Food & Drink Vocabulary: Ordering, Cooking, and Talking About Cuisine

Food is one of the first topics every English learner needs, and one of the most common in daily life: lunch with coworkers, dinner on a trip, small talk at a party. This guide gives you the vocabulary and phrases for three situations: cooking in the kitchen, ordering at a restaurant, and talking about food with other people.

Level: A2–B2. Beginners will find the core words and phrases, and more advanced learners will find the idioms and the natural alternatives to "delicious". Every part follows the same rhythm: key words → useful phrases → a real example → quick practice. If you are about to travel, bookmark Part 2 first.

Contents

• Part 1: In the kitchen
• Part 2: At the restaurant
• Part 3: Talking about food
• Cultural corner: British vs American food words
• Common mistakes
• Final practice
• Conclusion

Part 1: In the kitchen

1a. Cooking verbs

It's easier to remember cooking verbs when you group them by method instead of learning a random list.

Method	Verbs	Example
Heat with liquid	boil, simmer, steam, poach	Boil the pasta for ten minutes.
Heat with fat	fry, sauté, stir-fry, deep-fry	Stir-fry the vegetables in a hot pan.
Dry heat	bake, roast, grill, toast	Roast the chicken for an hour.
Preparation	chop, slice, dice, peel, grate, mix, whisk	Grate the cheese and whisk the eggs.

1b. Kitchen equipment

Item	What you do with it
frying pan	fry or sauté food
pot / saucepan	boil, simmer or steam food
oven	bake or roast food
cutting board and knife	chop, slice and dice
whisk	mix eggs or cream quickly
ladle	serve soup
grater	grate cheese or vegetables

1c. Words in context: a simple omelet

Read this short recipe and notice the verbs in bold:

1. Crack two eggs into a bowl and whisk them with a pinch of salt.
2. Grate some cheese and chop a little parsley.
3. Melt a little butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
4. Pour in the eggs and cook for about a minute.
5. Add the cheese, fold the omelet in half, and slide it onto a plate.

Quick practice: Part 1

Choose the right verb: whisk, roast, stir-fry.

1. ___ the eggs with a fork or a whisk.
2. ___ a chicken in the oven.
3. ___ vegetables quickly in a hot pan with a little oil.

Show the answers

1. whisk (mix quickly)
2. roast (dry heat in an oven)
3. stir-fry (fry quickly in a pan)

Part 2: At the restaurant

2a. The restaurant timeline

Here is a typical visit, with the phrases you need at each stage:

Stage	Customer says	Server says
Arriving	"A table for two, please."	"Do you have a reservation?"
Ordering	"I'll have the..." / "Could I get...?"	"Are you ready to order?"
During the meal	"Could we have some more water?"	"How is everything?"
Paying	"Could we get the check, please?"	"Would you like to pay together or separately?"

2b. Polite vs too direct

A common learner problem is sounding too direct, which can feel rude in English.

Too direct	Natural and polite
"Give me a coffee."	"Could I get a coffee, please?"
"I want a table."	"I'd like a table for two, please."
"Bring the bill."	"Could we get the check, please?"

2c. A complete sample dialogue

Server: Good evening. Do you have a reservation? Anna: Yes, under Lee. A table for two, please. Server: Right this way. Here are your menus. Can I get you something to drink? Anna: Could we have some water, please? And I'll have a glass of red wine. Server: Of course. Are you ready to order? Anna: Yes. I'll have the grilled salmon. Does it come with vegetables? Server: It comes with rice and a side salad. Anna: Perfect, thank you. Server: How is everything? Anna: Delicious, thank you. Could we get the check, please? Server: Would you like to pay together or separately? Anna: Together, please.

2d. Handling problems

Situation	What to say
Allergy	"I'm allergic to nuts. Does this dish contain nuts?"
Dietary need	"I'm vegetarian. What do you recommend?" / "Do you have any gluten-free options?"
Recommendation	"What do you recommend?" / "What's the most popular dish?"
Sending a dish back	"Excuse me, my soup is cold. Could you heat it up, please?"
Mistake on the bill	"I think there's a mistake with the bill."

Quick practice: Part 2

Is each sentence polite or too direct?

1. "Give me the menu."
2. "Could I see the menu, please?"
3. "I'd like the chicken, please."

