant is what to say when you don't like the food or when it's bad quality food.
Right, so maybe we have to complain about the food or maybe even the service, right?
That's right.
And in this lesson we're going to be learning some really wonderful words and phrases that you can use when you need to complain about the food or the service in a restaurant.
Okay, so before we listen to what happens in this restaurant with this food, let's take a look very quickly at vocabulary preview.
Vocabulary preview.
Okay, we're only going to do one word today.
And this you'll hear in the dialogue.
An establishment.
Establishment.
This kind of establishment.
Okay, so when I say an establishment, that's a noun, what is an establishment?
It's basically a fancy word for a business or a restaurant in this case.
In this case, it's a restaurant.
But in general, you can say it's a business.
So you have a very fine establishment.
That's right.
So an establishment, a type of business, a place of business, really.
Very good.
All right, so now it's time for us to listen to our dialogue.
We're going to find out what's going on here.
Apparently, there is a very angry customer, and we're going to find out why.
Excuse me, waiter.
Yes, sir.
What can I do for you?
I've been sitting here for the past 20 minutes and no one has offered me a glass of water, brought any bread to the table, and our appetizers haven't been served yet.
You know, in this kind of establishment, I'd expect much better service.
I'm sorry, sir.
I'll check on your order right away.
Relax, honey.
The place is busy tonight, and I've heard the food is amazing.
Anyway... Here you are, sir.
The foie gras for the lady and a mushroom soup for you.
Waiter!
I ordered a cream of mushroom soup with asparagus.
This soup is obviously too runny, and it's over-seasoned.
It's completely inedible.
Okay, I do apologize for that.
Can I bring you another soup, or would you like to order something else?
Take this foie gras back as well.
It's rubbery and completely overcooked.
And look at the portion size!
How can you charge $25 for a sliver of duck liver?
Right away, sir.
Honey, come on.
The foie gras was fine.
Why are you making such a big deal?
Are you trying to get our meal comped again?
What do you mean?
We are paying for this, and I'm shelling out my hard-earned bucks.
I expect value from money.
Here you are, sir.
I hope it is all right now.
The chef has prepared it especially for you.
Yes, fine.
Honey, are you alright?
Well, I guess that's one lesson.
Hey, if you're in a restaurant, don't be too rude to the waiter.
You never know what's going to happen.
The waiter and the cook, right?
Yeah, you don't want to offend that kitchen staff.
All right.
So we'll talk about that a little bit later on.
But now I think we had some really interesting vocabulary of how to describe food that is not well prepared.
And we can take a look at that now in Language Takeaway.
Language Takeaway.
All right.
So the guy in this dialogue he ordered a mushroom soup and he complained that the mushroom soup was too runny.
Okay, the soup is too runny.
Runny.
So he wanted a cream of mushrooms, so it should be a little bit thicker.
Yep.
But in this case, it was runny.
So when something is runny, it's too liquid.
Too liquid.
And I think we can relate it to a runny nose, right?
Exactly.
Okay, so when liquid is coming out of your nose, a runny nose.
In this case, the soup is runny.
All right.
And another thing that he was complaining about, the food was over-seasoned.
Overseasoned.
The food is overseasoned.
Okay, so if the food is overseasoned.
It's too salty.
So it's another way of saying it's too salty.
Yeah, it's kind of a fancy cooking term.
Now, can I say if there's too much pepper in the food, can I say it's overseasoned?
Well, technically, no.
When a cook says something is over-seasoned, he's talking salt only.
Only salt, okay.
So the cream of mushroom is very runny, it's over-seasoned, and he said it's completely inedible.
Inedible.
It's inedible.
Inedible.
Now this word edible.
You can eat it.
You can eat it.
So we add this prefix inedible.
You cannot eat it.
This is not possible.
Yeah.
And it doesn't mean that physically you can't eat it.
It just means it's pretty disgusting.
Okay.
This food is inedible.
And then he started to complain about the other dish.
And he said that it's rubbery.
Rubbery.
The foie gras was rubbery.
All right, so I think we noticed the word rubber.
So obviously, if a food is rubbery, it's too chewy.
It's like chewing on the bottom of your shoe, right?
Okay, so it's too hard to chew or to swallow.
Exactly.
All right.
Apparently, the food was rubbery because it's completely overcooked.
Overcooked.
All right, we have overcooked.
Overcooked.
So when something is overcooked, I mean, it's easy to understand that it's cooked too much.
But it doesn't mean that it's burnt, right?
No, so maybe you've ordered your steak to be rare, but it comes to you well done.
So it's not burnt, but it's cooked too much.
So also I guess we can say like chicken.
Sometimes if you overcook chicken, it comes out too dry.
Yep.
All right, so to overcook something.
Mm-hmm.
And finally, he was complaining about the size of the dish and he said this is a sliver of duck liver.
Okay, a sliver.
A sliver.
All right.
Now, this word sliver is like a slice, right?
A very small, tiny little slice.
Okay, so we can say, okay, I just want a sliver of bacon for breakfast.
Alright, why don't we hear a few more examples of how we can use sliver.
Example 1 No, John's on a diet.
He'll just have a sliver of cake and no ice cream.
Example 2
I'm really full, but it looks so delicious.
Can you just cut me a sliver?
Example 3 You call this sliver of beef on my plate a meal?
