A special restaurant

A special restaurant

Listen to Jo talking about a very special restaurant she visited recently.

Do the preparation task first. Then listen to the audio and do the exercises.

Preparation

Transcript

Interviewer: Hi, Jo.

Jo: Hello.

Interviewer: Thank you for talking to me today. What would you like to talk about?

Jo: So, I'm going to tell you about my recent visit to, erm, a very well-known restaurant and a very special restaurant.

Interviewer: OK – great.

Jo: It's called El Celler de Can Roca and it's in Girona in Spain and, erm, it often comes in the, like, top two or three restaurants in the world.

Interviewer: Wow!

Jo: And I went last week. And, well, the first thing that was exciting for us was to even get a table 'cause, erm, we booked a year ago and we had to go, you have to go, 'cause you can book a year in advance, so you have to go online at one minute to midnight a year before you think you could go and keep refreshing, refreshing the page until places become available and just go immediately and get the table. So, we were really excited to have the table and we were kind of nervous on Friday because we waited a whole year, so expectations were really high. And it was also, by chance, boiling hot in Girona and it was in the middle of a heatwave. It was 44 degrees.

Interviewer: Oh my goodness.

Jo: So, we were just waiting in our hotel room, couldn't go outside 'cause it was too hot, erm, kind of wondering what this dinner was going to be like, er, and getting all dressed up. So, yeah, we went and, well, the place is beautiful, all … I thought it would be quite, erm, it didn't really feel formal though. The staff were all really friendly and they showed us inside the kitchen first. And it's amazing 'cause no one is stressed in the kitchen – or they did a good job of pretending that they weren't. And they were making amazing things that looked like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for adults – little olive trees with amazing, like, erm, er, olive kind of confections hanging from them. And, yeah, the whole thing was amazing – a once-in-a-lifetime experience of lots of different courses of tiny, beautiful, surprising things, erm …

Interviewer: What was the best dish that you had?

Jo: It was all amazing but I think the best thing for me was one of the desserts. I had a sheep-themed pudding …

Interviewer: Wow!

Jo: So, it was all, erm – So, it was like a woolly sheep. It was like candy floss, like, made with, erm, like, sort of white sugar like you have at the fair. Erm, and that was supposed to represent the wool, and the sound of the spoon on the bowl made the sound of the bell on the sheep in the field. And then separately I had this thing to smell that smelled of wool. So I was, like, eating this sheep wool and smelling the smell of wool at the same time which, it sounds really weird, but it was actually delicious.

Interviewer: Sounds incredible!

Jo: It really was! It really was amazing.

Interviewer: Wow. Thank you for telling us about it.

Jo: It's a pleasure.

Discussion

Download
Worksheet85.96 KB

Language level

Average: 3.9 (38 votes)

Submitted by Kamal7369 on Sun, 18/06/2023 - 16:25

Permalink

Welcome to eveyone , Actually I prefer the Arab Food , exactly Yemeni Food , why , Yemeni food is mostly healthy an natural . therefore i advice to try Yemeni food .

Profile picture for user Manolitos

Submitted by Manolitos on Sat, 10/06/2023 - 13:02

Permalink

Unfortunately, i don't go often to restaurants. I don't have the right company to do it and I found it very expensive. If I decide to go somewhere I think i will prefer something cheaper. But if we speak about vacations, i always go.

Submitted by Yoftan on Wed, 31/05/2023 - 17:25

Permalink

Wow! It is so interesting and eager to learn more @here. Thank you British Council, for the opportunity.

Submitted by birdy69 on Tue, 16/05/2023 - 11:23

Permalink

I would go out for dinner with my family. I mostly enjoy a traditional local food. Even I go abroad I am trying to get to the local restaurant. I remember the Vietnamese restaurant with no name, with a good view.

Submitted by Mohamad reza K… on Mon, 01/05/2023 - 08:21

Permalink

I often go to restaurant when I`m going to vacation, Trips or I`m in traveling. Although it`s amazing to go to the restaurant in in parties or other celebrations. In fact when I could choose the kind of restaurant, I prefer to go to the restaurants that served traditional foods.

Submitted by supparajan on Fri, 28/04/2023 - 16:23

Permalink

I often eat out at the restaurant at least 3-4 times a week. I always go alone because my mother doesn't like eating out. She loves home cooking food. But I prefer eating at the restaurant. My favourite restaurants are depended on what kinds of food it is. I like eating hot pot and the name of restaurant I often go is ShabuShi. It is a conveyor belt hot pot restaurant. I can eat all what I want in 419THB ($12).

Submitted by supparajan on Fri, 28/04/2023 - 16:05

Permalink

This is my first lesson here and I have got full score for both tasks. I am so proud. I will keep continuing to LearnEnglish!

Hi supparajan,

Welcome and thanks for visiting our site :) We hope you enjoy learning English here.

Jonathan

LearnEnglish team

Submitted by MgKanKaung on Sat, 15/04/2023 - 20:02

Permalink

I am really thankful for your lesson. I have one question from the transcript. When she described about the staff of the restaurant, she used this sentence. Could I know what is the meaning of this?
"they did a good job of pretending that they weren't."

Hello MgKanKang,

This sentence means that they were convincing. The full context is:

And it's amazing 'cause no one is stressed in the kitchen – or they did a good job of pretending that they weren't.

In other words, Jo is saying that the people in the kitchen were either not stressed or were very good at hiding their stress so they looked not stressed. 

 

Peter

The LearnEnglish Team