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1. When was the last time you ate a meal at a restaurant? What did you eat? How much did it cost? How was your experience? Why?
2. Do you eat out at restaurants often? Why?
3. Have you ever worked at a restaurant? If yes, how was it? If no, would you like to? Why?
4. Where do you live? There are many restaurants that are well-known and popular in the area where you live. Tell me about one; what food do they serve? How expensive is it? Have you eaten there? Why?
5. Tell me about a restaurant experience that you have had or heard about that was either outstanding or appalling. What happened?
6. If a bank agreed to loan you ¥10 million ($100,000) to open a new restaurant, what kind of restaurant would you open? Why?

well-known=よく知られている, outstanding=素晴らしい, appalling=最低, to agree to ~=~に同意する

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Question 1

My family and I went to a steak and hamburger restaurant last month. We went to Studio Alice for my daughter's third birthday and then we went out for lunch. I had a steak and an extra plate of french fries. It was reasonably priced, costing about ¥4,000 for three people. The meal was a little disappointing though, to be honest. I wouldn't go there again.

Question 2

I don't eat out at restaurants very often, not since my daughter was born. I'm looking forward to the day when my family and I can go to a restaurant and enjoy the meal like normal people. No telling my daughter to sit still, to be quiet, to stop playing with her food. I love my daughter but I hope that day comes soon.

Question 3

Yes, I have. Kind of, anyway. I enrolled in a course in restaurant service and hotel management – a "Certificate II in Hospitality" – between high school and university. As part of our training, we ran a restaurant for a week in conjunction with the people training to be cooks. We worked front of house, they worked back of house. It was a fun experience but it was a lot of hard work. I don't want to work in a restaurant again.

Question 4

I live in Yao City. There are so many restaurants nearby though I'm not sure any of them are especially well-known. Diagonally across the street from my apartment building is a shabu-shabu restaurant called "Kagonoya". I've never eaten there but it looks nice inside. It also looks quite expensive.

Question 5

I ate at a place in China Town in Yokohama once. The waiting staff weren't friendly at all and the chefs were smoking in the kitchen as they cooked. There was a long wait time to be seated and the dining area was far too narrow. It was quite expensive, as it was "real" Chinese food, but I remember it being quite disappointing.

Question 6

I read about something called a "ghost restaurant" on the Internet. These are food service places that service customers exclusively by online orders so they have no dining area. They are a lot cheaper to run as you don't need to hire a waiting staff or pay rent on a large space.

Tough Vocabulary

- English -	- Japanese -
french fries	フライドポテト
to be honest	正直に言うと
looking forward to	楽しみにして
run a restaurant	レストランを経営する
front of house	レストランダイニングエリア
back of house	レストランの台所
diagonally across	斜めに
exclusively	独占的に
pay rent	家賃を払う