Lesson Overview

This A1 ESL lesson focuses on using English at the restaurant, giving students the key functional language they need for common restaurant situations. Students learn how to make a reservation, order food and drinks, ask for things, check the bill, and pay for their meal.

The lesson provides clear sentence starters and useful phrases for both restaurant staff and customers, helping students build and practise simple conversations step by step. Each stage is followed by example dialogues and multiple role-play activities, giving students plenty of opportunities to use the language in realistic restaurant situations.

Students practise making different reservations, ordering from menus, dealing with unavailable times, ordering food and drinks, checking bills, and paying for meals. The lesson also includes restaurant rankings, vocabulary practice, menu and receipt activities, and personal discussion questions.

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to use basic functional English to make a reservation, order at a restaurant, ask for what they need, and pay for a meal with greater confidence.

1. Restaurant: Key Words
2. Restaurant: Ranking
3. How to Make a Reservation: Explainer
4. How to Make a Reservation: Role Plays
5. How to Order: Explainer
6. How to Order: Role Plays
7. How to Pay: Explainer
8. How to Order: Role Plays
9. Game: Favourites 

Homework

There is an excellent homework task to supplement this awesome A1 ESL lesson plan on restaurants. Students are challenged to write detailed answers to topic-based questions. Activity layout:

1. Questions: Writing task.