Learn top 10 restaurant phrases
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| Hey! What’s up everybody? I’m Henrik Stoewenau. Welcome to the new episode of GermanPod101.com. I’m here on my beautiful balcony, but I thought instead of just lying in the sun doing nothing, I prepared another lesson for you. So what’s up for today? I’m going to teach you the top 10 must-know vocabulary for the restaurant, in case you’re hungry, you want to get out or just like have a nice dinner with your girlfriend. |
| 1. Kellner “waiter” |
| Kellner, die Rechnung bitte! “Waiter, the bill please!” |
| Yeah, that’s when you’re asking for the bill. That’s the sad part about the waiter, he wants to be paid. Yeah, honestly here in Germany, many people even have to work as a waiter while studying or before really making the big money. You need some money so it’s very common to go to restaurants, bars. I work for a fastfood chain, the one with the big golden M. Yeah, I work there a little bit as a waiter. Some people love it, for me, it was not the most fun, but at least I was happy when the people ask for the bill, because I knew I was doing it for the money. |
| 2. Speisekarte “menu” |
| Next one is speisekarte “menu”. |
| Kann ich bitte die Speisekarte sehen? “Can I see the menu?” |
| Yeah, so that’s also very important if you go to a restaurant and it’s not just this fast-food chain where you already know what to order; milkshake, fries and some cheeseburgers. I don’t know, if you go to a real restaurant, then of course, you want to see the menu and check out what they have. Maybe there’s a special offer for the day, especially when you’re travelling when you come here to Germany where you can actually use those words, then of course, oh, you might want to try some real German classic food like Bratwurst, Currywurst, Schnitzel. Yeah, then ask for the “menu” speisekarte, and you’ll find out what’s the best choice right? |
| 3. Bestellung “order” |
| Next one, bestellung “order”. |
| Rufe an, um eine Bestellung aufzugeben. “Call to place an order.” |
| Yeah, this is also very common for example, all those pizza places where you just call so it’s like delivery restaurants basically so you don’t have to go there and look at the menu and eat in the restaurant. You can also easily order from home by phone and they deliver the food. It’s like yeah, if you want to have a nice evening in front of TV, pizza is the best example. Like mostly when I eat pizza, it’s ordered pizza which is better than having a big family pizza with your girlfriend, 20 glasses of beer, watching a cool movie on a Sunday evening. |
| 4. Wasser “water” |
| Bitte bring mir mal ein Glas Wasser. “Please bring me a glass of water.” |
| Here, you got to be careful. In a restaurant, if you order water, you always got to pay here in Germany. I know in many other countries, it’s included like you can get water for free everywhere, even sometimes Coke or Sprite. No, here in Germany, whatever drink you order, you will have to pay it so if you just want to order water because you think it’s free, yeah, they know, it will appear on the bill so just order what you really want to drink. |
| 5. Hauptgericht “main course” |
| Hauptgericht “main dish”. |
| Das Hauptgericht heute Abend ist gegrillter Fisch. “Tonight's main dish is grilled fish.” |
| Oh I do love fish, I do love grilled fish. I don’t know about you. We have little tie-up place here at my place so what I did with friends sometimes, I have one friend who goes fishing so he brought a few very fresh fish and then we put them on sticks and we grilled them. So a homemade grilled fish was our hauptgericht, our “main course”. |
| 6. Nachtisch “dessert” |
| Okay, the next one after the main menu follows the “dessert”, nachtisch. |
| Wir essen jeden Sonntag bei mir zuhause Kuchen zum Nachtisch. “We eat cake at my house every Sunday night for dessert.” |
| I’m not a big fan of desserts usually. I don’t like so much sugars and all the sweet. I’m more fan of salty stuff. But actually this phrase, “We eat cake at my house every Sunday night for dessert.”, kind of reminds me indeed of what I like being with my family, having coffee, having cake in the afternoon. Yeah, for those opportunities, I become somebody who really likes the sweet stuff. Not a big fan of ice cream or chocolate too much, but a piece of cake with a cup of coffee, yeah, I wouldn’t say no to that. |
| 7. Küchenchef “chef” |
| Next one, küchenchef “chef”. |
| Der Küchenchef bereitet das Essen zu. “The chef is preparing the dish.” |
| Yeah, küchenchef is like a big word in Germany. It’s correct, but also most people generally just say “the cook” der Koch. Yeah, küchenchef is correct especially if it’s in a big restaurant. They do really quality foods and he has a big team of cooks because it’s just too much to do on his own so probably he would feel like insulted just calling him a cook. Yeah, küchenchef could be literally translated also as “the boss of the kitchen”. That makes sense in an environment where he has many co-workers. But if it’s just a chef, just like a single person cooking then we would rather say koch which is a “cook”. |
| 8. Fast Food “fast food” |
| Yeah, also in Germany, we say fast food. |
| Burger und Pommes gelten als Fast Food. “Burgers and fries are considered fast food.” |
| Indeed, yeah, I mentioned this earlier. It’s just like when you go to McDonald’s or, I don’t know, Burger King, whatever, any fast food restaurant, you don’t really check the menu, only maybe sometimes if you’re not sure what you want to take, but generally, you will know you have burger, fries and probably a Coke or a milkshake. Yeah, everybody loves fast food, just don’t eat too much of it. Otherwise, you will get problems with your heart, your blood pressure, I don’t know, your body, everything. But yeah, every once in a while, it’s pretty delicious. |
| 9. Restaurant “restaurant” |
| Next one, restaurant “restaurant”. |
| Unser Lieblingsrestaurant ist heute Nacht voll. “Our favorite restaurant is full tonight.” |
| We used this word a few times already during this lesson today, restaurant. In German, it’s the same word with a different pronunciation, restaurant. It’s not a German word. I don’t think it’s a real English word, but commonly used in most Latin languages at least. Do you have a favorite restaurant? I do, here in my town, it’s the Australian one. It’s awesome because they have all these Australian burgers with like kangaroo meat or emu meat and they have koch there for happy hours twice a week. So sometimes they have like little light music going on. So yeah, that’s definitely my favorite restaurant and whenever I have guests over and I want to show them something cool, take them to my favorite restaurant, that’s the place where I go. |
| 10. Lecker “delicious” |
| Next one, lecker “delicious”. |
| Schokoladenkuchen ist ziemlich lecker. “Chocolate cake is pretty delicious.” |
| Oh yeah and also, whenever I eat food and it’s so delicious, I say, ‘Hmmm lecker!’. But for me, it wouldn’t be chocolate cake in the first place which I would place here. It’s more like, yeah, a piece of, well meat, no….I don’t know, but yeah, meat, like a chicken wing or salty stuff really like a burger. I know I said don’t eat too much fast food, but from time to time, it’s just really delicious, super lecker! So yeah, but if you prefer the sweets then schokoladenkuchen “chocolate cake” is what you should go for. |
| I don’t want to talk too much around it. I hope you enjoyed the lesson. If you had issue or wanted like add anything, you could say, “Hey! This was stupid or I prefer a chocolate cake to chicken wings.”, leave a comment, tell me about it. Subscribe to the channel at GermanPod101.com and I hope to see you next time. Bye-bye! |
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