41 articles
Banquet
Banquet: a formal, elaborate meal for many people on a special occasion; from French banc (bench), once meaning a sweet course; spans Roman convivium, Joseon royal feasts, and modern plated or buffet catering.
Bar mleczny
Bar mleczny (milk bar) is a Polish cheap, self-service, alcohol-free cafeteria serving traditional dairy- and flour-based meals all day. First opened 1896 in Warsaw; subsidized under communism and still state-subsidized today.
Bistro
Bistro (bistrot): a small informal restaurant of French origin serving simple, inexpensive food. Parisian slang from 1884; the Russian bystro etymology is folk legend; bistronomy is its modern gastronomic offshoot.
Brasserie
Brasserie: French word literally meaning brewery; since the 19th century also a large café-restaurant with continuous service, broad menu, and Art deco decor, born from Alsatian breweries in Paris.
Buffet
Buffet (自助餐): self-service dining format where guests select from displayed dishes, usually at a fixed price. Covers etymology, Scandinavian and Las Vegas origins, service types, food-safety temperature limits, food waste, and nutrition research.
Cafeteria
Cafeteria (cafetería): a self-service restaurant where customers carry a tray along a line of premade food, pay per item, and seat themselves. Originated 1890s Chicago and Los Angeles, peaked 1930s–1990s, now mainly institutional.
Cha chaan teng (茶餐厅)
The cha chaan teng (茶餐厅, tea restaurant) is a Hong Kong restaurant type from the 1940s and 1950s combining fast service with a menu of Chinese and Western dishes.
Chez Panisse
Chez Panisse, Alice Waters' Berkeley restaurant opened August 28, 1971 with Paul Aratow, pioneered California cuisine and farm-to-table dining with a daily-changing fixed menu, direct farmer sourcing, and the Edible Schoolyard Project.
Conveyor belt sushi
Conveyor belt sushi (kaiten-zushi, 回転寿司): Japanese restaurant format where plates travel on a belt past diners. Invented by Yoshiaki Shiraishi, first shop Mawaru Genroku Sushi, Osaka, 1958; belt speed 8 cm/s; major chains Sushiro, Kura, Hama, Kappa.
Diner
A diner is a characteristically American restaurant serving inexpensive, hearty food at a counter and in booths, often around the clock, originating in 1870s lunch wagons.
Dinner theater
Dinner theater (dinner theatre): a restaurant venue format combining a meal with a live stage show, coined 1965–70 in the US. Two formats, in-room dining or restaurant-theatre packages; dismissed as middlebrow by 1970s critics; murder mystery shows now dominate.
Drive-through
Drive-through (drive-thru): a business serving customers in their cars via speaker and window, pioneered by Red's Giant Hamburg (1947) and In-N-Out's two-way intercom (1948); now the dominant QSR channel, averaging 5:24 per visit in 2026, with voice AI and COVID-era medical uses.
Ed Debevic's
Ed Debevic's is a retro 1950s-themed diner chain founded in Chicago in 1984 by Rich Melman of Lettuce Entertain You, known for deliberately rude, singing, dancing waitstaff; closed 2015, revived 2021 in Streeterville.
Fast casual restaurant
Fast casual restaurant: a dining segment combining quick-service counter ordering and speed with higher-quality ingredients, customization, and upscale ambiance, positioned between QSRs and full-service restaurants; known for Chipotle, Panera, and Shake Shack and strong 2010s growth.
Fast Food Nation
Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal is Eric Schlosser's 2001 investigative book on the US fast-food industry's effects on wages, health, and culture, adapted into Richard Linklater's 2006 film.
Fast-food restaurant
Fast-food restaurant, also called quick-service restaurant (QSR) or limited-service restaurant: counter-order, pay-before-eating dining with minimal table service. Defined by the 1948 Speedee Service System, drive-thru service, low checks, and NAICS 722211 classification.
Food court
Food court: a shared dining area in malls, airports, and public buildings with several small vendors around common seating. First successful mall food court opened March 1974 at Paramus Park Mall, New Jersey, developed by James Rouse's Rouse Company; distinct from the independent-vendor food hall.
Food truck
Food truck: a readily movable, self-enclosed vehicle or trailer that prepares and sells food. Descends from 1866 chuck wagons and pushcarts; gourmet boom began with 2008's Kogi truck; startup costs $75,000-$250,000.
Greasy spoon
Greasy spoon: a small, cheap café or diner serving fried food; informal term first recorded 1906, with an 1850 German-linked instance. British "caff" culture, decline, and new-wave revival.
Haute cuisine
Haute cuisine, also called alta cocina or grande cuisine, is the highest level of professional gastronomy, rooted in French codification by Carême and Escoffier, reshaped by nouvelle cuisine, and measured today by Michelin stars and dining guides.
Izakaya (居酒屋)
Izakaya (居酒屋), Japanese casual drinking pubs or taverns, serve beer, sake, and shochu with small shared dishes ordered in rounds. Distinguished from sushi shops and bars by drink-centered menus, otoshi seating charges, Edo-period origins, and recent record bankruptcies.
Kosher restaurant
Kosher restaurant: a food-service establishment certified as compliant with kashrut by a rabbinic agency or Israel's Chief Rabbinate, run under a mashgiach's supervision; distinguished from uncertified kosher-style venues and from certifying agencies such as OU, OK, Star-K, and Kof-K.
Krystal (restaurant)
Krystal is an American quick-service restaurant chain founded in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 1932, known for small square hamburgers called sliders and concentrated in the South.
List of revolving restaurants
List of revolving restaurants: tower and skyscraper dining rooms on rotating turntables. First tower restaurant Dortmund 1959; John Graham's La Ronde 1961; Space Needle 1962; about 150-200 worldwide today.
Mamak stall
Mamak stall (kedai mamak): an Indian Muslim-run Malaysian eatery serving roti canai, teh tarik, nasi kandar and mee goreng, typically open late or 24 hours; a national social institution for interethnic gathering, distinct from the Chinese kopitiam.
McSorley's Old Ale House
McSorley's Old Ale House, established 1854 at 15 East 7th Street, Manhattan, is an Irish saloon originally called The Old House at Home, famous for sawdust floors, two ales (light or dark), cash-only service, and admitting women only in 1970 after a lawsuit.
Nasu No Megumi Mekke
Nasu no Megumi Mekke! (那須の恵みMekke!) is a food complex at Rindo Lake Family Farm, Nasu, Tochigi, opened 2016 as a buffet and marche, now a Jersey-dairy marche with cafe.
Omakase (お任せ)
Omakase (お任せ), "I leave it up to you," is the Japanese ordering format in which the chef selects and sequences all dishes at a fixed price; distinct from okimari and okonomi, now extended beyond sushi worldwide.
Philippe the Original
Philippe the Original is a 1908 Los Angeles deli, founded by Philippe Mathieu, claiming to have invented the French dip sandwich in 1918; it competes with Cole's over that claim and is run by the Martin and Binder families.
Ratner's
Ratner's was a kosher dairy restaurant at 138 Delancey Street on Manhattan's Lower East Side, founded in 1905 by Jacob Harmatz and Alex Ratner and run by the Harmatz family until its 2002 closing, famous for blintzes, onion rolls, and surly waiters.