Two Phrases Are All You Need to Order
At the door, state your party size: "A table for two, please." For ordering, two all-purpose patterns cover everything: "I'll have + dish" or "Could I get + dish, please?" — no complex grammar needed; that's how native speakers order too.
Hi! Could I get the chicken sandwich and a Coke, please?
What the Server Will Ask You
Servers recycle the same few questions — hear them before you go:
How would you like your steak? → rare / medium / well-done
For here or to go? (eat in or take away)
Anything else? → "That's all, thanks."
How is everything? (mid-meal check-in) → "Great, thanks!"
How would you like your steak?
Medium, please.
For here or to go?
Paying: Check or Bill, and How Tipping Works
To pay: "Could we get the check, please?" (American; in Britain it's the bill). Paying separately: "Separate checks, please." or "Can we split the bill?"
Excuse me, could we get the check, please?
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The cashier asks: "For here or to go?" What's the question?
答案：Eat in, or take away
For here = eating in the restaurant; to go = taking it away. Answer "For here, please." or "To go, please." It's usually said fast — pre-loading it in your ears is what saves you.
You can't pronounce the dish you want. The most natural move is?
答案：Point at the menu and say: I'll have this one, please.
Menu-pointing plus "this one" is a standard move servers see every day — completely natural. Spelling it out is slow and awkward; "Give me this" is understandable but blunt and impolite; switching dishes because of pronunciation means you lose.
Mid-meal, the server comes over: "How is everything?" What do they mean?
答案：A routine check-in — "Great, thanks!" is the standard answer
It's part of the service routine (with a genuine opening to flag problems — like a wrong dish). It's not rushing you and not upselling. Unless something's actually wrong, smile and answer short.
Three friends want to pay separately. The natural way to tell the server?
答案：Separate checks, please.
The fixed phrase is separate checks (or split the bill). "Cut the bill" is a literal translation; "pay one by one" is understandable but off (it sounds like queueing to pay in turns); "three bills for three people" is assembled word by word — not a real phrase.
Paying at a US restaurant (one word): Could we get the ___, please?
答案：check
Americans say check, Brits say bill — either works worldwide. It's not ticket and not list; the pair "check / bill" is all you need.
True or false: at a sit-down restaurant in the US, tipping is entirely up to your mood — leaving nothing is perfectly normal.
答案：False
US sit-down tipping is a default social norm (15–20%) — servers' base pay is structured around it. Leaving nothing reads as "something went seriously wrong", and the server may follow up. It's not a discretionary reward culture, and it's one of the biggest surprises for visitors.