M: Hello everyone! Welcome back to another great lesson with us here at EnglishPod! My 
name is Marco. 
E: And I’m Erica. 
M: And today we’re going out to eat. 
E: Yes! Good thing to, because I’m hungry. 
M: I know it’s almost lunchtime. 
E: Yeah. 
M: So, today we’re gonna be talking about eating at a restaurant and giving some great 
recommendations and suggestions. 
E: Yes! We have language for describing food, for describing restaurants, and for making 
suggestions. 
M: Great! So, let’s start with our “vocabulary preview” for this lesson. 
Voice: Vocabulary preview. 
E: We have two words today from our dialogue which you’ll need to know to understand the 
dialogue. 
M: Great! The first one that we have today is food poisoning. 
E: Food poisoning. 
M: Food poisoning. 
E: Food poisoning. 
M: So, food poisoning is… 
E: Not a good thing. 
M: Not a good thing. 
E: It is when you eat some bad food and that food makes you sick. 
M: Yeah. 
E: So, you get food poisoning. 
M: Okay, so, food poisoning, yeah, not a god thing. 
E: Okay, the next word. 
M: Allergic. 
E: Allergic. 
M: Allergic. 
E: Allergic. 
M: So, when you’re allergic to something… 
E: Um, it makes you sick… that one thing makes you sick. 
M: Right. 
E: For example, I’m allergic to seafood. 
M: Right. 
E: If I eat seafood, I cannot breath. 
M: Oh, okay, so, you definitely wanna stay away from fish. 
E: Yes, yes. 
M: Some people are allergic to nuts like peanuts or… 
E: Or maybe milk. 
M: Milk. 
E: Yeah. 
M: Cool. 
E: So, when one type of food makes you sick, you are allergic to that food. 
M: Okay, great, so, with this in mind, now we can listen to our dialogue for the first time at 
its normal speed, but don’t worry if you don’t get everything now, because… 
E: We’ll come back and teach you the important language. 
A: Do you two have any plans for the evening?
B: We were thinking of checking out a restaurant in
the neigbourhood. Do you have any suggestions?
A: I know this really nice Italian place. The food is
fantastic, and the décor is beautiful. I’d recom-
mend giving it a try.
C: Actually, I’m not all that crazy about Italian food;
I’m in the mood for something a bit lighter.
A: In that case, I know a great little bistro. They make
a really tasty seafood platter; the fish is outstand-
ing.
B: It sounds fantastic, but I’m allergic to seafood,
so. . .
A: Okay, well, let me think. . . Oh, I know this great
little place. It’s just a hole in the wall, but they
do the most amazing sandwiches. You gotta give
them a try.
C: Ella, you took me there last time I visited, and I
got food poisoning, remember?
 
E: Well, I’m getting hungry just thinking about all of those great restaurants. 
M: Yeah, some really good recommendations… 
E: Aha. 
M: Except for food poisoning, right? 
E: No, not so good. 
M: Let’s start with our “language takeaway” for this lesson. 
Voice: Language takeaway. 
M: Our first word on language takeaway is check out. 
E: Check out. 
M: Check out. 
E: Check out. 
M: So, we have some great examples on how we can use check out in different situations 
and then you can understand the meaning. 
Voice: Example one. 
A: Have you been to the new café next door? 
B: Yeah, I checked it out yesterday. The food was great! 
Voice: Example two. 
C: Hey, check out my new car. 
Voice: Example three. 
D: I’m going to check out the new shopping mall this weekend. 
E: So, I can understand that it just means “look at”. 
M: Yeah, “look at” or yeah… or “go see” as well… Let’s go check out that new bar in town. 
E: Yeah, okay. 
M: Okay. 
E: Cool! Next word is bistro. 
M: Bistro. 
E: Bistro. 
M: Bistro. 
E: So, what’s a bistro? 
M: It’s kind of complicated, but it’s like a small restaurant that’s not really cheap though. 
E: Not so cheap and not so expensive. 
M: Aha. And, um, it’s usually French. 
E: Yes. 
M: So, yes. 
E: Yeah, small informal restaurant. 
M: Yeah, bistro. 
E: Uhu. 
M: Okay, so, our third phrase for today is not all that crazy about.  
E: Not all that crazy about. 
M: I’m not all that crazy about. 
E: Okay, again, kind of a funny phrase, but we’ve got some examples that will help you 
understand the meaning. 
Voice: Example one. 
A: Do you want to go shopping with me tomorrow? 
B: I’m not all that crazy about shopping. I don’t like spending money. 
Voice: Example two. 
C: I’m not crazy about jazz music. Can I change the song? 
M: So, this is just a really polite way of saying you don’t like something. 
E: Exactly. 
M: But now the opposite of this would be tasty. 
E: Tasty. 
M: That’s our forth word – tasty. 
E: Tasty. 
M: So, when something is tasty… 
E: It’s good. 
M: It’s good. 
E: Like delicious. 
M: Delicious. 
E: Yeah, you know what, in English we almost never say “the food is delicious”, but we 
always say… 
M: It’s really tasty. 
E: Yes. 
M: This is really tasty. 
E: Yes, okay. 
M: Tasty. And our last phrase for language takeaway – in the mood for. 
E: In the mood for. 
M: In the mood for. 
E: Let’s listen to some examples of this phrase and we’ll understand the meaning a little bit 
better. 
Voice: Example one. 
A: We always eat hamburgers for dinner. I’m in the mood for something different. 
Voice: Example two. 
B: Let’s watch movie. How about Texas Chainsaw Massacre? 
C: I am not in the mood for a horror movie. 
M: So, if I’m in the mood for something, I feel like doing or eating or… 
E: Watching or… 
M: Watching. 
E: Yeah, it means you wanna do that now. 
M: Uhu. 
E: Yeah. 
M: I’m in the mood for. 
E: Okay, some great language we just looked at and I think it’s time for us to listen to the 
dialogue a second time. 
A: Do you two have any plans for the evening?
B: We were thinking of checking out a restaurant in
the neigbourhood. Do you have any suggestions?
A: I know this really nice Italian place. The food is
fantastic, and the décor is beautiful. I’d recom-
mend giving it a try.
C: Actually, I’m not all that crazy about Italian food;
I’m in the mood for something a bit lighter.
A: In that case, I know a great little bistro. They make
a really tasty seafood platter; the fish is outstand-
ing.
B: It sounds fantastic, but I’m allergic to seafood,
so. . .
A: Okay, well, let me think. . . Oh, I know this great
little place. It’s just a hole in the wall, but they
do the most amazing sandwiches. You gotta give
them a try.
C: Ella, you took me there last time I visited, and I
got food poisoning, remember?
 
