Top 50 phrases to get by Taiwan (Advanced): Dining out

💬 [位] is the polite counting word for people, so [兩位] is more natural here than [兩個人]. You can swap the number: [一位] for one person, [三位] for three.

💬 [有] often means "have / there is," so [有位子嗎？] literally asks whether there's a seat available. You can reuse this pattern with other things: [有英文菜單嗎？]

🇹🇼 In Taiwan this is a very normal way to ask if a restaurant can seat you, especially at casual places. Staff may answer with [幾位？] right away if the place has space.

💬 [幾位？] literally means "how many people?" using the polite people counter [位]. You'll hear the same pattern in [幾個？] for things, but for customers [位] sounds better.

💬 [一] before a counting word is pronounced (yí), so [一位] is said (yí wèi), not (yī wèi). You'll hear the same in [一個] (yí ge).

🇹🇼 Staff say this constantly when guiding you to a seat, counter, or pickup area. It's polite but routine, so you usually just follow rather than answer.

💬 [可以] here means "may I / is it possible to," a very handy soft way to ask for something. You can reuse it with lots of verbs: [可以加水嗎？] or [可以外帶嗎？]

💬 [有什麼 + verb] is a useful pattern for asking what options exist: here, [有什麼推薦？] means "what do you recommend?" You can build similar questions like [有什麼飲料？]

💬 [要] often means "want" or "would like to," and [點餐] means "order food." The same [我要...] pattern works for ordering directly too: [我要牛肉麵]

🇹🇼 This is natural when you're ready to order and want to get the server's attention. In a busy casual place, many people just say [點餐] or start listing items instead.