Recommended resources
The freely available resources this lesson will direct you to.
Hei! Last lesson, you practised placing an order and explaining a preference or dietary restriction. Now turn your attention to the other side of the exchange. A server may ask whether you have decided, offer an addition, clarify a choice, or ask how you want to pay. You do not need to catch every word: recognizing the kind of decision being requested often gives you enough to answer.
This lesson follows a meal from menu to receipt. Allow about 35–40 minutes, including time to replay the short video passages.
Hear the question behind the menu
The first question may not ask for your order at all. In the image below, the server offers to tell the customer about the dish of the day. The key distinction is between Vil du høre …? (“Would you like to hear …?”) and Vil du ha …? (“Would you like …?”). The first invites you to listen; the second invites you to choose.
Once you are ready to choose, listen for questions such as Har du bestemt deg? (“Have you decided?”) and Hva ønsker du å bestille? (“What would you like to order?”). A server may use dere rather than du when speaking to your whole table. You can answer with the short ordering phrases you already know: Jeg tar fiskesuppen, takk. If you still need time, Ikke helt ennå. Kan jeg få litt mer tid? means “Not quite yet. Can I have a little more time?”
Read the server’s side of this exchange in 30 Useful Words and Phrases for Waiters. It is written for staff, which makes it useful here: your task is to recognize what their questions require of you.
30 Useful Words and Phrases for Waiters
Read the ordering questions and the short section on special requests. Focus on whether each question asks for an order, a decision, a drink, or a clarification.
Start at the paragraph beginning “Once your customers are ready” and read the ordering questions through the starter question. Then, under “Handling Special Requests,” continue through the question about water with or without carbonation; stop before “Serving and Clearing Tables.” Pay particular attention to “Har du bestemt deg?”, “Er det noe du ikke tåler?” and “Vil du ha vann med eller uten kullsyre?”
Er det noe du ikke tåler? literally asks whether there is anything you cannot tolerate. It is an opening to mention an allergy or another food intolerance, not a request to pick a dish. Answer accurately for your own situation—for example, Jeg er allergisk mot nøtter (“I’m allergic to nuts”)—and ask the staff to check a dish if needed, as you did last lesson.
Now hear how the conversation moves from drinks to food in What to say in a restaurant in Norway, from Preben’s Norwegian community. You encountered the customer’s ordering phrases last lesson; this time, listen chiefly for the server’s turns.
What to say in a restaurant in Norway
The restaurant dialogue lets you hear a question about drinks followed by a question about the meal. Notice that a server can ask for a decision without expecting you to order immediately.
Watch drinks first, then the food choice. On a second listen, focus on the moment the server checks whether the customer wants anything else after naming a dish.
Recognize additions and alternatives
After you name an item, the server may continue. Noe mer? means “Anything else?”; Vil du ha noe mer? makes the same offer more explicitly. A brief Nei takk, det var alt (“No thanks, that was everything”) closes the order. If you do want something else, Ja, en kaffe også, takk (“Yes, a coffee as well, please”) is enough.
The surrounding words tell you what sort of addition is on offer. Vil du ha noe til forrett? asks about a starter. Later, Vil du ha dessert? asks about dessert. During the meal, Vil dere ha påfyll? asks whether your table would like a refill. You can accept or decline each one with Ja takk or Nei takk; you do not need to repeat the whole question.
Other questions present alternatives rather than additions. Listen for eller (“or”):
Vil du ha vann med eller uten kullsyre?
Would you like water with or without carbonation?Uten kullsyre, takk.
Still water, please.
That answer works because uten kullsyre selects one of the offered options. When the alternatives are unfamiliar, confirm what you think you heard before choosing: Mente du med eller uten kullsyre? (“Did you mean with or without carbonation?”). If a food choice affects a dietary restriction, do not guess from a partly heard ingredient; ask the server to repeat or check it.
A question can also contain a word you know from the menu while serving a different purpose. Vil du ha poteter ved siden av? offers potatoes on the side; it does not tell you whether potatoes were already included. If that matters, ask Er poteter inkludert? (“Are potatoes included?”). This keeps a possible extra charge or unwanted addition from becoming an assumption.
