Everyday Dialogues
Ordering
Fast Food
In this lesson, you will learn some useful expressions
for ordering food in a fast-food restaurant. You may
need to order fast food in a food court, in a restaurant,
at a food cart, or at a drive-thru. When you order fast
food, do you usually get takeout?
Pre-Reading
A. Spelling Quiz
“I don’t like fast food. I never eat in fast-food restaurants.”
Why is there a hyphen in the second sentence?
B. Vocabulary Preview
Match the words on the left with the correct meanings on the right.
1. combo a) basic or signature (soup, salad, dressing, or wine)
2. a side b) a dessert dish of ice cream with fruit or other toppings
c) a meal combination that usually includes
3. house
a main food item as well as a side or beverage
4. Caesar d) to choose to add milk, cream, sugar, etc.
5. ranch e) an additional part of the meal, such as potatoes, soup, or salad
6. soft drink f) ice cream mixed with milk to create a thick drink
7. creamer g) a type of salad with romaine lettuce,
creamy dressing, croutons, and bacon bits
8. take (a beverage)
h) a creamy garlic dressing with onion and herbs
9. sundae i) a carbonated beverage, also “soda” or “pop”
10. shake j) a small container that contains one serving of cream
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Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues
Dialogue Reading
Read the dialogue with your partner a few times. Take turns
being each character. Practice your intonation and pronunciation.
Circle any new words or phrases that you need to practice.
Cashier: Hello. Are you ready to order?
Customer: Yes. I’ll have combo #1, please.
Cashier: Okay. Would you like fries, salad, or onion rings for a side?
Customer: Salad, please.
Cashier: House salad or Caesar?
Customer: House, please.
What kind of dressing would you like?
Cashier:
We have ranch, Italian, blue cheese, or house dressing.
Customer: Ranch, please. On the side.
Cashier: Sure. What would you like to drink?
Customer: Could I have a coffee instead of a soft drink?
Cashier: Sure. How do you take your coffee?
Customer: One creamer and two sugars, please.
Cashier: Okay. Is that everything?
Customer: No. I also need three chocolate sundaes and a small strawberry shake.
Cashier: Okay. Your total comes to $21.45.
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Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues
Practice
Work with your partner. Role-play the dialogue on page 2,
substituting the different expressions below. Then switch roles.
1. Are you ready to order? 5. What would you like to drink?
• Are you all set? • And for your beverage?
• I can help the next customer. • What kind of pop do you want?
• May I take your order? • Would you like a drink with that?
• Next, please.
6. Is that everything?
2. I ’ll have combo #1, please.
• Will that be all for today?
• I’ll have the cheeseburger combo. • Will there be anything else with that?
• I’ll have the breakfast special, please. • Would you care for some dessert with that?
• I’d like to order the kid’s pack.
7. Your total comes to $21.45.
3. W
ould you like fries, salad,
• That’s $10.75, please.
or onion rings for a side?
• Your bill is $20.00 even.
• What would you like with that? • Your order comes to $54.90.
• You can have fries, salad, or onion rings. • Will that be cash, credit, or debit?
• Is that with French fries or a baked potato?
4. What kind of dressing would you like? Did you know...
• Would you like any sauce with that? ...that uncountable beverages and foods are
• Do you need any condiments? often used as countable nouns in restaurants?
(ketchup, mustard, vinegar, hot sauce)
• I need three beers and two milks.
• I take two sugars (pack or spoonfuls) and
one cream (creamer container or small pour).
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Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues
Listening Practice
Listen to the recording of the dialogue from page 2. Fill in the missing
words as you listen. Listen again. Now look back at page 2 and check your
work. Did you fill in the correct words? Did you spell everything correctly?
Cashier: Hello. Are you ready ?
Customer: Yes. I’ll have #1, please.
Cashier: Okay. Would you like fries, salad, or onion rings ?
Customer: Salad, please.
Cashier: or Caesar?
Customer: House, please.
What kind of dressing would you like?
Cashier:
We have ranch, Italian, blue cheese, or house .
Customer: Ranch, please. .
Cashier: Sure. What would you like to drink?
Customer: Could I have a coffee a soft drink?
Cashier: Sure. How do you your coffee?
Customer: One creamer and two sugars, please.
Cashier: Okay. Is that ?
Customer: No. I also need three chocolate and a small strawberry shake.
