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This IELTS Speaking Part 2 cue card asks you to talk about a café or restaurant you like, covering where it is; what kind of food it serves; how often you go there; and explain why you enjoy it.. Below is a band 9 sample answer with tips on structuring a two-minute talk.
Describe a café or restaurant you enjoy visiting.
You should say:
You have one minute to prepare and may make notes. Then speak for one to two minutes; the examiner may ask one or two short follow-up questions.
My favourite place to eat is a small family-run café near my old college, and I still go back roughly twice a month even though it is no longer on my way anywhere. It is an unpretentious place — perhaps ten tables, steel tumblers, a handwritten menu that has barely changed in a decade — serving South Indian staples like dosas, idlis and filter coffee, along with a legendary Thursday-only special thali. The food is honestly excellent: the dosas arrive crisp and paper-thin, the sambar tastes home-made rather than industrial, and the coffee is strong enough to reorganise your afternoon. But if I am truthful, the cooking is only half the reason I keep returning. The owners, an elderly couple, remember every regular's usual order; the husband still greets me by asking about my mother, whom he met exactly once, years ago. During my student days, they quietly ran a tab for those of us who ran short before month-end, trusting us to settle later. Prices remain absurdly reasonable because, as the owner says, students must eat. In an age of themed cafés designed mainly for photographs, this place has personality instead of decor. Eating there feels less like a transaction and more like visiting relatives who happen to cook better than anyone else.
After your talk, the examiner moves to more abstract questions linked to this cue card.
Rising incomes and shrinking time are the main drivers — dual-career households often lack the hours to cook daily, and eating out has shifted from luxury to routine convenience. Social life has also moved to restaurants, since apartments are small and cafés offer neutral, pleasant meeting ground.
Each wins at something different. Chains sell predictability — identical taste and hygiene in every branch — which travellers reasonably value. Small restaurants offer character, recipes with an actual author, and money that stays in the neighbourhood. My sympathy is with the small places, because chains would still thrive without my help.
More important than we admit. Diners forgive average food in a warm, welcoming place far more readily than they forgive rudeness alongside excellent food, because a meal out is really the purchase of an experience. That said, atmosphere without quality only fools a customer once — the food decides whether people return.
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