Ordering food in resturants

[Winwin2011]

The following is quoted from a book.

In most resturants, someone will soon come to your table to take your order. To say which dish you want, use ]I'd like... or I'll have...

1. For my starter, I'd like the salad, please.
2. For my main course, I'd like the pasta.
3. For dessert, I'd like ice cream.
4. I'll have the lamb, please.

I have the following questions:

1. Why did the author use the definite article 'the' before salad, pasta and lamb? Is it natural to leave out 'the' in the above sentence?
2. Why didn't the author use 'the' before ice cream?

Thanks.

 

[bhaisahab]

The following is quoted from a book.

In most resturants, someone will soon come to your table to take your order. To say which dish you want, use ]I'd like... or I'll have...

1. For my starter, I'd like the salad, please.
2. For my main course, I'd like the pasta.
3. For dessert, I'd like ice cream.
4. I'll have the lamb, please.

I have the following questions:

1. Why did the author use the definite article 'the' before salad, pasta and lamb? Is it natural to leave out 'the' in the above sentence?
2. Why didn't the author use 'the' before ice cream?

Thanks.

1. The person is asking for the salad etcetera on the menu.

 

[Winwin2011]

I'd like ice cream vs I'll have the fruit

When we are ordering food in restaurants, do we need to use 'the' before ice cream? The context is as follows:

1. For dessert, I 'd like ice cream.
2. For dessert, I'll have the fruit.

 

[bhaisahab]

Re: I'd like ice cream vs I'll have the fruit

When we are ordering food in resturants, do we need to use 'the' before ice cream? The context is as follows:

1. For dessert, I 'd like ice cream.
2. For dessert, I'll have the fruit.

1. For dessert, I 'd like ice cream. Do you have any?
2. For dessert, I'll have the fruit on the menu.

 

[Winwin2011]

Re: I'd like ice cream vs I'll have the fruit

1. For dessert, I 'd like ice cream. Do you have any?
2. For dessert, I'll have the fruit on the menu.

Thanks,bhaisahab.

We use 'the' before fruit, why don't we use 'the' before ice cream?

 

[bhaisahab]

Re: I'd like ice cream vs I'll have the fruit

Thanks,bhaisahab.

We use 'the' before fruit, why don't we use 'the' before ice cream?

If ice cream is listed on the menu, you could say "I'll have the ice cream".

 

[Raymott]

Re: I'd like ice cream vs I'll have the fruit

Thanks,bhaisahab.

We use 'the' before fruit, why don't we use 'the' before ice cream?

You use "the" if the item has already been identified. If you had not been handed a menu, and just said to the waiter, "For dessert I'll have the fruit" the waiter could well say, "What fruit? We don't have fruit."
The only reason you can say "the fruit" is because 'fruit' is mentioned on the menu, and therefore you have a right to expect that "the fruit" exists - because it's been referred to.

If fruit wasn't on the menu, or if you didn't have a menu, you'd say, "For dessert, I'd like some fruit." or "Do you have any fruit?"
The same applies to ice cream.

PS: Note that you can say "some fruit/ice cream" even if it is on the menu. For example, you can say, "I'll have an apple pie" even if apple pie has been mentioned. But you can't use "the" if it hasn't been.

 

[BobK]

:up: He could have said 'the ice cream', but if he had that would imply that the ice cream was listed as a special case on the menu.

b

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello, winwin.:-D
I think it might be only a typo, but just in case...
It's 'restaurant'.:-D

 

[emsr2d2]

:up: He could have said 'the ice cream', but if he had that would imply that the ice cream was listed as a special case on the menu.

b

Would you not expect ice cream to be listed in its own right on a dessert menu, in exactly the same way that a salad would be listed under the starters?

 

[bhaisahab]

Would you not expect ice cream to be listed in its own right on a dessert menu, in exactly the same way that a salad would be listed under the starters?

I'm sure that not all restaurants have ice cream listed. If ice cream is listed, we can say "I'll have the ice cream". If it's not we could say "I'd like ice cream. Do you have any?" this is the point I was trying to make.

 

[emsr2d2]

If ice cream was not listed on the menu at a restaurant, I would assume they didn't have any and don't offer it. I don't ask for anything in restaurants that's not on the menu. I might ask them to remove something from a dish, but I definitely wouldn't ask for something that didn't appear on the menu.

 

[BobK]

:-? But when ordering a sweet course you often don't have the menu in front of you. In that case, here's a possible dialogue:

Waiter: Shall I bring you the dessert menu?
Customer: No thanks. Can I just have an ice cream?
Waiter [one of the two]: Certainly sir. Strawberry, chocolate or vanilla? | I'm sorry sir, we don't serve ice cream. [This would almost certainly be followed by something like: 'But our Manhattan Delight is mostly ice cream, with a [etc etc] Only $5.99.'] ;-)

b

 

[BobK]

Administrative note: I've merged two threads, both statred by the same OP, about the same time, with shared examples, though the fact that bhai hadn't already complained about the duplication suggests to me that there may have been some point to it. But if there was, I can't see it. ;-)

b

 

[emsr2d2]

:-? But when ordering a sweet course you often don't have the menu in front of you. In that case, here's a possible dialogue:

Waiter: Shall I bring you the dessert menu?
Customer: No thanks. Can I just have an ice cream?
Waiter [one of the two]: Certainly sir. Strawberry, chocolate or vanilla? | I'm sorry sir, we don't serve ice cream. [This would almost certainly be followed by something like: 'But our Manhattan Delight is mostly ice cream, with a [etc etc] Only $5.99.'] ;-)

b

Maybe it's just me. If the waiter offered me the dessert menu, I would either say "Yes please" and then order from it or I would say "It depends. Do you have any ice cream?" if the waiter says they do, then I would say "I'll have the ice cream then please" and if he says they don't then I would ask to see the menu.

My point being that if I were offered the dessert menu, I wouldn't say "No thanks. I'll have the ice cream" because I would have no way of knowing that ice cream was on offer at that point.

 

[BobK]

...
My point being that if I were offered the dessert menu, I wouldn't say "No thanks. I'll have the ice cream" because I would have no way of knowing that ice cream was on offer at that point.

That's why I didn't say that. By saying 'No thanks, can I just have an ice cream' I'm saying 'I'm in a hurry and have no interest in wasting my time waiting for you to bring a load of tedious and uninformative 'information' to decipher. I just want an ice cream. Do you have that?'

I guess it's just me.

b