A: good afternoon. “ginger’s restaurant”. May I help you?

B: yes. I’d like to book a table for Friday evening please.

A: certainly. For how many people?

B; we’ll be eight or nine people. Could we book a private room?

A: I’ll just check. At what time on Friday evening?

B: about 7:30.

A: yes. That’s fine. We can book you a private room for up to ten people at that time. Could you give me your name please?

B: my name is Jenkins. My phone number is 75397382. that’s confirmed then. 7:30 on Friday.

A: yes. Do you intend to order a la carte or will you be having our seafood buffet?

B: oh, we’d like the buffet please. We’ve heard it’s very good.

Intermediate

A; how did you enjoy your family party at “ginger’s”? I hear that they have a lovely menu and buffet.

B: oh, it was great. We had seafood buffet. They do one every Friday. The waiters and waitresses are very good. They are very attentive, but don’t hang around the table.

A: I like the buffets they have, but if often order a la carte, because I don’t feel extremely hungry. I like the wine list there too.

B: yes, so do I. they have wines from all over the world. There is a good range of prices to suit every pocket. We ordered some Australian red wine, which tasted delicious and wasn’t expensive.

A: some restaurants allow you to take your own wine and just charge you corkage, but the don’t do that at “ginger’s”. what was included in the seafood buffet?

B: they had almost every kind of seafood. There were oyster, shrimp, prawns, crabs, and fish. I ate a lot of smoked salmon.

A: did they have lobster?

B: no, they didn’t. you could order it from the menu. I think that lobster is too expensive to be included in the buffet.

A: yes, it probably is. I don’t like ordering oysters in restaurants. You never know whether they are fresh.

B: I know. I didn’t eat any, but a few people in our group did and no one got sick.

A: when you eat out, do you usually eat from the buffet?

B: not usually. I usually just order a main course and have a dessert if I’m still hungry afterwards.

A: oh, you don’t usually have a starter?

B: no, I might have a soup if it’s a cold winter day.