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.^[1]
• À la carte
• All you can eat
• 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"^[2]
• 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