M: Okay, some really great and useful phrases there and I know you wanna talk about 
specifically some of these phrases. 
E: Yes! Today’s lesson is all about making recommendations, right? 
M: Right. 
E: So, let’s look at some useful phrases in “fluency builder”. 
Voice: Fluency builder. 
M: So, in the dialogue we heard a great way of asking for a suggestion. 
E: That’s right. 
M: Let’s listen. 
Phrase 1: Do you have any suggestions? Do you have any suggestions? 
M: So, that’s how you would ask for a suggestion or you can say something else like “do 
you have any ideas?” 
E: Yeah, or you might say “do you have any thoughts?” 
M: Uhu. Okay, so, that’s… 
E: Three great ways. 
M: Asking for suggestions. 
E: Yep. 
M: In response to this you can say something like this. 
Phrase 2: I’d recommend giving it a try. I’d recommend giving it a try. 
E: We also heard another phrase that we use for giving suggestions. 
Phrase 3: You gotta give them a try. You’ve got to give them a try. 
M: So, these two phrases are great - I’d recommend or you gotta give them a try. 
E: Yeah. 
M: Great ways of suggesting. 
E: Yes. 
M: Now, what’s really important here is the pronunciation of these words, right? 
E: Yeah, you’ll notice that we don’t say I would recommend. 
M: Right, we use the contraction - I’d. 
E: I’d. 
M: I’d. 
E: I’d recommend. 
M: I’d recommend. 
E: Similarly, in the phrase you have got to we shorten that… 
M: Yeah. 
E: To say… 
M: You gotta. 
E: You gotta. 
M: You gotta give them a try. 
E: You gotta. 
M: Uhu. 
E: You know what, guys? If you can shorten your phrases like this, if you can push the 
sounds together, you’ll sound a lot more natural, hey? 
M: And also you’ll be able to understand, because in movies or in shows they will never say 
“you have got to give them a try”. 
E: Yeah, yeah. 
M: So, if you know how to use this form, you’ll understand what they mean. 
E: Exactly. 
M: Okay, great. 
E: Well, why don’t we listen to the dialogue a third time? And you’ll hear some of these 
contractions in the dialogue. 
A: Do you two have any plans for the evening?
B: We were thinking of checking out a restaurant in
the neigbourhood. Do you have any suggestions?
A: I know this really nice Italian place. The food is
fantastic, and the décor is beautiful. I’d recom-
mend giving it a try.
C: Actually, I’m not all that crazy about Italian food;
I’m in the mood for something a bit lighter.
A: In that case, I know a great little bistro. They make
a really tasty seafood platter; the fish is outstand-
ing.
B: It sounds fantastic, but I’m allergic to seafood,
so. . .
A: Okay, well, let me think. . . Oh, I know this great
little place. It’s just a hole in the wall, but they
do the most amazing sandwiches. You gotta give
them a try.
C: Ella, you took me there last time I visited, and I
got food poisoning, remember?
 
M: Okay, great dialogue and Erica, I know that you have some food poisoning stories for us. 
E: I don’t know about stories, but I’ve definitely had food poisoning before, um… 
M: Yeah. 
E: One of the worst times that I ever had food poisoning was, uh, when I was traveling in 
Morocco. 
M: Okay. 
E: I had some really amazing orange juice, really fresh, squeezed that day in the morning. 
Um, and then I got on a bus. 
M: Okay. 
E: I think you can see where this is going, hey? 
M: Hehe. 
E: Yeah, so I was on the bus and then I started to feel really sick, um, and I was just 
hoping and hoping and hoping that the bus ride would be over soon. 
M: Yeah. 
E: But unfortunately it wasn’t. 
M: Oh, no. 
E: All I can say is that… I was sick and it wa… All I can say is that I was pretty sick and 
really, really unhappy. 
M: Yeah, I bet. Well, that’s very strange that you got sick form, uh, orange juice, ha? 
E: Well, yeah, ma… maybe it was with some dirty water or something like that… 
M: Yeah. 
E: I don’t know. It was just… It was a terrible situation. 
M: Yeah, it’s always complicated when you’re travelling to other countries, it could be the 
water, it could be the… the way they prepare things, so… 
E: Yeah, yeah, well… 
M: Food poisoning. 
E: Guys, I hope that you don’t get food poisoning. 
M: Hehe. And if you have any food poisoning stories, that would be great for you to share 
them. 
E: Yes, at our website englishpod.com. 
M: And we’ll see you there to answer all your questions and comments, but now we have to 
go. 
E: Okay, guys, thanks for listening. 
M: We’ll see you there. 
E: Bye-bye! 
M: Bye!