2026-08-11 Restaurants, Dress Codes, and Favorite Foods

Session Overview

Participants swapped stories about working in and dining at restaurants, including tales of generous and demanding customers, unexpectedly high food prices, and being turned away for dress code violations. The group debated whether they qualified as ‘regulars’ anywhere and discussed favorite snacks and ice cream flavors from different cultures. The conversation wrapped up with a lively exchange about exercise habits and whether different activities really require different shoes.

💬 Idioms

“crappy day”

An informal way to describe a very bad or unpleasant day.

• She came home exhausted and barely spoke — it had clearly been a crappy day.
• Everyone has a crappy day now and then, but a good meal usually helps.

“revive (someone’s) faith in humanity”

To restore hope or positive feelings about people after a discouraging or frustrating experience.

• The stranger who returned her lost wallet really revived her faith in humanity.
• After so many rude customers, the one generous tipper revived the whole team’s faith in humanity.

“fell off the map”

To disappear from public attention or become much less popular or active than before.

• That ice cream brand was hugely popular a few years ago, but it fell off the map after a product recall.
• The restaurant opened with great buzz and then fell off the map within a year.

“double standard”

A situation where a rule is applied fairly to one group but unfairly differently to another.

• It is a double standard to require staff to arrive on time but let managers come in late.
• He felt it was a double standard that women could wear casual shoes inside but men could not.

📚 Vocabulary to Remember

• regular (noun) — A customer who visits the same place frequently and is well known by the staff there.
  • The barista already knew her order by heart because she was a regular at the café.
• markup — The amount added to the cost of producing something to arrive at its selling price.
  • The markup on bottled water at concerts is enormous — you pay five times the store price.
• dress code — An official set of rules stating what clothing is acceptable in a particular place.
  • The club had a strict dress code: no shorts, no flip-flops, and no sleeveless shirts.
• liability — Legal responsibility for accidents, injuries, or damages that occur in a place or situation.
  • The gym asked members to sign a waiver to limit the gym’s liability in case of injury.
• dissipate — To gradually spread out and fade away until no longer noticeable (used for smells, smoke, heat, etc.).
  • Open the windows after cooking and the smell of fried food will dissipate quickly.
• hydrate — To drink enough water or fluids to keep the body properly supplied with moisture.
  • When running outdoors in summer, it is important to hydrate before, during, and after your workout.
• jerky — Dried, salted, and cured meat cut into strips and eaten as a portable, high-protein snack.
  • He packed beef jerky and nuts for the hiking trip because they do not need refrigeration.
• tasty — Having a pleasant, enjoyable flavor. (Do not confuse with ’tasteful,’ which means having good aesthetic judgment, not good flavor.)
  • The dried mango she brought was surprisingly tasty — sweet, chewy, and not too sticky.

🔧 Say It Better

1. ❌ I will ask the hot water ✅ I will ask for hot water 💡 Use ‘ask for’ + noun when making a request; ‘ask’ alone needs a person as its object or a ’to’ infinitive
2. ❌ Dried mango is very tasteful ✅ Dried mango is very tasty 💡 ‘Tasteful’ means showing good aesthetic or artistic sense; use ’tasty’ to describe delicious food
3. ❌ Some kind of customers asking me for a lot of requests ✅ Some customers make a lot of requests 💡 Drop ‘kind of’ when speaking generally about a group; ‘make requests’ is the natural collocation — not ‘ask for requests’
4. ❌ This kind of customer didn’t take well ✅ This kind of customer didn’t tip well 💡 The verb for leaving a gratuity at a restaurant is ’tip,’ not ’take’
5. ❌ I never do it again ✅ I never did it again 💡 Use simple past (‘did’) for completed past actions, not simple present (‘do’)
6. ❌ At least one times a month ✅ At least once a month 💡 ‘Once’ is the standard English word for one occurrence per time period; ‘one times’ is not natural
7. ❌ when I was very younger, I didn’t eat the eggplant ✅ When I was younger, I didn’t eat eggplant 💡 Comparatives like ‘younger’ do not need ‘very’; also omit the article before food nouns used in a general sense
8. ❌ How much percentage of guest, client? Do they revisit your restaurant? ✅ What percentage of your customers come back regularly? 💡 Use ‘what percentage’ for a proportion question; ‘customers’ is the standard word for people who visit a business

✅ Check Yourself

Q1. After a long week of difficult news, one small act of kindness from a stranger was enough to ____.

• revive our faith in humanity
• fell off the map
• double standard

Q2. That once-popular sandwich chain had a loyal following, but it ____ after a big food-safety scandal.

• fell off the map
• dissipate
• hydrate

Q3. Charging customers eight times the ingredient cost for a simple dish is a very high ____.

• markup
• liability
• dress code

Q4. A sign at the venue entrance explained the ____: no shorts, no open-toe shoes.

• dress code
• regular
• liability

Q5. When jogging in summer heat, it is vital to ____ by drinking water every twenty minutes.

• hydrate
• dissipate
• jerky

✍️ Mini Diary

Today was quite an adventure. I went to try a new restaurant and got turned away at the entrance because I was wearing shorts — apparently they had a strict dress code. What annoyed me most was the double standard: several other guests inside were dressed just as casually as I was. The host kindly lent me a pair of plain trousers to wear inside, which was both embarrassing and oddly funny. By the time our wonderfully patient server brought us dessert, the whole silly experience had somehow managed to revive our faith in humanity.