As the meal progresses, listen to another short stretch of the restaurant dialogue. The dessert question arrives before the conversation turns to payment.
What to say in a restaurant in Norway
Return to What to say in a restaurant in Norway for the dessert offer. Listen for the server’s short question and the customer’s acceptance or refusal.
Watch the dessert offer. Focus on “Skal du ha dessert?” and how “ja takk” or “nei takk” answers the question without a long sentence.
Move from the bill to payment
When the meal is over, regningen is the bill: the amount to settle. You can ask Kan jeg få regningen, takk? (“Can I have the bill, please?”). The server may reply Jeg kommer straks tilbake med regningen (“I’ll be right back with the bill”). That is a statement about what happens next, not a request for another order.
At payment, questions become more specific. Hvordan ønsker du å betale? asks how you want to pay. Kort eller kontant? narrows that to card or cash. Either can be answered simply: Med kort, takk or Kontant, takk. If you are unsure which methods are accepted, Kan jeg betale med kort? asks directly.
There is another decision when several people are eating together: Skal dere betale sammen eller hver for dere? means “Will you pay together or separately?” Listen for sammen (“together”) and hver for dere (“each separately”). An appropriate answer is Sammen, takk or Hver for oss, takk. This is a different question from how you will pay; med kort alone does not say whether the bill should be split.
Read the payment language in the final part of 30 Useful Words and Phrases for Waiters.
30 Useful Words and Phrases for Waiters
This passage introduces the server’s payment question and the word for the receipt. Keep the bill, payment method, and receipt as three distinct moments.
Under “Payments and Farewell,” read the payment passage, from its opening paragraph through the explanation of “Her er kvitteringen din.” Stop before the farewell phrases. Notice also the statement “Vi tar bare kort”: it means that this particular place accepts cards only.
The distinction between regning and kvittering is especially useful. You receive or inspect the bill before settling up; a kvittering is the receipt after payment. A server might ask Vil du ha kvittering? (“Would you like a receipt?”) or say Her er kvitteringen din (“Here is your receipt”). For the question, Ja takk or Nei takk is sufficient. If you need one after it was not offered, say Kan jeg få kvitteringen, takk?
Listen to the payment part of the restaurant dialogue once. Concentrate on where the customer must make a choice and where the server is simply explaining the next step.
What to say in a restaurant in Norway
The closing exchange in What to say in a restaurant in Norway demonstrates paying at the counter and asking to use a card. Listen for the difference between a question about the total and a request to pay by card.
Watch settling the bill. The explanation of paying at the counter comes first; later, listen for “Hvor mye blir det?” (“How much does it come to?”) and “Kan jeg betale med kort?”
Follow the decisions through one meal
Read this exchange as a sequence of different questions, not as one long order:
Servitør: Har du bestemt deg?
Du: Ja, jeg tar fiskesuppen, takk.
Servitør: Vil du ha noe å drikke?
Du: Et glass vann, takk.
Servitør: Med eller uten kullsyre?
Du: Uten kullsyre.
Servitør: Noe mer?
Du: Nei takk, det var alt.After the meal:
Servitør: Skal du ha dessert?
Du: Nei takk. Kan jeg få regningen?
Servitør: Selvfølgelig. Hvordan ønsker du å betale?
Du: Med kort, takk.
Servitør: Vil du ha kvittering?
Du: Ja takk.
At each turn, a small cue points to the answer: drikke asks for a drink; med eller uten offers alternatives; noe mer offers an addition; hvordan … betale asks for a payment method; kvittering concerns the receipt. If you miss the beginning of a quick question, those words can still help you identify what is being decided. If you cannot tell which choice is being offered, use a repair phrase rather than answering at random: Kan du si det en gang til? (“Can you say that once more?”).
Takeaways
A restaurant conversation does not end when you place the order. Listen for whether the server is asking you to choose, add something, select between alternatives, decide how to pay, or accept a receipt. Short answers are often the most natural, provided they answer the right question. Keep regningen (bill) and kvitteringen (receipt) separate, and ask for repetition whenever a choice—especially one involving ingredients or payment—is unclear.
Next lesson, you will bring these ordering and listening skills together to resolve a misunderstanding during a shop or restaurant transaction.