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Culinary Arts & Cooking vocabulary · Menus & Courses

À la carte

Meaning in culinary arts & cooking, with examples

/ˌɑː lə ˈkɑːrt/adjectiveCommon term

In culinary arts & cooking, à la carte means: Describing a menu where each dish is listed and priced separately, so guests choose and pay for individual items rather than a fixed meal.

In Turkish: alakart

How it is used

Used for menus, restaurants and service: à la carte menu, à la carte restaurant, cooked à la carte (to order). In hotels it contrasts with the buffet and with set menus. Also used as an adverb: we only serve à la carte in the evening.

Example sentences

  1. Guests on all-inclusive can book the à la carte restaurant twice a week.

  2. The à la carte menu changes every season, but the set lunch changes weekly.

Common collocations

  • à la carte menu
  • à la carte restaurant
  • à la carte service
  • order à la carte
  • set menuA menu with a fixed number of courses and a fixed price, usually with a small choice of dishes for each course or no choice at all.
  • menuThe list of dishes a restaurant offers, with their descriptions and usually their prices; also the planned set of dishes for a meal or event.
  • tasting menuA menu of many small courses chosen by the chef, served one after another to show the kitchen's style and best dishes, usually at a fixed price.
  • coverOne guest's meal, used to count how many people a restaurant serves; also the place setting laid on the table for one guest.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Menus & Courses

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