What is A La Carte Menu?
There are various categories of dishes that are found on an A La Carte Menu. Some restaurants combine some categories or design their own sequence of categories of dishes depending on their style of operations. The objective of categorizing dishes is to help guests select dishes of their choice quickly.
A La Carte Menu Examples
Following is a list of a typical a la carte menu of an Indian restaurant open during lunch and dinner:
- Starters.
- Soups.
- Indian bread.
- Kebabs and tikkas
- Gravies and masalas.
- Dry.
- Biryani, pulao, and rice.
- Dal.
- Raita and other accompaniments
- Sweets.
- Beverages.
Compiling Continental Table D’hOte Menu
There are two ways of compiling a continental table d’hôte menu:
1. Menu with a choice amongst courses and or choice within courses.
2. Menu with a set number of fish, one for each course. It is very simple to compile a table d’hôte menu if you know the French classical courses in sequence, the example of each course, and product knowledge.
Compiling Menu With Choice Amongst Courses and or Within Courses
While compiling menu choices amongst courses and or within courses it is important to remember:
- One dish from Hors d’Oeuvre and one from potage will make the first course.
- The second course will include one dish each from Oeufs, Farineux, and Poisson courses.
- Finally, one dish each from entremets, Fromage, savory, and dessert.
- The cold appetizer is written first.
- Thin and thick soup, thin soup is written first.
- Fried fish and poached fish with sauce, fried fish is written first.
- Cold and hot sweet, cold sweet is written first.
- Cheese and savory, savory is written first.
