Types of restaurant

There are various types of restaurants. Restaurants fall into several industry classification based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing. Additionally, how the food is served to the customer helps to determine the classification.

Historically, restaurant referred only to places that provided tables where one sat down to eat the meal, typically served by a waiter. Following the rise of fast food and take-out restaurants, a retronym for the older "standard" restaurant was created, sit-down restaurant. Most commonly, "sit-down restaurant" refers to a casual dining restaurant with table service rather than a fast-food restaurant where one orders food at a counter. Sit-down restaurants are often further categorized as "family-style" or "formal".

In British English, the term restaurant almost always means an eating establishment with table service, so the "sit-down" qualification is not usually necessary. Fast food and takeaway (takeout) outlets with counter service are not normally referred to as restaurants. Outside of North-America the terms Fast casual-dining restaurants, Family style, and Casual dining are not used. Junk food establishments would also not often be referred to as a 'restaurant'.

Types

Fast-food restaurants

See also: List of fast food restaurants

Fast-food restaurants emphasize speed of service and low cost over other considerations. A common feature of newer fast-food restaurants that distinguishes them from traditional cafeteria is a lack of cutlery or crockery; the customer is expected to eat the food directly from the disposable container it was served in. One popular variation in North America is the deli or delicatessen, offering made-to-order sandwiches and/or salads from behind a counter. Fast-food operations range from small-scale street vendors with carts to franchised mega-corporations like McDonald's. Although traditionally serving unhealthy food made with pre-prepared ingredients, there are now many fast food restaurants such as Subway and Au Bon Pain that offer fresh and nutritional food.

Fast casual restaurants do not offer table service, but may offer non-disposable plates and cutlery. The quality of food, and price point, are higher than those of a conventional fast-food restaurant.

Family style

Family style restaurants are restaurants that have a fixed menu and fixed price, usually with diners seated at a communal table such as on bench seats. True to their name, these restaurants tend to be single-family businesses.

Casual dining

See also: List of casual dining restaurant chains

A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere. Except for buffet-style restaurants, casual dining restaurants typically provide table service. Casual dining comprises a market segment between fast food establishments and fine dining restaurants.

Casual dining restaurants usually have a full bar with separate bar staff, a larger beer menu and a limited wine menu. They are frequently, but not necessarily, part of a wider chain, particularly in the United States.

Entrepreneur Norman Brinker was the "father" of casual dining.

Fine dining

Fine dining restaurants are full service restaurants with specific dedicated meal courses. Décor of such restaurants feature higher quality materials with an eye towards the "atmosphere" desired by the restaurateur. The wait staff is usually highly trained and often wears more formal attire. Fine-dining restaurants are almost always small businesses and are generally either single-location operations or have just a few locations. Food portions are smaller but more visually appealing as well.

Others

Most of these establishments can be considered subtypes of fast casual-dining restaurants or casual-dining restaurants.

Café

Cafés and coffee shops are informal restaurants offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches. Many cafés are open for breakfast and serve full hot breakfasts. In some areas cafés offer outdoor seating. The major difference with a café and most other casual dining establishments is how the guest orders and pays. A café can offer table service, but many times the guest orders at the front, and the food is brought out to the table. Then, while at most casual dining restaurants the guest pays with the server, at a café the guest most often times pays with a single cashier.

Cafeterias

Main article: Cafeterias

A cafeteria is a restaurant serving mostly ready-cooked food arranged behind a food-serving counter. There is little or no table service. Typically, a patron takes a tray and pushes it along a track in front of the counter. Depending on the establishment, servings may be ordered from attendants, selected as ready-made portions already on plates, or self-serve their own portions.

In the UK, a cafeteria may also offer a large selection of hot food similar to the American fast casual restaurant, and the use of the term cafeteria is deprecated in favour of self-service restaurant.

Coffeehouse

Main article: Coffeehouse

See also: Tea house

Coffeehouses are casual restaurants without table service that emphasize coffee and other beverages; typically a limited selection of cold foods such as pastries and perhaps sandwiches are offered as well. Their distinguishing feature is that they allow patrons to relax and socialize on their premises for long periods of time without pressure to leave promptly after eating, and are thus frequently chosen as sites for meetings.

Pub

Main article: pub

Mainly in the UK and other countries influenced by British culture, a pub (short for public house) is a bar that serves simple food fare. Traditionally, pubs were primarily drinking establishments with food in a decidedly secondary position, whereas the modern pub business relies on food as well, to the point where gastropubs are often essentially fine-dining establishments, known for their high-quality pub food and concomitantly high prices. A typical pub has a large selection of beers and ales on tap.

Bistros and brasserie

Main article: bistro

Main article: brasserie

In France, a brasserie is a café doubling as a restaurant and serving single dishes and other meals in a relaxed setting. A bistro is a familiar name for a café serving moderately priced simple meals in an unpretentious setting, especially in Paris; bistros have become increasingly popular with tourists. When used in English, the term bistro usually indicates either a fast casual-dining restaurant with a European-influenced menu or a cafés with a larger menu of food.

All-you-can-eat buffet and smorgasbord

This form of restaurant offers patrons a selection of food at a fixed price. Food is served trays around bars, from which customers with plates serve themselves. The selection can be modest or very extensive, with the more elaborate menus divided into categories such as salad, soup, appetizers, hot entrées, cold entrées, and dessert and fruit. Often the range of cuisine can be eclectic, while other restaurants focus on a specific type, such as home-cooking, Chinese, Indian, or Swedish. The role of the waiter or waitress in this case is relegated to removal of finished plates, and sometimes the ordering and refill of drinks.

In the United States, Buffets, Inc., is a large buffet chain corporation which owns Old Country Buffet, Country Buffet, and HomeTown Buffet. HomeTown Buffet popularized the "scatter buffet", which refers to the layout of separate food pavilions. Other American restaurant chains well-known for their buffets include Golden Corral, which features food products presented in pans, Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes (known in particular for its soups and salads), Gatti's Pizza, Barnhill's Buffet, Cici's Pizza, Fresh Choice (a smaller competitor of Souplantation), Pancho's Mexican Buffet, Ryan's and Ponderosa Steakhouse. Sizzler is another prominent restaurant offering a buffet.

Teppanyaki-style

In North America, many restaurants specializing in Japanese cuisine offer the teppanyaki grill, which is more accurately based on a type of charcoal stove that is called shichirin in Japan. Diners, often in multiple, unrelated parties, sit around the grill while a chef prepares their food orders in front of them. Often the chef is trained in entertaining the guests with special techniques, including cracking a spinning egg in the air, forming a volcano out of differently-sized onion slices, and flipping grilled shrimp pieces into patrons' mouths, in addition to various props.

Mongolian barbeque

Despite the name, this form of restaurant is not Mongolian, actually derived from Taiwan and inspired by Japanese teppanyaki. Customers create a bowl from an assortment of ingredients displayed in a buffet fashion. The bowl is then handed to the cook, who stir-fries the food on a large griddle and returns it on a plate or in a bowl to the consumer.

Destination restaurants

A destination restaurant is one that has a strong enough appeal to draw customers from beyond its community.

Expensive restaurants

See Michelin guide, Gault Millau and restaurant rating

See also

• Automat
• Café
• Cafeteria
• Chain restaurants
• Concession stand
• Drive-thru
• Diner
• Dining car

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• Fast casual restaurant
• Fast food restaurant
• Greasy spoon
• Private kitchen
• Sandwich bar
• Smoke-free restaurants
• Take-out
• Truck stop

References

• The Way To Fine Dining