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 am Rona Lyn Olivar, a regular customer of your Cozy Place Restaurant, and today, I am writingtoday I am writing to complain about the poor-quality meals and dessertsunpalatable meals and desserts we were served last Sunday. I am hoping that you will maintain your food standard and investigate what happenedprobe into the event that ruined our evening.
I, along with my husband and children, went to your restaurant at around 7:00 p.m. on 27 July7:00 o'clock on 27th July to celebrate my husband's job promotion. It was supposed to be a happy and memorable night because we were commemorating a special event as a family in one of our favourite restaurants. Unfortunately, the experience was frustrating.But we have had a frustrating experience.
We ordered lamb steak, potatoesspuds and toasted sandwiches as our main course, but the steak was salty, raw, and hardsalty, raw and hard. On top of that, our sandwiches were served cold! Though we complained about our food to the waitress, she ignored usdid not mind us and instead told us to complain to the manager. This was quite unexpected and unprofessional.
I would like to request a full refundI demand a full refund that I paid for the meal and steps to makeyour steps towards making your staff behaviour more professional and cordial. Otherwise, I may not be able to return to your restaurantconsider me as a lost customer.
I look forward to your prompt response.I look forward to your immediate response regarding this.
Yours faithfully,
Rona Lyn Olivar
Why this response received Band 7.5
The letter communicates its purpose clearly, covers the visit, food and service problems, and requested remedy, and is organised in a logical sequence with varied language. Its main weakness is the overly forceful and sometimes unnatural tone of the final demand, alongside a few minor grammatical lapses. The highest-priority improvement is to recast the refund and staff-action request in precise, diplomatic customer-service language while proofreading tense, articles, and noun phrases.
IELTS Writing Criteria Scores
Task Achievement
The complaint covers the reason for visiting, the food and service problems, and the desired action. The purpose is very clear, but the threat in the remedy paragraph is too forceful for a high-scoring formal complaint.
Keep the specific refund request, but make the requested staff action and closing more diplomatic.
Coherence and Cohesion
The letter is well organised into purposeful paragraphs with a logical movement from background to problems and requested remedy. Cohesion is generally strong, though a few abrupt contrasts and repeated complaint phrases could be smoother.
Use measured transitions and combine the refund and staff-training request into one polished action paragraph.
Lexical Resource
Vocabulary is varied and mostly appropriate, including “unpalatable”, “commemorating”, and “unprofessional”. Some choices are awkward or overly strong, such as “probe into the event” and “consider me as a lost customer”.
Replace severe or unnatural complaint wording with precise customer-service language.
Grammatical Range and Accuracy
Grammar is mostly controlled across complex sentences. Errors are minor but noticeable in tense choice, articles, and sentence structure around the request for a refund.
Proofread tense after time references and check noun phrases such as “the amount I paid” and “steps to improve”.
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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.