Cashier: Okay. Your total $21.45.
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Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues
Write Your Own Dialogue
Write a dialogue with a partner using phrases from page 3.
Practice and present the dialogue to your class.
Extra Practice
Read the following expressions, and practice them with your partner.
Special Requests Complaints and Concerns
• Can I have some extra napkins, please? • This is not what I ordered.
• May I have a straw, please? • There is no toilet paper in the washroom.
• Can I change that small drink to a large? • I’ve been waiting a long time.
• Can I get some barbecue sauce, please? • This food is cold.
• Do you have any booster seats/high chairs? • There’s a hair in my food.
• Can you wipe the table down? • This tastes off. (I think it has gone bad.)
• Does it have any nuts on it? • I asked for no cheese.
• Can I get that without mustard? • I think you forgot the discount.
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Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues
Review
Task 1
LISTEN & ANSWER
Listen to the conversation and answer the questions.
Your teacher will tell you if you have to write or say the answers.
1. Why does the customer go up to the counter?
2. What does the customer choose as a side?
3. What drink does the customer order with his combo?
4. What other items does the customer add to his order?
5. What is the total cost of the order?
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Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues
Review cont.
Task 2
QUESTION FORMATION
A. Questions
Write five questions a cashier might ask you at a fast-food restaurant.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
B. Answers
Write five possible answers to these questions.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Task 3
ROLE-PLAY
Find a partner. Imagine that one of you is the cashier and the other is a
customer at a fast-food restaurant. Use your questions to do a role-play
for your teacher.
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Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues
Answer Key
LESSON DESCRIPTION: LEVEL: Low Int
In this lesson, a customer orders food at a fast-food TIME: 1 hour
restaurant. The cashier asks the customer a variety
TAGS: restaurant, dialogues, everyday English, food, fast food
of questions. Students learn vocabulary and expressions
to use when ordering food at a fast-food restaurant.
Pre-Reading Listening Practice
A. SPELLING QUIZ Have students complete the dialogue by listening
to the recording or by having two students read
Discuss as a class or in small groups. In the first sentence, “fast
the completed dialogue from page 2.
food” is being used as a compound noun. In the second sentence,
it is an adjective. Check out our editor’s handy blog post about
multiple-word adjectives: http://blog.esllibrary.com/2013/01/10/ Write Your Own Dialogue
when-to-use-hyphens-rules-for-multiple-word-adjectives/
Encourage your students to use vocabulary from the model.
B. VOCABULARY PREVIEW You could change the type of fast food to something other than
a burger restaurant. For example, challenge your students to write
1. c 3. a 5. h 7. j 9. b a dialogue that takes place in a coffee shop drive-thru. If you are
2. e 4. g 6. i 8. d 10. f teaching in an English-speaking country, you may also want to go
out for fast food together. Have your students take note of the
Dialogue Reading cashier’s questions.
Give your students time to read the dialogue in pairs. (continued on the next page...)
Practice
Have your students read the dialogue again and
practice subbing in some of the different expressions.
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Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues
Answer Key cont.
Review (Assessment Tasks) SPELLING NOTE:
This lesson shows the American spelling of the word Practice.
The following tasks can be used for assessment purposes Most other English-speaking countries spell it this way: Practise
and/or review practice. You can save all of the tasks until (when used as a verb; Practice when used as a noun). Make it a
the end or assess your students throughout the lesson. challenge for your students to find this word in the lesson and
see if they know the alternate spelling.
TASK 1
Play the audio from this lesson. Then assign the questions. You EDITOR’S NOTE:
can decide if you want your students to say or write the answers.
You may see drive-thru spelled as drive-through. Both are
1. T he customer goes up to the acceptable spellings. In some parts of the world, fast food or
counter to order and pay for his food. takeout is called takeaway, and this word is used as a noun or
2. T he customer chooses a house an adjective. When used as adjectives, the words fast-food
salad with ranch dressing as a side. and take-out contain a hyphen.
3. T he customer orders coffee to go with his combo.
4. T he customer also orders three chocolate
sundaes and a small strawberry milkshake.
5. The total cost of the order is $21.45.
TASK 2
Answers will vary. Assess your students’ understanding
of how to order fast food by having them write common
questions and answers that they learned in this lesson.
Check for proper question formation.
TASK 3
Assess two students at a time as they role-play the scenario.
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Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues
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