You took your family to a nearby restaurant. You were disappointed with the meal and wish to complain to the manager. Write a letter to the manager of the restaurant. In your letter: - explain why you were at the restaurant - describe the problems - write about the action you want the manager to take
Sample Response
Dear Sir or Madam, I visited your restaurant on 11th May with my family to celebrate my sister’s birthday. We usually enjoy your food but this time it was veryutterly disappointing. I am hoping that you will keep your food quality intact and take action regarding the bad dining experience we hadthe bad dining experience we have had. We have always considered your restaurant as the classiestmost classy French cuisine place in town. Since my sister lives in France, we dine at your restaurant every time she is in our country. This time, it was even more specialThis time it was even more special as we were celebrating her birthday. However, the whole event was ruinedBut the whole event was ruined due to the dishes we were served. I suppose you can imagine our disappointment when we found the onion soup absolutely inedible. It was cold, and it appeared your chef did not stir it well while cooking. Some lumpsclogs of flour were visible in the soup. Moreover, the main course was cold and well below our expectationsnot up to our expectations. The dishes tasted very ordinaryThey tasted very ordinary and uninspiredhackneyed but we paid almost thrice for these items! We asked a waitress about the reasons and she had no plausible excuse for that. I am looking forward to hearing that you have taken the a refund and an explanation of how you will prevent this happening againnecessary steps to maintain your reputation and food quality. Otherwise, I may not be able to recommend or return to your restaurant.Otherwise, you have already lost a customer. Yours faithfully, Elizabeth Harley
Why this response received Band 7.0
The letter’s strongest feature is its clear account of the family celebration and the specific problems with the meal, supported by an appropriately firm complaint tone. Its main limitation is that the action requested from the manager remains vague, while one-paragraph presentation and several inaccurate word choices reduce polish. The highest-priority improvement is to state a concrete remedy—such as a refund or apology—and organise the complaint into focused paragraphs.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter explains the occasion and describes the food problems well, but the requested action is too general. A complaint letter should state clearly what the manager should do.
Add a specific requested outcome, such as an apology, refund, replacement meal, or staff follow-up.
Coherence and Cohesion
Ideas are logically sequenced and the complaint is easy to understand. Cohesion is weakened by one-paragraph formatting and a few abrupt shifts from background to complaint.
Use separate paragraphs for visit details, problems, and requested action.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and mostly effective for a complaint, but a few words are inaccurate or too strong for the context.
Replace unnatural choices such as clogs of flour and hackneyed with precise food-related vocabulary.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
A mix of simple and complex forms is used, with mostly clear meaning, but some tense and pronoun choices are inaccurate.
Check tense consistency in complaint descriptions and make sure pronouns clearly refer to the food items.
Write this task while it is fresh
Try the same task now. It helps you remember the feedback and write better next time.
IELTS General Training Writing Task 1
You took your family to a nearby restaurant. You were disappointed with the meal and wish to complain to the manager. Write a letter to the manager of the restaurant. In your letter:
- explain why you were at the restaurant
- describe the problems
- write about the action you want the manager to take
Your response
Write the task yourself, then compare your choices with the annotated response.