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, My wife and I visited your restaurant to celebrate our third wedding anniversary on March 18th, 2025. Unfortunately, we had a very negative experience because of poor food qualitydue to a below-average meal and poor staff behaviour. I would like you to investigate why this happenedI want you to investigate the reason for such a terrible meal. I believe this may affect your restaurant's reputation.Otherwise, you are going to lose customers. We arrived at your restaurant at around 6:00 pm and ordered Doro Wat for our main course. However, it tasted bitter and overcookedBut it tasted astringent due to overcooking. Even after we told the waiter about thisEven after we told this to the waiter on duty, he did not respond appropriatelydid not pay attention and told us to complain to the manager instead. Besides, the fruit punch that my wife ordered had no orange juice in it, though the menu stated that it contained orange juicethe menu stated so. This was very annoying, and it ruinedThis was very annoying which actually ruined our dining experience. I request a full refund of the amount I paidI demand a full refund that I paid for an unsatisfactory meala worthless meal. I also want you to take the necessary action against the waiter who refused to pay attentiondenied paying attention to our complaints. I look forward to your prompt responseI look forward to seeing you take immediate action regarding this matter. Yours faithfully, K. Henok
Why this response received Band 6.5
The letter clearly fulfils its purpose by explaining the anniversary visit, describing specific food and service problems, and requesting concrete action. Its main weakness is that blunt phrasing and abrupt, minimally paragraphed progression make the complaint sound less professional than intended; prioritise a calmer evidence-based tone, more natural restaurant vocabulary, and short purposeful paragraphs so the manager can follow the case and proposed remedy easily.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The letter covers all three bullets: the anniversary visit, meal and service problems, and a requested refund plus action against the waiter. The complaint purpose is clear, but the tone is sometimes too blunt for a formal manager letter.
Keep the complaint firm but professional by replacing threats and highly negative labels with specific evidence and a clear requested remedy.
Coherence and Cohesion
The ideas are generally ordered from context to problems and action. Cohesion is weakened by abrupt sentences, limited paragraphing, and some links that do not show the relationship between ideas smoothly.
Group the visit, food issues, staff issue, and requested action into short paragraphs with clearer transitions.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary communicates the complaint, but some choices are imprecise or too emotional, such as "worthless meal" and "tasted astringent". The range is adequate but not always natural.
Use precise restaurant complaint language such as "overcooked", "poor service", "refund", and "staff training".
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Grammar is mostly understandable, with a mix of simple and complex sentences. Errors with relative clauses, verb patterns, and sentence linking reduce control.
Check that each sentence has a clear subject-verb structure and that relative clauses are correctly linked.
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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.