Types of restaurant
Restaurants fall into several industry classifications, based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing, as well as the means by which the food is served to the customer.
Historically, restaurant referred only to places that provided tables where one ate while seated, typically served by a waiter.
In British English, the term restaurant almost always means an eating establishment with table service, so the "sit down" qualification is not usually necessary.
Any restaurant will be relatively high or low in style and price, familiar or exotic in the cuisine it offers to different kinds of customers, and so on.
Operations range from small-scale street vendors with food carts to multibillion-dollar corporations like McDonald's and Burger King.
Diners typically then carry their own food from the counter to a table of their choosing, and afterward dispose of any waste from their trays.
Premium casual restaurants originate from Western Canada and include chains such as Cactus Club Cafe, Earls, Moxies and JOEY.
Décor of such restaurants features higher-quality materials, with establishments having certain rules of dining which visitors are generally expected to follow, sometimes including a dress code.
A brasserie in the United States has evolved from the original French idea of a type of restaurant serving moderately priced hearty meals—French-inspired "comfort foods"—in an unpretentious setting.
In the United States, bistros usually have more refined decor, fewer tables, finer foods and higher prices.
British cafes and American diners are informal eateries offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches or rolls.
Coffeehouses or cafés are not full restaurants, because they primarily serve and derive the majority of their revenue from hot drinks.
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.
A greasy spoon is a colloquial term for a British cafe, American diner or other small eatery which tends to serve food at a low cost.
Food items are prepared by the establishments for cooking on embedded gas stoves, induction cookers, or charcoal grills; the customer has control over the heating power of the appliance.
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.
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.
