This is a list of restaurant terminology. A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drink to customers in return for money, either paid before the meal, after the meal, or with a running tab. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer

take-out A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of the main chef's

cuisine A cuisine is a style of cooking characterized by distinctive ingredients, techniques and dishes, and usually associated with a specific culture or geographic region. Regional food preparation techniques, customs, and ingredients combine to ...

s and service models.

Restaurant terminology

* 86 – a term used when the restaurant has run out of, or is unable to prepare a particular menu item. Increasingly; when a bar patron is ejected from the premises and refused readmittance. Usually it is only for the rest of that night, though if the patron is especially violent, the ban may be for a longer term or even permanently. *

À la carte In restaurants, ''à la carte'' (; ) is the practice of ordering individual dishes from a menu in a restaurant, as opposed to '' table d'hôte'', where a set menu is offered. It is an early 19th century loan from French French (french: fr ...

Bartender A bartender (also known as a barkeep, barman, barmaid, or a mixologist) is a person who formulates and serves alcoholic or soft drink beverages behind the bar, usually in a licensed establishment as well as in restaurants and nightclubs, but ...

Blue-plate special A blue-plate special is a discount-priced meal that usually changes daily: a term used in the United States and Canada by restaurants, especially diners and cafes. The term was very common from the 1920s through the 1950s. , there are still a f ...

Brigade de cuisine (, "kitchen brigade") is a system of hierarchy found in restaurants and hotels employing extensive staff, commonly referred to as "kitchen staff" in English-speaking countries. The concept was developed by Georges Auguste Escoffier (1846–1935 ...

BYOB BYOB or BYO is an initialism and acronym concerning alcohol that means "bring your own bottle" or "bring your own booze" or "bring your own beer". BYOB is stated on an invitation to indicate that the host will not be providing alcohol and that gu ...

– an

initialism An acronym is a word or name formed from the initial components of a longer name or phrase. Acronyms are usually formed from the initial letters of words, as in ''NATO'' (''North Atlantic Treaty Organization''), but sometimes use syllables, as ...

standing for "bring your own bottle", "bring your own beer", "bring your own beverage", or "bring your own booze" *

Charcuterie Charcuterie ( , also ; ; from french: chair, , flesh, label=none, and french: cuit, , cooked, label=none) is a French term for a branch of cooking devoted to prepared meat products, such as bacon, ham, sausage, terrines, '' galantines'', '' ...

Chef A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a k ...

Chef de cuisine A chef de cuisine (, French for ''head of kitchen'') or head chef is a chef that leads and manages the kitchen and chefs of a restaurant A restaurant is a business that prepares and serves food and drinks to customers. Meals are genera ...

- also called "head chef" or "master chef" *

Chef's table ''Chef's Table'' is an American documentary series created by David Gelb' which premiered on video streaming service Netflix on April 26, 2015. The series takes viewers inside both the lives and kitchens of a variety acclaimed and successful inte ...

Combination meal A combination meal, often referred as a combo-meal, is a type of meal that typically includes food items and a beverage. They are a common menu item at fast food restaurants, and other restaurants also purvey them. Combination meals may be pr ...

* Cooked to order – food that is cooked to a patron's directions * Counter meal *

Counter service The foodservice (US English) or catering (British English) industry includes the businesses, institutions, and companies which prepare meals outside the home. It includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and man ...

Dine and dash Dine and dash is the US phrase for a form of theft by fraud, in which a patron or patrons orders and consumes food and beverages from a restaurant or similar establishment with the intent not to pay. The act may involve the customer leaving the ...

Early bird dinner Early bird dinner is a dinner served earlier than traditional dinner hours, particularly at a restaurant. Many establishments offer a seating prior to their main dinner seating with a reduced price menu, often more limited in selection than the sta ...

Entrée An entrée (, ; ) in modern French table service and that of much of the English-speaking world (apart from the United States and parts of Canada) is a dish served before the main course of a meal. Outside North America, it is generally synony ...

Family meal A family meal or staff meal is a group meal that a restaurant serves its staff outside of peak business hours. The restaurant provides the meal free of charge, as a perk of employment. Typically the meal is served to the entire staff at once, with ...

Fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold in a restaurant or store with frozen, preheated or precooked ingredie ...

Free lunch A free lunch is the providing of a meal at no cost, usually as a sales enticement to attract customers and increase revenues from other business. It was once a common tradition in saloons and taverns in many places in the United States, with th ...

* ''

Garde manger A (; French) is a cool, well-ventilated area where cold dishes (such as salads, , appetizers, canapés, pâtés, and terrines) are prepared and other foods are stored under refrigeration. The person in charge of this area is known as the "" o ...

'' *

Ghost restaurant A virtual restaurant (also known as a ghost kitchen or dark kitchen) is a food service business that serves customers exclusively by delivery and pick up based on phone and online ordering. It is a separate food vendor entity that operates out o ...

– a restaurant that operates exclusively via food delivery *

Gueridon service In the restaurant industry, gueridon service or tableside service is the cooking or finishing of foods by a waiter (or maître d'hôtel) at the diner's table, typically from a special serving cart called a ''guéridon'' trolley. This type of servi ...

* Happy hour *

Kids' meal The kids' meal or children's meal is a fast food combination meal tailored to and marketed to children. Most kids' meals come in colorful bags or cardboard boxes with depictions of activities/games on the bag or box and a toy inside. Most sta ...