There's almost nothing here.
And those are all the words we had for language takeaway.
So we've given you different adjectives of describing food that is not well prepared.
So now let's move on to some other phrases that the customer used to complain in Fluency Builder.
Fluency Builder.
Okay.
So before we get to the customer complaining language, I want to look at a phrase that the waiter used to apologize.
He said, I do apologize.
I do apologize.
I do apologize.
Now, why is this phrase so interesting?
Well, I mean, it's pretty easy to understand the meaning, but I want to look at why he added this verb do.
Well, he added the verb do to this phrase to make it seem a little bit stronger, to give a little more power to his apology.
Right, so if you have an affirmative phrase like, I apologize, it's good.
But if you want to give it a little bit more emphasis, you can say, I do apologize.
Why don't we give an example?
So I might say this, Marco, I didn't know we had a party tonight.
And I might say, what?
I did tell you about it last week.
Right, so you're just giving a little bit more power to the statement that you told me.
So this do, did, does becomes an auxiliary to make it more powerful, to give it more emphasis.
Yeah, exactly.
So a neat little phrase, something you can use if you want to make your apologies sound, maybe a little bit stronger.
Alright, now moving on to the next phrase.
He was complaining about the food and it was terrible and he said I'm shelling out my hard-earned bucks.
Okay, let's break this one down into two sections.
We'll start with shelling out.
Alright, so to shell out.
So when you shell out, you pay for something.
All right, but this gives you the sensation that you don't really want to pay.
You're a bit unhappy about it.
Right, so you want to shell out your money.
Why don't we listen to some examples to show us how we can use this phrase to shell out.
Example 1.
Great.
It's my girlfriend's birthday this month, so I'm going to have to shell out for a present.
Example 2.
I really want those shoes, but I can't really afford to shell out $400.
Example 3.
I can't believe it.
Ella shelled out the 800 bucks for the tickets.
I thought I would have to pay.
Alright, so now that we understand shell out, let's move on to the second part of that sentence.
My hard-earned bucks.
Hard-earned bucks.
My hard-earned bucks.
Okay, so bucks are dollars, right?
Dollars.
Only dollars, right?
Yeah, not pounds, not euros.
But his hard-earned bucks is money he had to work really hard for.
Mm-hmm.
So I can also say my hard-earned money.
Mm-hmm.
Right?
Or my hard-earned cash.
Exactly.
Very good.
So you worked hard to get it.
All right.
So three great phrases that can be used when you're complaining in a restaurant.
And why don't we hear them one last time in context by listening to the dialogue.
Excuse me, waiter.
Yes, sir.
What can I do for you?
I've been sitting here for the past 20 minutes and no one has offered me a glass of water, brought any bread to the table, and our appetizers haven't been served yet.
You know, in this kind of establishment, I'd expect much better service.
I'm sorry, sir.
I'll check on your order right away.
Relax, honey.
The place is busy tonight, and I've heard the food is amazing.
Anyway... Here you are, sir.
The foie gras for the lady and a mushroom soup for you.
Waiter!
I ordered a cream of mushroom soup with asparagus.
This soup is obviously too runny, and it's over-seasoned.
It's completely inedible.
Okay, I do apologize for that.
Can I bring you another soup, or would you like to order something else?
Take this foie gras back as well.
It's rubbery and completely overcooked.
And look at the portion size.
How can you charge $25 for a sliver of duck liver?
Right away, sir.
Honey, come on.
The foie gras was fine.
Why are you making such a big deal?
Are you trying to get our meal comped again?
What do you mean?
We are paying for this, and I'm shelling out my hard-earned bucks.
I expect value from money.
Here you are, sir.
I hope it is all right now.
The chef has prepared it especially for you.
Yes, fine.
Honey, are you alright?
So complaining at a restaurant and actually sending food back is not uncommon in the U.S.
Yeah, of course.
If the food's bad, of course you're going to send it back.
But maybe in other cultures I think people would be a little bit more reluctant to do something like this.
Yeah.
But hey, you know what's an interesting thing about the way Americans eat in restaurants is sometimes at the end of the meal, if they haven't finished everything, they might ask for a doggy bag.
A doggy bag, yeah.
So what is that, a doggy bag?
Well usually, if you order a big meal or you know half your steak is left over on your plate, you would ask for a doggy bag and they would bring you a little box or a bag and you would take it to supposedly give it to your dog.
Right.
So it's sort of like you tell the waiter oh you know, the steak was so good I couldn't finish it.
Can I take some home to my dog?
Right, so you would just ask the waiter, can I have a doggy bag?
Right, but it's sort of like code for I'm going to eat this tomorrow for lunch.
Exactly, because people wouldn't really give it to their dogs.
Yeah.
You know that steak wrapped up in a fancy sort of foil savan is going to be pretty delicious the next day.
Right.
Yeah, it's actually very common in the US, but in other countries people will leave entire plates of food on the table.
Like, it would be totally impolite to ask the waiter to pack up the food for you.
Exactly.
So a little bit of cultural differences, but we want to know what you think and how things are done maybe in your country, with complaining or sending food back or even this whole doggy bag situation.
That's right.
Why don't you visit our website, englishpod.com and tell us about it.
All right.
We'll be there to answer any questions or comments, but we got to go now.
So until then.
Goodbye.
Bye.
Thank you.
