List of restaurant terminology
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 and food delivery services. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of the main chef's cuisines 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. The term is also generally used to mean getting rid of someone or something, including the situation where a bar patron is ejected from the premises and refused readmittance.
 À la carte
 Bartender
 Blue-plate special
 Brigade de cuisine
 BYOB – an initialism standing for "bring your own bottle", "bring your own beer", "bring your own beverage", or "bring your own booze"
 Charcuterie
 Chef
 Chef de cuisine - also called "head chef" or "master chef"
 Chef's table
 Combination meal
 Cooked to order – food that is cooked to a patron's directions
 Counter meal
 Counter service
 Dine and dash
 Early bird dinner
 Entrée 
 Family meal
 Fast food
 Free lunch
 Garde manger
 Ghost restaurant – a restaurant that operates exclusively via food delivery
 Gueridon service
 Happy hour
 Kids' meal
 Main course
 Maître d'hôtel
 Meat and three
 Meat and two veg – a British dish consisting of meat served with two varieties of vegetables
 Menu
 Mise en place
 Monkey dish – a small (3" or 5 cm) bowl used for sauces, nuts, or as a repository for bones or citrus peel
 Omakase
 On the fly
 One bowl with two pieces
 Online food ordering
 Plate lunch
 Platter (dinner)
 Rôtisseur
 Saucier
 Serving cart
 Signature dish
 Sous-chef – the chef who is second in command within a kitchen; sous meaning "under"
 Table d'hôte – a menu in which multi-course meals with only a few choices are charged at a fixed total price
 Table reservation
 Table service
 Table sharing
 Take-out
 Three-martini lunch
 Value meal

See also

 Brigade de cuisine of Culinary arts
 Diner lingo – a kind of American verbal slang used by cooks
 Food industry
 Types of restaurants
 Waiting staff

References

Restaurant terminology
Food and drink terminology
Food- and drink-related lists