IELTS Speaking · Part 2 Cue Card
A complete preparation guide: the cue card itself, a 60-second prep framework, a band 7.5 sample answer, topic vocabulary, and likely Part 3 follow-up questions.
Cue card
Describe a restaurant you enjoy going to.
You should say:
Specific to this cue card — not generic advice.
Read it once for shape, then aloud for rhythm. Don't memorise it — examiners can tell.
There's a tiny Korean restaurant near where I live in Penang that I've been going to for about three years. It seats maybe twenty people, has fluorescent lighting, plastic stools, and walls covered in handwritten signs in Korean that I can't read. It serves home-style food rather than the trendy stuff most Korean restaurants in the city do — soybean stew, marinated black beans, grilled mackerel. The owner is a woman in her sixties who cooks everything herself with one assistant, and the menu changes depending on what she's bought at the market that morning. I usually go with my partner and sometimes with my brother when he's in town, almost always on a Tuesday or Wednesday because it's impossibly busy on weekends. The signature dish is doenjang-jjigae, a fermented soybean stew with tofu, courgette, and pork. It comes in a stone bowl that's so hot it keeps bubbling at the table. The reason I love this place is partly the food, but mostly the feeling of being in someone's kitchen. The owner remembers what we like, scolds us if we don't finish the rice, and once made us a free dessert because she said we looked tired. You can't manufacture that.
Phrases used in the sample answer that lift fluency naturally.
home-style food
cooking like one would have at home
trendy stuff
fashionable, current items
impossibly busy
extremely crowded
signature dish
the dish a restaurant is known for
scolds us
tells us off in a friendly way
you can't manufacture that
that can't be artificially produced
The examiner will move from your story (Part 2) to broader, abstract questions (Part 3). Prepare answers for these.