Steak à la carte, with no side dish or garnish; these must be requested separately.

In restaurants, à la carte (/ɑːləˈkɑːrt/; lit. 'at the card')[1] is the practice of ordering individual dishes from a menu in a restaurant, as opposed to table d'hôte, where a set menu is offered.[2] It is an early 19th century loan from French meaning "according to the menu".[3][4]

The individual dishes to be ordered may include side dishes, or the side dishes may be offered separately, in which case, they are also considered à la carte.

History

The earliest examples of à la carte are from 1816 for the adjectival use ("à la carte meal", for example) and from 1821 for the adverbial use ("meals were served à la carte").[3] These pre-date the use of the word menu, which came into English in the 1830s.[5][6][3]

See also

References

  1. ↑ "A la carte". Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press. (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
  2. ↑ "Online Etymology Dictionary". etymonline.com. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Oxford English Dictionary
  4. ↑ "à la carte – definition of à la carte in English from the Oxford dictionary". oxforddictionaries.com. Archived from the original on 2 June 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2016.
  5. ↑ Richard Bailey, Eating Words, Michigan Today, 13 May 2008. Archived 25 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
  6. ↑ "Menu", The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Houghton Mifflin

Bibliography

Look up à la carte in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.


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