Ordering food: Food categories (meat, vegetables, seafood, noodles, rice)

💬 [想] before a verb often softens what you want: [我想点菜] is more natural than a blunt [我要点菜]. You can reuse it with other actions, like [我想看看菜单] "I'd like to look at the menu."

💬 [点菜] is the set phrase for ordering dishes at a restaurant. [点] often means 'choose/order' in this context too, like [点一个菜] or [点米饭].

💬 [想] before a verb makes a request sound softer and more natural: [我想点菜] is like "I'd like to order." You can swap in other verbs, like [我想吃米饭] or [我想看看].

💬 [的] links a describing noun phrase to the main noun: [什么类型的食物] is literally "what type's food," meaning "what kind of food." You can reuse this pattern in [什么口味的菜] "what flavor of dish."