À la carte meaning, and other menu terms explained

À la carte means choosing and paying for each dish separately from a full menu. Every starter, main and side has its own price, and your bill is the total of what you ordered. It's French for "from the menu" (literally "by the card"). The opposite is a set menu, or table d'hôte: a few courses at one fixed price, with a short choice for each.

Below, each common menu term gets a plain-English answer, what it means for your kitchen and prices, and a template to start from.

Menu terms at a glance

À la carte: meaning and examples

An à la carte menu lists every dish with its own price. Guests build their own meal. One person might order a starter and a main. Another might have two sides and a dessert.

Example: Soup £6.50, steak £24.00, chips £4.50. A guest who orders all three pays £35.00.

What it means for you:

• More choice, more stock. A long à la carte menu needs more ingredients on hand, and more waste risk.
• Higher spend per head when guests add extras. Sides, sauces and desserts are often your best-margin items.
• Harder to plan. You can't predict exactly what will sell on a busy night.

In hotels, "à la carte" is also used to mean the restaurant's main menu, as opposed to the buffet or the half-board set menu.

Pronunciation: "ah-lah-KART".

Table d'hôte

A table d'hôte menu offers a set number of courses at one price, with two to four choices per course. The name is French for "the host's table". It comes from inns where guests ate whatever the host served, at a fixed time and price.

Example: Two courses £22, three courses £27. Choose one of three starters, three mains and three desserts.

What it means for you:

• Fewer dishes, so prep is faster and waste is lower.
• Guests know the price before they sit down.
• Good for quiet sessions, group bookings and Christmas.

À la carte vs table d'hôte

Many venues run both: à la carte in the evening and a table d'hôte lunch.

Prix fixe

Prix fixe (say "pree-FIX") is French for "fixed price". It means the same as a set menu: a meal of several courses for one price. In the UK you'll see it most on pre-theatre and early-evening menus, such as "Prix fixe, 5–6.30pm, 2 courses £19.50". Some venues use prix fixe for a menu with no choices at all and table d'hôte for one with a few. In everyday use, the two overlap.

Set menu

Set menu is the plain-English UK term for a fixed-price meal. You'll see "set lunch", "set menu for 2" at a Chinese or Indian restaurant, and "party set menu" for group bookings. A Christmas menu is almost always a set menu. Start from our Christmas menu templates.

Price it from the dearest route. Cost the most expensive starter, main and dessert combination. Set the price so that route still hits your target GP. Our GP calculator does the maths.

Tasting menu

A tasting menu is a run of small courses, often six to twelve, chosen by the chef. The French name is menu dégustation. Guests usually get no choice except for dietary swaps. Many venues offer a matching wine or drinks flight for an extra price.

What it means for you: it showcases the kitchen and fixes the spend per head. But it needs skilled staff and a booking system, and every dietary need must be planned in advance. Ask for allergies when guests book.

Carvery

A carvery serves roast meats (often turkey, beef, gammon and pork) carved at a counter, with guests helping themselves to potatoes, vegetables and gravy. It's a UK pub classic, especially for Sunday lunch. Prices are usually per plate, with small and large sizes.

Allergens still apply. Self-serve doesn't remove your duty to give allergen information. Label each tray, or keep an allergen matrix by the counter. Make one with our free allergen matrix maker.

Plat du jour

Plat du jour means "dish of the day". It's a single special that changes daily, often written on a chalkboard. In the UK you'll also see "today's special" or "chef's special". It lets you use up stock and test new dishes. On a digital menu, you can add it in the morning and remove it when it sells out.

Family style dining

Family style dining means large dishes placed in the middle of the table for everyone to share. Guests serve themselves. It's common in Italian, Chinese, Middle Eastern and group dining. Price it per head (for a set feast) or per dish.

Tip: one big dish can contain many allergens. List allergens for each sharing dish clearly, and check with the whole table before you serve.

All-day dining

An all-day dining menu is served from breakfast through to late evening, usually with no break between lunch and dinner. Hotels and city brasseries use it. Some dishes are only available at certain times, so mark them, such as "served until 11.30am". With a QR menu, you can set each dish to show only on the days and hours you choose.

More menu terms you'll see in the UK

UK rules that apply to every menu type

• Show prices before guests sit down. In Great Britain, the Price Marking (Food and Drink Services) Order 2003 says prices must be shown at or near the entrance to the eating area. For a set menu, show the set price. Any service, cover or minimum charge must be shown at least as prominently as the food prices.
• Prices include VAT if you're VAT-registered.
• Allergens for the 14 regulated allergens must be available for every dish, on any menu type.

Make your menu, whichever type you choose

• Start with a free design from our menu templates, or build one in the free menu maker.
• Ideas for layout and wording are in our menu design guide.
• Then put it online. Menuthere turns your menu into a QR menu that guests can order from, with à la carte dishes, sizes and add-ons in one place. List a set menu as one dish and let guests pick each course as a required add-on choice.
• Tag each dish with any of the 14 allergens, its calories and a halal mark, on every plan including Free. Guests see them when they open a dish. Keep an allergen matrix as well.

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