In this video, I talk about the expressions used in France when you're in a restaurant. If you liked the video, please like it and subscribe to the channel, it encourages me a lot ! Thank you

• 0:00 - Introduction
• 1:06 - Breakfast / lunch / dinner
• 2:25 - Restaurant set-up
• 3:15 - The aperitif
• 3:55 - Difference card / slate
• 4:55 - Menu or dish à la carte
• 5:40 - Place an order
• 7:07 - Cooking meats in French
• 7:45 - Drinking in restaurants (wines, etc.)
• 8:49 - Water (carafe or bottle)
• 10:02 - Ask for salt or pepper
• 11:10 - The end of the dishes
• 11:40 - The desserts
• 12:35 - The bill
• 13:13 - Tipping in France
• 13:40 - Conclusion and thank you 🙂

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TRANSCRIPT OF THE VIDEO

Hello everyone. I hope you're well, having a great summer and learning French. So today we're going to talk about the restaurant. Restaurants are a must if you're coming to France. So it's essential to learn vocabulary and expressions that will be useful in French once you're in a restaurant in France or in a country where French is spoken. Before you start, remember to activate the subtitles just below.

This will help you understand the video better. To see more videos, don't forget to subscribe to the HelloFrench channel. So first, let's take a quick look at the different meals in France, and the different times we eat during the day. There are three meals in France. The first is breakfast. This is the meal we eat in the morning. At lunchtime, we call it luncheon. In the evening, we call it dinner.

There may also be a fourth meal between lunch and dinner, called the afternoon snack or "four-hour meal". Generally speaking, this is a mealtime for children. We tend to eat something sweet, but as an adult, you can also have a snack or a four-hour meal, if you wish. Let's get to the heart of the matter. When you enter a restaurant, you need to ask if there's room for you.

You could say "Good evening, would you have a table for two for dinner? Or "Hello, there are three of us for lunch. Is there room?" Alternatively, you could say "Hello, do you have a table for two?" The waiter may ask if you have a reservation. So, if you've called ahead to reserve a table, he might say "Do you have a reservation?" or "Have you made a reservation?" If you have a reservation, you can answer "Yes, I have a reservation for - your name -".

So, for example, I could say "Yes, I have a reservation for four people under the name of Elisabeth". When you enter the restaurant, if you have a reservation, you can say "Hello, I have a reservation for two people in the name of - with your name - . So again, I could say when entering a restaurant "Hello, I have a reservation for two in the name of Elisabeth". Once you're seated, the waiter or waitress - in other words, the person who takes care of you in the restaurant - might ask you if you'd like an aperitif.

This is done a lot, especially at dinnertime. An aperitif is a drink, alcoholic or non-alcoholic, that you drink while waiting for the food to be served, while the food is being prepared or cooked. The waiter will ask you "Would you like an aperitif?" or "Would you like to take an aperitif?" This can be a cocktail, a fruit juice or an alcoholic beverage. If you don't want an aperitif, you can simply answer "no thanks, that's nice" or simply "no thanks".

The waiter will then bring you the menu with the different dishes offered in the restaurant. In France, there's either an à la carte menu or what's known as an "ardoise". Sometimes, it's both. So the carte is really like a book with all the dishes inside and the drinks offered by the restaurant, and the ardoise is a blackboard that can be displayed or moved around, where dishes are generally written in chalk. For example, in some restaurants where dishes change daily, it's easier for the restaurant to use a slate rather than a printed menu. Sometimes, even if there is a menu, there may also be a slate to indicate the daily specials or the restaurant's specialties. Some restaurants in France offer menus or formulas. There's an expression used in French when you don't actually want to take a menu or a formula. So, for example, a menu or formula might be "entrée, plat, dessert" or "entrée, plat" or "plat, dessert".

So, the expression we use to say that we want to choose a dish outside this formula, outside the menu, is to take an à la carte dish. So, for example, when your waiter asks you "would you like a menu?" and you want to take a dish from the menu, you can reply "no thanks, I'll take an à la carte dish". A few minutes or tens of minutes after bringing you the menu, your waitress or waiter will come back and ask you "have you chosen?" or "have you made your choice?".

