You recently enjoyed a meal at a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion, and you were very pleased with the food and service. Write a letter to the restaurant manager. In your letter: - give details of your visit to the restaurant - mention the reason for the celebration - say what was good about the food and the service
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to express my appreciation for the meal and service we received at your restaurantmeal and service that your restaurant provided us last Sunday on the occasion of my 21st birthday. Your restaurant is located near my office, and I took a few friends and colleagues to celebrate my birthday after one of my colleagues recommended itbased on a recommendation from one of my colleagues. We had lunch at your establishment and the whole experience was fabulousit was fabulous. The experience made my birthday even more specialmade my birthday even special, and I am quite thankful for the excellent servicean auspicious service and delicious foodmenu. We were greeted warmly as soon as we enteredgreeted properly just when we entered the restaurant, and surprisingly, the manager himself came overdown to us and arranged an excellent tablean excellent sitting place for us where we enjoyedfrom where we enjoyed a great view. A waiter came to tantalize our taste buds explaining the details of the menu. We had the "Thai soup" to start with. It was served at the perfect temperatureserved just perfectly, and it smelled great. Then we opted for mackerel and fried rice which were well flavoured and had a decent portion of 4 fillets with each serving. For the main course, we had the lamb cutlets which melted in our mouths tenderly and came with a delightfully spiced harissa sauce. I must say that your food made our day! We absolutely left with wonderful memoriestook away something truly special from this visit. Thank you once again for a fantastic experience at your establishment. We are already looking forward to our next visitWe can not wait until our next visit! Yours faithfully, Tom Chatfield
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter gives a vivid, appreciative account of the birthday meal and supports its praise with specific details about both the dishes and the service. The main weakness is that several ambitious word choices and collocations sound unnatural, while the single-block layout limits readability. Use clear paragraphs and replace strained expressions with precise, idiomatic wording to make the praise sound fully controlled.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter fully covers the visit, celebration, food, and service with specific supporting details and an appropriate appreciative tone.
Refine the visit details by stating the restaurant name or reservation information to make the context even more precise.
Coherence and Cohesion
The account progresses clearly from arrival through the meal to the closing thanks, but the lack of paragraph breaks makes the dense response less accessible.
Separate the visit context, service, food, and closing appreciation into purposeful paragraphs.
Lexical Resource
There is a broad range of vivid food and service vocabulary, although phrases such as auspicious service and excellent sitting place are not idiomatic.
Replace strained collocations with natural alternatives such as excellent service and a well-positioned table.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Complex and simple structures are used flexibly with strong overall control, though a few attachments and constructions are awkward.
Clarify modifier relationships, for example by rewriting the sentence in which the waiter explains the menu so the action is unambiguous.
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You recently enjoyed a meal at a restaurant to celebrate a special occasion, and you were very pleased with the food and service. Write a letter to the restaurant manager. In your letter:
- give details of your visit to the restaurant
- mention the reason for the celebration
- say what was good about the food and the service
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.