Professional Documents
Culture Documents
(At an invitation)
(In a restaurant)
Herr Ober- Guten Abend! Was kann ich fur Sie tun?
Herr Ober- Bitteschn! Hier ist die Speisekarte. Was mchtet ihr?
Herr Ober- Es tut mir sehr leid.Aber wir haben keine Bratwurst mehr.
The following items may be offered zum Frhstuck (tsm fruuh-shtuuck) (for breakfast):
In Germany, Brtchen are very popular for breakfast; however, you may also get all kinds of
bread or croissants. It is still very common to eat cold cuts for breakfast, and if you order an egg
without specifying that you want it scrambled or sunny side up, you will get it soft-boiled in an
egg cup.
Appetizers
Soups
You might see the following Suppen (z-pen) (soups) on the menu:
Main dishes
Hauptspeisen (howpt-shpy-zen) (main dishes) are as diverse as they are in any culture; here are
some you might find on a German menu:
Lammkotelett nach Art des Hauses (lm-kt-lt nahH ahrt ds how-zes) (homestyle
lamb chop)
Side dishes
You can sometimes order Beilagen (by-lah-gen) (side dishes) separately from your main course:
Dessert
German restaurants commonly offer many fine dishes zum Nachtisch (ztuhm naH-tsh) (for
dessert), including the following:
Gemischtes Eis mit Sahne (ge-msh-tes ays mt zah-ne) (mixed ice cream with whipped
cream)
Rote Grtze mit Vanillesoe (roh-te gruu-tse mt v-nle-zoh-se) (red berry compote
with vanilla sauce)
Drinks
When it comes to ordering Wasser (v-ser) (water), you have the choice between the carbonated
or non-carbonated one, which is ein Wasser mit Kohlensure (ayn v-ser mt koh-len-zoy-re)
(carbonated water) or ein Wasser ohne Kohlensure (ayn v-ser oh-ne koh-len-zoy-re) (non-
carbonated water). If you ask the waiter or waitress for ein Mineralwasser (mn-rahl-v-sr)
(mineral water), you usually get carbonated water.
Wine is usually offered by the bottle die Flasche (dee fl-she) or by the glass das Glas
(ds glahs). Sometimes, you can also get a carafe of wine, which is die Karaffe (dee kah-r-fe).
In the following list, you find a couple of common drinks, Getrnke (geh-traing-ke), that you
might see on a menu:
When ordering, you may decide to be adventurous and ask the waiter
Knnen Sie etwas empfehlen? (kuon-nen zee t-vss m-pfeh-len) (Can you recommend
something?)
Be prepared for him or her to respond at a rapid-fire pace, naming dishes you may have never
heard of before. To avoid any confusion with the waiters response, try holding out your menu
for the waiter to point at while responding.
Ich kann nichts essen, was . . . enthlt (H knn nHts sn, vs . . . nt-hailt) (I cant eat
anything that contains . . .)
Haben Sie Gerichte fr Diabetiker? (hah-bn zee ge-rH-te fuor dee-beh-t-ker) (Do
you have dishes for diabetics?)
Hat es Ihnen geschmeckt? (ht s ee-nen ge-shmkt) (Did you like the food?)
Hopefully, you enjoyed your meal and feel compelled to answer that question with one of the
following:
Unless youd like to order something else, its time to pay die Rechnung (dee rH-nngk) (the
bill). You can ask for the bill in the following ways:
You can pay together Alles zusammen, bitte. (-les ts-zmn, b-te) (Everything together,
please.) or separately Wir mchten getrennt zahlen. (veer muoH-ten ge-trnt tsah-len)
(We would like to pay separately.).