* Main course *

Maître d'hôtel The ''maître d'hôtel'' (; ), head waiter, host, waiter captain, or ''maître d ( , ) manages the public part, or "front of the house", of a formal restaurant. The responsibilities of a ''maître d'hôtel'' generally include supervising the ...

Meat and three In the cuisine of the Southern United States, a meat and three restaurant is one where the customer picks one meat from a daily selection of three to six choices (such as fried chicken, country ham, beef, country-fried steak, meatloaf, or pork c ...

* Meat and two veg – a British dish consisting of meat served with two varieties of vegetables *

Menu In a restaurant, the menu is a list of food and beverages offered to customers and the prices. A menu may be à la carte – which presents a list of options from which customers choose – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established seque ...

Mise en place ''Mise en place'' () is a French culinary phrase which means "putting in place" or "gather". It refers to the setup required before cooking, and is often used in professional kitchens to refer to organizing and arranging the ingredients (e.g., c ...

* Monkey dish – a small (3" or 5 cm) bowl used for sauces, nuts, or as a repository for bones or citrus peel *

Omakase is a Japanese phrase, used when ordering food in restaurants, that means 'I'll leave it up to you' (from Japanese ). Usage The phrase ''omakase'', literally 'I leave it up to you', is most commonly used when dining at Japanese restaurants ...

On the fly On the fly is a phrase used to describe something that is being changed while the process that the change affects is ongoing. It is used in the automotive, computer, and culinary industries. In cars, on the fly can be used to describe the changing ...

One bowl with two pieces One bowl with two pieces () is a slang term that has long been in the vernacular of Hong Kong tea culture, meaning "a bowl of tea with two dim sum". In the past, tea was not offered in a present-day teapot but in a bowl, in Cantonese restaurants. D ...

Online food ordering Online food ordering is the process of ordering food, for delivery or pickup, from a website or other application. The product can be either ready-to-eat food (e.g., direct from a home-kitchen, restaurant, or a virtual restaurant) or food that h ...

Plate lunch The plate lunch ( haw, pā mea ʻai) is a quintessentially Hawaiian meal, roughly analogous to Southern U.S. meat-and-threes. However, the pan-Asian influence on Hawaiian cuisine, and its roots in the Japanese bento, make the plate lunch uniq ...

Platter (dinner) A platter is a large flat dish or plate, typically oval or circular in shape, used for serving a meal or course. In restaurant terminology, a platter is often a main dish served on a platter with one or more side dishes, such as a salad or f ...

Rôtisseur A chef is a trained professional cook and tradesman who is proficient in all aspects of food preparation, often focusing on a particular cuisine. The word "chef" is derived from the term ''chef de cuisine'' (), the director or head of a kitch ...

* ''

Saucier A saucier () or sauté chef is a position in the classical brigade style kitchen. It can be translated into English as ''sauce chef''. In addition to preparing sauces, the saucier prepares stews, hot hors d'œuvres, and sautés food to order. ...

'' *

Serving cart A serving cart is a kind of smaller food cart. It is typically used by restaurants to deliver or display food. Serving carts are also used in households, airplanes, and trains. Types * Dessert cart (known as a sweet trolley in the UK) – This is ...

Signature dish A signature dish is a recipe that identifies an individual chef or restaurant. Ideally it should be unique and allow an informed gastronome to name the chef in a blind tasting. It can be thought of as the culinary equivalent of an artist finding ...

Sous-chef A sous-chef is a chef who is second in command in a kitchen; the person ranking next after the head chef, usually the more hands on manager with regards to training staff and organising the kitchen. Duties and functions The sous-chef has many re ...

– the chef who is second in command within a kitchen; sous meaning "under" *

Table d'hôte In restaurant terminology, a ''table d'hôte'' (; ) menu is a menu where multi-course meals with only a few choices are charged at a fixed total price. Such a menu may be called ''prix fixe'' ("fixed price"; ). The terms set meal and set menu ...

– a

menu In a restaurant, the menu is a list of food and beverages offered to customers and the prices. A menu may be à la carte – which presents a list of options from which customers choose – or table d'hôte, in which case a pre-established seque ...

in which multi-

course Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

meals with only a few choices are charged at a fixed total price *

Table reservation A table reservation is an arrangement made in advance to have a table available at a restaurant. While most restaurants in the vast majority of the world do not require a reservation, and some do not have a policy or simply any channel for making ...

Table service The foodservice (US English) or catering (British English) industry includes the businesses, institutions, and companies which prepare meals outside the home. It includes restaurants, school and hospital cafeterias, catering operations, and man ...

* Table sharing *

Take-out A take-out or takeout (U.S., Canada, and the Philippines); carry-out or to-go (Scotland and some dialects in the U.S. and Canada); takeaway (England, Wales, Australia, Lebanon, South Africa, Northern Ireland, Ireland, and occasionally in Nort ...

Three-martini lunch The three-martini lunch or noontime three-martini is a term used in the United States to describe a leisurely, indulgent lunch enjoyed by businesspeople or lawyers. It refers to a common belief that many people in the above-mentioned profess ...

Value meal A value meal is a group of menu items at a restaurant offered together at a lower price than they would cost individually. They are common at fast food restaurants. A typical value meal includes a main dish (e.g., burger, wrap), a side dish (e.g. ...

References

{{Cuisine, state=collapsed Restaurant terminology Food and drink terminology

terminology Terminology is a group of specialized words and respective meanings in a particular field, and also the study of such terms and their use; the latter meaning is also known as terminology science. A ''term'' is a word, compound word, or multi-wo ...

Restaurant terminology

See also

References