This is a polite way of asking if he can take your order. If you've chosen, simply answer "yes" and start saying which dishes you'd like to order. If you haven't had time to choose, feel free to say "no, not yet, could you come back in a few minutes?" Once you've chosen your dishes to place your order, you can say "I'll take" and then say the name of the dish. For example, you could say "I'll have the carpaccio as a starter and the steak as a main course".

If you want to have an appetizer to share, for example for two, you can say "for appetizers, we'll have the eggs mayonnaise to share." That way, your waiter knows to bring two pairs of cutlery for you to share. This is especially true for desserts: for example, you can also say "we'll have the tiramisu to share". This way, your waiter knows to bring two spoons and not one.

If you have meat, if you choose a meat dish, your waiter or waitress may ask you how you want it cooked.

To talk about the different types of cooking, we'll use the following words. I'm going to tell you the types of cooking, from least cooked, so from most raw to most cooked. There is blue cooking, rare cooking, medium cooking and finally, well done.

Once you've indicated the dishes you'd like to order, the waiter will ask you if you'd like drinks. So he'll say, "Would you like some drinks?"

"Will you have something to drink?" "Would you like some wine with your meal?" Often, in restaurants in France, you'll receive a list with all the wines offered by the restaurant, so you'll have white wines, red wines and rosé wines. White wines are almost transparent, a little yellow. Red wines are red in color. And rosé wines are pink in color.

Generally, you'll be offered a 75-centilitre bottle or wine by the glass, i.e. a single portion. So, the waiter may ask, "Would you like wine by the bottle or by the glass?" In France, there's always one drink at the table that's free: tap water. You'll be given a carafe of water. If your waiter or waitress forgets, don't hesitate to ask. You can say "could I have a carafe of water" if you're alone, and if you're with other people, "could we have a carafe of water, please?". If you prefer bottled water, of course you can order it, but you'll have to pay for it. Your waiter will then ask, "Would you like still or sparkling water?" Sparkling water is water with gas. You could also say sparkling water. Like the carafe of water, bread is free in France, so again if your waiter forgets to bring you bread or you want to ask for some, don't hesitate to say "could I have some bread?" "could I have some bread?" Or if there are several of you, "could we have some bread, please?"

Once the dishes have arrived, if you find they're not salty and peppery enough, you can ask your waiter "could I have some salt?" "could I have some pepper?" or "could I have some salt and pepper?". So, salt and pepper are condiments. They're used to spice up a dish. During the meal, your waiter may come back to your table and ask, "Is everything going well? This is his way of checking that you don't need anything, that you don't want to recommend any drinks, or that you're not short of salt, pepper, bread or water. If all is well, you can simply say "thank you very much" or "thank you, it's delicious". And if you would indeed like some bread or a new carafe of water, now's the time to tell your waiter or waitress.

When the waiter or waitress has the impression that you've finished, that you've finished eating, he or she will ask you "Can I clear the table? Are you finished?". This is a polite way of asking if they can remove the dishes from your table. If you're finished, you can simply say "yes, thank you". If you haven't finished eating, don't hesitate to say "no, I'm not finished yet".

At the end of the meal, your waiter will ask you "would you like some dessert?"

Or "would you like to see the dessert menu?" You can answer "no thank you, I've eaten well, I'm not hungry anymore", if you don't want dessert, or simply "no thank you". If you'd like to see the dessert menu, you can simply say "yes, thank you", or "yes, I'd love to have a look", if you're not sure whether you'd like a dessert, but you'd like to see what's on the menu. If you're with someone who's ordered dessert, but you don't want any and would rather have a coffee, when the waiter asks you what you'd like, you can simply reply "just a coffee for me, thanks". When you've finished and want to pay, you need to ask for the bill. You can call out to your waiter or waitress and ask for "the bill, please". Or "Could we have the bill, please". Your waiter or waitress can then ask "How would you like to pay? Would you like to pay by cash or card?" Cash means money, but bills or coins. Finally, one last important word: tip.

The tip is the money you can leave for your waitress or waiter. In France, this is not compulsory, as waiters' and waitresses' wages are included in the price of the dishes. But if you've had a good time and the food was good, you can always leave a tip, i.e. a bit of change.

That's it for today. I hope you've enjoyed this video and learned some new words and phrases.

If you like it, don't hesitate to put a like and subscribe to the channel to see more videos. See you soon. And bon appétit, if you're about to eat out ;-).