ESL Eating Out Listening

This page has several ESL eating out listening exercises for you to do. They will help you get used to listening to spoken eating out vocabulary being used so that you will be able to understand when people speak to you.

These ESL eating out listening exercises will help you understand spoken eating out vocabulary.

There are four tasks on this page and in each of them you need to listen to recordings of a native English speaker and then answer the questions. The more you can practice listening to and understanding English being spoken by a native speaker now, the better you will be able to manage in the future. If you need any help understanding the spoken vocabulary used in these listening tasks you can go to the ESL eating out vocabulary page. This page has a recording of the vocabulary items being spoken by a native speaker.

The four exercises on this page are as follows:

  • Identification of the order of spoken words.
  • Identification of the correct word from its spoken definition.
  • A listening comprehension passage.
  • A dictation passage.

ESL Eating Out Listening Exercises

Exercise 1 – Identification of Spoken Word Order

In the first ESL eating out listening exercise you need to listen to the following recording of five groups of five spoken words each, and then decide which option (A-D) has the words in the same order as when spoken. When you have answered all the questions you can click the get score button to how many you got correct.



ESL Eating Out Identification of Spoken Word Order


Listen to the recording of the five groups of five words each given above and decide which option (A-D) in the five questions in this test has the correct order.

1) Which is the correct order for group of words one?
        A) Dine, Course, Pub, Dish, Appetizer
        B) Dish, Appetizer, Course, Dine, Pub
        C) Course, Appetizer, Dine, Dish, Pub
        D) Dish, Pub, Dine, Appetizer, Course
2) Which is the correct order for group of words two?
        A) Order, Bill, Set menu, Blacken, Sweet
        B) Blacken, Sweet, Bill, Order, Set menu
        C) Bill, Sweet, Order, Blacken, Set menu
        D) Blacken, Set menu, Order, Sweet, Bill
3) Which is the correct order for group of words three?
        A) Halal, Wrap, Kosher, Dessert, Café
        B) Dessert, Café, Wrap, Halal, Kosher
        C) Wrap, Café, Halal, Dessert, Kosher
        D) Dessert, Kosher, Halal, Café, Wrap
4) Which is the correct order for group of words four?
        A) Senior’s discount, Happy hour, Bistro, Take-out, Fast food
        B) Take-out, Fast food, Happy hour, Senior’s discount, Bistro
        C) Happy hour, Fast food, Senior’s discount, Take-out, Bistro
        D) Take-out, Bistro, Senior’s discount, Fast food, Happy hour
5) Which is the correct order for group of words five?
        A) A la mode, Salad, Take-away, Complementary, Senior’s discount
        B) Complementary, Senior’s discount, Salad, A la mode, Take-away
        C) Salad, Senior’s discount, A la mode, Complementary, Take-away
        D) Complementary, Take-away, A la mode, Senior’s discount, Salad

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 2 – Identification of Spoken Definition

For the second ESL eating out exercise you need to decide which word (options A-D) in each question matches the spoken definition in the following recording. Again you can use the get score button to see how many you got correct.



ESL Eating Out Listening Identification of Vocabulary Meaning


Listen to the recording of the meanings of the five vocabulary words given above and decide which word out of the options (A-D) in each question matches the meaning.

1) What is the meaning of the first definition in the recording?
        A) Stay
        B) Starter
        C) Buffet
        D) Booster seat
2) What is the meaning of the second definition in the recording?
        A) Appetizer
        B) Dessert
        C) Napkin
        D) Dine
3) What is the meaning of the third definition in the recording?
        A) Specials
        B) Well-done
        C) Fast food
        D) Wrap
4) What is the meaning of the fourth definition in the recording?
        A) Happy hour
        B) Deli
        C) Main course
        D) To go
5) What is the meaning of the fifth definition in the recording?
        A) Liquor
        B) Roll-up
        C) Free refill
        D) Reservation

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 3 – Listening Comprehension

The third ESL eating out listening exercise is a listening comprehension task. You need to listen to the following recording of a spoken passage and then answer the questions in this task. You can listen to the recording a few times if you need to. To see the correct answers you can use the get score button.

At the end of this page there is a link to click that will show you the text of the passage so you can check to make sure you understood it fully.



ESL Eating Out Listening Comprehension


Listen to the recording of the passage about eating out above and answer the following five questions.

1) What is a gluten-free diet?
        A) A diet which excludes protein.
        B) A diet which excludes gluten.
        C) A diet which includes gluten.
        D) A diet which causes celiac disease.
2) Why have some fast-food chains introduced gluten-free menus?
        A) To increase their profits.
        B) To educate their customers.
        C) To attract customers with celiac disease.
        D) To cater for customers who are going on a gluten-free diet.
3) Why is it difficult to avoid contamination of gluten-free food in fast-food restaurants?
        A) The restaurants often hire inexperienced cooks.
        B) The restaurants do not hire nutritionists.
        C) The food handlers may not change gloves after handling food containing gluten.
        D) The food handlers do not want to prepare gluten-free food.
4) What are people with celiac disease advised to do before going to a fast-food restaurant?
        A) Check out on the website what gluten-free menus are available.
        B) Call the restaurant and ask about preparing gluten-free items.
        C) Make a gluten-free meal to bring as sample.
        D) Ask a doctor what kinds of foods they can eat.
5) What should diners do before ordering gluten-free food?
        A) Ask the right questions to the waiter.
        B) Ask the waiter to read about a gluten-free diet.
        C) Talk to a manager about a special menu.
        D) Offer to help prepare gluten-free food.

Score =

Correct answers:

Exercise 4 – Dictation

For the fourth ESL eating out listening activity you need to listen to the following recording of a passage and write it down exactly as it is spoken. The recording has the passage being read twice. The first time is at a slow reading speed and the second has pauses after every few words and the punctuation spoken. Listen a few times if you need to.

There is also a link at the end of the page that will show you the full text so you can check what you wrote against the original.



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Dictation Passage
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