Show the answers

1. too direct (a command)
2. polite ("Could I...?" and "please")
3. polite ("I'd like..." and "please")

Part 3: Talking about food

3a. Taste and texture adjectives

Group	Words
Taste	sweet, salty, sour, bitter, spicy, savory, bland
Texture	crunchy, crispy, creamy, chewy, tender, tough
Overall opinion	delicious, tasty, rich, heavy, light, greasy

Bland means with little flavor, rich means full of fat, cream or butter, and greasy means too oily.

3b. Going beyond "delicious"

Climb this ladder from basic to advanced:

good → tasty → delicious → mouth-watering → out of this world

The soup was good. The pasta was tasty. The cake was delicious. The steak was mouth-watering, and the dessert was out of this world.

3c. Conversation phrases

• "Have you ever tried...?"
• "It tastes a bit like..."
• "I'm not really a fan of..."
• "What's a typical dish from your country?"

Example:

A: Have you ever tried Vietnamese pho? B: No, I haven't. What's it like? A: It's a noodle soup. It tastes a bit like chicken soup, but it's more fragrant. B: Sounds great. I'm not really a fan of spicy food, though.

3d. Food idioms

Idiom	Meaning	Example
a piece of cake	very easy	The test was a piece of cake.
spill the beans	reveal a secret	Don't spill the beans about the party!
bring home the bacon	earn money for the family	She brings home the bacon.
not my cup of tea	not something I like	Horror movies are not my cup of tea.
cry over spilled milk	be upset about something that can't be changed	It's done. Don't cry over spilled milk.

Quick practice: Part 3

Choose the adjective: tender, greasy, bland.

1. Food with no flavor is ___.
2. Meat that is soft and easy to cut is ___.
3. Food with too much oil is ___.

Show the answers

1. bland
2. tender
3. greasy

Cultural corner: British vs American food words

This confuses many learners, because the same food can have different names:

British	American
chips	fries
crisps	chips
aubergine	eggplant
courgette	zucchini
the bill	the check
starter	appetizer

Both versions are understood everywhere, so use the one that matches where you are.

A note on tipping: customs differ by country, so check before you travel. In the US, tipping around 15–20% is customary in restaurants. In the UK, a service charge is often already added to the bill, so look at the bill before you leave an extra tip.

Common mistakes

1. The food is very delicious. → The food is delicious. (Delicious already means "very tasty".)
2. I want to cook a cake. → I want to bake a cake. (Cakes are baked.)
3. Can I have the menu card? → Can I have the menu?
4. Give me a coffee. → Could I get a coffee, please? (Too direct.)

Final practice

Matching: cooking verbs

Match each verb to its meaning.

Verb		Meaning
1. whisk		A. cook in a lot of hot oil
2. simmer		B. remove the skin
3. peel		C. mix quickly to add air
4. deep-fry		D. cook gently in liquid just below boiling
5. roast		E. cut cheese or vegetables into thin shreds
6. grate		F. cook in an oven with dry heat

Role-play

You are at a restaurant and your soup is cold. What do you say? Write two or three polite sentences, then check them against the model answer below.

Writing or speaking task

Describe your favorite dish using at least five words from this lesson (cooking verbs, taste or texture adjectives, or an idiom).

Show the answers

Matching: 1-C · 2-D · 3-B · 4-A · 5-F · 6-E

Role-play (model answer): "Excuse me, my soup is cold. Could you heat it up, please? Thank you."

Writing task (model answer): "My favorite dish is roast chicken. We roast it with potatoes for an hour, so the skin is crispy and the meat is tender. It's rich and savory, and it's definitely my cup of tea."

Practice food and drink quizzes →

Conclusion

You can now cook, order and talk about food in English: the verbs for the kitchen, the polite phrases for a restaurant, and the words to describe what you eat.

The best way to remember new words is to use them. Next time you cook, say the steps in English. Next time you eat out, think of the polite phrase before you order. Then describe your favorite dish in English, using the words from this guide.

Keep learning

• Practice vocabulary with free food and drink quizzes
• Food nouns can be countable or uncountable: A vs An vs The: English Articles Explained
• Fewer calories or less sugar? Fewer vs Less: What's the Actual Rule?
• Not sure of your level? Take the free level test