Using English at Work：27 Taking a Break and Eating Lunch(4)（在线收听）

Many restaurants have lunch specials to get people to come to the restaurant during the week; however on the weekends (on Saturdays and Sundays) there usually are not any lunch specials.

A lunch special often has a salad, an entree (or main course), a drink, and sometimes a small dessert.

Diana and I choose the lunch special, but Van picks the all-you-can-eat soup and salad bar.

If something is "all-you-can-eat," it means that you pay one price and you can eat as much of something as you want.

Another word for all-you-can-eat is a "buffet' (buffet).

In this case, Van will be able to eat as much soup and salad as he wants.

A "salad bar" is a long table at a restaurant that has many different vegetables, fruits, salad dressings, cheeses, and other foods so that customers at the restaurant can build (or make) their own salads.

The best salad bars are the ones that have a lot of variety, so you can choose the vegetables and other things you like best.

When Diana and I wait for our orders (the lunch specials) to arrive, Van goes to the soup and salad bar and gets a really big plate of food, because he's allowed to take all that he can eat - and because he's a very big person!

Then he asks, "Do you mind if I start?"

He's asking for our permission to begin eating his food before our food has arrived.

This is a polite thing to do when you are eating at a restaurant with other people, since people eating together usually wait until everyone is served or has their food in front of them before starting to eat.

Diana and I say, "Of course not," meaning it won't bother us if he eats first; it's okay.

So, Van, being hungry, begins eating while we are waiting for our food.

When we finish eating, the server comes over to clear our plates.

"To clear one's plate" means to pick up the dirty plate from the table and take it to the kitchen after someone has finished eating.

The server also gives us our bill.

A "bill" is a piece of paper that shows how much a customer needs to pay.

In this case, our bill shows the cost of the food and drinks that we ordered.