Had dinner at a restaurant vs Had dinner at restaurant

Both phrases are correct, but they are used in different contexts. The phrase 'had dinner at a restaurant' is the more common and natural way to express this idea. The inclusion of the article 'a' before 'restaurant' is necessary for correct grammar. On the other hand, 'had dinner at restaurant' is not a standard English construction and would be considered incorrect.

Last updated: March 26, 2024 • 1682 views

Had dinner at a restaurant

This phrase is correct and commonly used in English.

This phrase is the correct way to express that you ate dinner at a specific restaurant. The article 'a' is necessary before 'restaurant'.

Examples:

We had dinner at a restaurant last night.
She always enjoys having dinner at a restaurant.
I had dinner at a restaurant with my friends.
They had a romantic dinner at a restaurant by the beach.
He suggested having dinner at a restaurant downtown.

Show examples from the web [+]

They had dinner at a nearby restaurant and were taking an evening stroll.
He had dinner last night at a restaurant called Cafe Tuscany.
She's meeting her sister tonight for dinner at a restaurant.
I want to go on a date with you, denny. I want to... eat dinner at a restaurant and not look like a crazy person talking to myself.
We had dinner in the restaurant with her fiancé.
Dinner at any restaurant in town.
My friend invited me to dinner at the restaurant.
So why not take her to a hotel or buy her a fancy dinner at a restaurant on the other side of town?
Ordering dinner in a restaurant, laughing with my friends...
They had dinner, left the restaurant together.
And took her out to dinner at her favorite restaurant.
We have a standing Thursday night dinner at our favorite restaurant.
James has arranged for us to have dinner at his new restaurant tonight.
Family dinner at Fiona's restaurant.
We're having dinner at a Chinese restaurant tonight.
Feed you like nice dinner at a fancy restaurant.
Cyrus made reservations for dinner At your favorite restaurant, the gramercy tavern.
I can't have dinner at that Moroccan restaurant this Saturday.
They went to dinner at the cove restaurant here.
I made the dinner reservation at a restaurant over in Haverhill.

Alternatives:

ate dinner at a restaurant
dined at a restaurant
had a meal at a restaurant
enjoyed dinner at a restaurant
had dinner at a nice restaurant

Had dinner at restaurant

This phrase is not a standard English construction and would be considered incorrect.

This phrase is incorrect due to the missing article 'a' before 'restaurant'. To be grammatically correct, you should always include the article when referring to a singular noun like 'restaurant'.

Show examples from the web [+]

They had dinner at a nearby restaurant and were taking an evening stroll.
He had dinner last night at a restaurant called Cafe Tuscany.
We had dinner in the restaurant with her fiancé.
Dinner at any restaurant in town.
My friend invited me to dinner at the restaurant.
They had dinner, left the restaurant together.
And took her out to dinner at her favorite restaurant.
We have a standing Thursday night dinner at our favorite restaurant.
James has arranged for us to have dinner at his new restaurant tonight.
Family dinner at Fiona's restaurant.
We're having dinner at a Chinese restaurant tonight.
Feed you like nice dinner at a fancy restaurant.
Cyrus made reservations for dinner At your favorite restaurant, the gramercy tavern.
I can't have dinner at that Moroccan restaurant this Saturday.
They went to dinner at the cove restaurant here.
You buy me dinner at my restaurant of choice if I'm right.
You buy me dinner at my restaurant of choice if I'm right.
Because nobody paid for dinner at the restaurant, and I do not have this kind of money.
And then we got dinner at the restaurant we hadn't been to in a long time.
She's meeting her sister tonight for dinner at a restaurant.

What Our Customers Are Saying

Our customers love us! We have an average rating of 4.79 stars based on 283,125 votes.
Also check out our 2,100+ reviews on TrustPilot (4.9).

"Thank you!"
Sachi Nakama July 2024
"I have literally been through chat, PI, claude, bard and bing and I got conflicting answers! Thank you! Human intelligence reigns!"
Retha July 2024
"Faster than AI"
CYNTHIA December 2023
"This was very helpful and I personally think this site is the best."
Kaden October 2023
"It was extremely thorough and very helpful!"
imperialelisa October 2023
"7 years without any disappointment. Always 100% satisfied. You guys are the best in the world at what you do. Thank you so much :)"
Zubair Alam October 2023
"In a world of text messages and online communication, this is great to have as a live tool. Thank you."
Selena October 2023
"Without textranch I would be stuck!"
宏祐 October 2023
"Accuracy and fast response. Personal comments from editor. Thank you."
Clh September 2023
"I wasn't aware of this service, it's fascinating and more reliable than standard IA tools available on the internet"
Arturo September 2023
"The fact that you can get reliable fast feedback on your texts."
Vinicius Antonio August 2023
"you guys are better than grammarly i'm being honest here"
ordinary July 2023
"OMG! This is really good than any other text correction tools I've used so far. Highly recommend this."
Vehan July 2023
"Very fast and accurate. thank you."
mojtaba July 2023
"I love this app because it's help to writing skills all of students ♥️"
Tarisini July 2023
"This was exactly the mistake I was looking for, the wording dind´t sound right at first. Better than grammarly!"
Ente July 2023
"The immediate help that I received was reassuring and very satisfactory. Thanks."
priiiyanshuu July 2023
"this helps A LOT for my studies."
kathnunez02 June 2023
"Woow!! I would never have expected such precision! Thank you soooo much!!"
Berta June 2023
"Real Time Editor and not AI. Many Thanks."
Priya June 2023
"The very first thing excites me about Textranch is how much your editors care."
sepideh June 2023
"The fact that texts are checked by human editors rather than by AI, etc. I appreciate this!"
Анна June 2023
"Feel welcome, immediate response, high quality feedback"
martin.roy June 2023
"This is the best app that I have ever seen"
Burulai May 2023

Had dinner at a restaurant vs Had dinner at restaurant