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. Practise your intonation and pronunciation.
Circle any new words or phrases that you need to practise.

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.
Practise and present the dialogue to your class.

Extra Practice
Read the following expressions, and practise 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 / CLB 3–4

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,
of questions. Students learn vocabulary and expressions
food, fast food, CLB, PBLA, LINC
to use when ordering food at a fast-food restaurant.

Pre-Reading Practice

A. SPELLING QUIZ Have your students read the dialogue again and
practise subbing in some of the different expressions.
Discuss as a class or in small groups. In the first sentence, “fast
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 CLB Skill Competencies
multiple-word adjectives: http://blog.esllibrary.com/2013/01/10/
Reading: IV. Comprehending Information
when-to-use-hyphens-rules-for-multiple-word-adjectives/
Speaking: III. Getting Things Done

B. VOCABULARY PREVIEW

1. c 3. a 5. h 7. j 9. b
Listening Practice
2. e 4. g 6. i 8. d 10. f

Have students complete the dialogue by listening

Dialogue Reading to the recording or by having two students read
the completed dialogue from page 2.
Give your students time to read the dialogue in pairs.

CLB Skill Competencies

CLB Skill Competencies
Listening: I. Interacting with Others,
Reading: IV. Comprehending Information III. Getting Things Done
Speaking: III. Getting Things Done

(continued on the next page...)

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 Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues

Answer Key cont.

Write Your Own Dialogue 4. T he customer also orders three chocolate
sundaes and a small strawberry milkshake.

Encourage your students to use vocabulary from the model. 5. The total cost of the order is $21.45.

You could change the type of fast food to something other than
a burger restaurant. For example, challenge your students to write
CLB Skill Competencies
a dialogue that takes place in a coffee shop drive-thru. If you are
teaching in an English-speaking country, you may also want to go Listening: IV. Comprehending Information
out for fast food together. Have your students take note of the
cashier’s questions.
TASK 2

Answers will vary. Assess your students’ understanding

CLB Skill Competencies
of how to order fast food by having them write common
Writing: II. Reproducing Information questions and answers that they learned in this lesson.
Check for proper question formation.

Review (Assessment Tasks)

CLB Skill Competencies

The following tasks can be used for assessment purposes Writing: II. Reproducing Information
and/or review practice. You can save all of the tasks until
the end or assess your students throughout the lesson.
TASK 3
Personalize your own Listening, Writing, and Speaking Task
Assessment forms for your students’ portfolios by using Assess two students at a time as they role-play the scenario.
Assessment Tools in the Resources section:
https://esllibrary.com/resources
CLB Skill Competencies

TASK 1
Speaking: I. Interacting with Others,

Play the audio from this lesson. Then assign the questions. You III. Getting Things Done

can decide if you want your students to say or write the answers.

1. T he customer goes up to the

EDITOR’S NOTE:
counter to order and pay for his food.
2. T he customer chooses a house You may see drive-thru spelled as drive-through. Both are
salad with ranch dressing as a side. acceptable spellings. In some parts of the world, fast food or
3. T he customer orders coffee to go with his combo. takeout is called takeaway, and this word is used as a noun or
an adjective. When used as adjectives, the words fast-food
and take-out contain a hyphen.

(continued on the next page...)

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 Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues

Answer Key cont.

Canadian Language Benchmarks Summary

OVERVIEW

Stage: 1 CLB Range: 3–4* Primary Skill Competency: Speaking – III. Getting Things Done

PAGE TASK SKILL COMPETENCIES

Reading: IV. Comprehending Information

2 Dialogue Reading
Speaking: III. Getting Things Done

Reading: IV. Comprehending Information

3 Practice
Speaking: III. Getting Things Done

4 Listening Practice Listening: I. Interacting with Others, III. Getting Things Done

5 Write Your Own Dialogue Writing: II. Reproducing Information

6 Review Task 1 (PBLA)** Listening: I V. Comprehending Information

7 Review Task 2 (PBLA) Writing: II. Reproducing Information

7 Review Task 3 (PBLA) Speaking: I. Interacting with Others, III. Getting Things Done

*Note: **Note:

This CLB range is suggested by ESL Library based on
the descriptors in the Canadian Language Benchmarks
guide: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/language-
benchmarks.pdf
PBLA refers to portfolio-based learning assessment in
the LINC program (though any teacher can use these tasks
for review or assessment). Visit our Resources section for
Assessment Tools that you can print and personalize for
PBLA: https://esllibrary.com/resources

(continued on the next page...)

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 Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues

Answer Key cont.

Canadian Language Benchmarks Summary cont.

PROFILES OF ABILIT Y

The following descriptors from the Canadian Language Benchmarks

apply to this lesson and are used with permission. For more
detailed information see: http://www.cic.gc.ca/english/pdf/pub/
language-benchmarks.pdf and visit: https://www.language.ca/

BENCHMARK THE LEARNER CAN:

Speaking • Communicate basic information using simple sentences about immediate needs. (3)
(3–4) • Make and respond to a range of requests and offers. (4)

• Understand key words, formulaic phrases, and most

Listening short sentences on topics of immediate personal relevance. (3)
(3–4) • Understand, with considerable effort, simple formal and
informal communication on topics of personal relevance. (4)

Writing • Write short, simple texts about personal experience and

(4) familiar topics or situations related to daily life and experience.

Reading • Understand the purpose, main idea, key information, and some details in simple,
(3) short texts related to everyday familiar and personally relevant situations and topics.

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 Ordering Fast Food
Everyday Dialogues

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