You celebrated your birthday with some friends last week in a restaurant. It was a great success and you and your friends enjoyed the evening very much. Write a letter to the restaurant. In your letter: - thank the restaurant for the successful evening - mention the food, service and atmosphere - suggest improvements that could make things better
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I am writing to thank you for the fantastic food and service you offered to us for the birthday celebrationon my birthday that we celebrated at your restaurant. I hope you will maintain this excellent standard of serviceoffer the praiseworthy service in the future and I must say you have earned my loyalty as a customerwon my heart as a guest. I went to your restaurant on 09 December with a few friends of mine to celebrate my birthday and all of us were very impressed with the overall experience. The food was delicious and well-presented. I must mention that theI must mention the “Chicken Tandoori” dish that was served to us was the star of the evening, cooked to perfection and absolutely mind-blowing. I really enjoyed the live music that was being played; itbeing played - it lightened up the whole ambience. I also liked the retro theme“Retro Theme” in the restaurant. We were very pleased with the service; all the staff members were friendly, attentive and served us with a smile. Our waiter also made a few recommendations for drinks, which were well chosen and enjoyablegood and something we enjoyed. I would like to suggest one improvementrecommend an improvement - as your restaurant is a non-smoking zone, it would be great if you could have a separate smoking area so that smokersarea thus smokers will feel more comfortable. I am sure your customers will like this arrangement. Thank you once again for making my birthday party memorable. My friends and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I will definitely recommend your restaurant to my friends and family. Yours faithfully, Anna Preeti
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter communicates its appreciative purpose very effectively, covers every requested point with specific and engaging detail, and maintains a suitably courteous tone. Its main limitation is occasional awkward or overemphatic phrasing, alongside a lack of visible paragraphing that makes the response feel denser than necessary. Prioritise natural collocations and separate the occasion, praise, and suggested improvement into clear paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The purpose is immediately clear, all three bullet points are fully covered, and the praise and suggested improvement are specifically developed.
Make the improvement slightly more tactful and operational by explaining where a separate smoking area could be located.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas progress logically from thanks and visit details through food, atmosphere, service, and the recommendation, with clear cohesive links.
Use distinct paragraphs for the opening purpose, positive details, improvement, and closing to make the progression easier to scan.
Lexical Resource
A broad and generally precise vocabulary conveys enthusiastic praise effectively, though a few expressions are slightly overstated or unnatural.
Replace less natural phrases such as “lightened up the whole ambience” with more idiomatic choices such as “created a lively atmosphere.”
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
The letter uses varied complex structures with generally strong control, while a few awkward clauses and punctuation choices reduce precision.
Refine clause boundaries in long sentences, particularly around relative clauses and the recommendation introduced with “thus.”
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IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You celebrated your birthday with some friends last week in a restaurant. It was a great success and you and your friends enjoyed the evening very much. Write a letter to the restaurant. In your letter:
- thank the restaurant for the successful evening
- mention the food, service and atmosphere
- suggest improvements that could make things better
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.