Types of restaurants

There are various types of restaurants. Restaurants fall into several industry classifications based upon menu style, preparation methods and pricing. Additionally, how the food is served to the customer helps to determine the classification.

A casual dining restaurant is a restaurant that serves moderately-priced food in a casual atmosphere. Except for buffet-style restaurants, casual dining restaurants typically provide table service. Casual dining comprises a market segment between fast food establishments and fine dining restaurants.

Casual dining restaurants usually have a full bar with separate bar staff, a larger beer menu and a limited wine menu.

Family style restaurants are restaurants that have a fixed menu and fixed price, usually with diners seated at a communal table such as on bench seats. True to their name, these restaurants tend to be single-family businesses.

Fast food restaurants emphasize speed of service. Operations range from small-scale street vendors with carts to franchised mega-corporations like McDonald's.

Fine dining restaurants are full service restaurants with specific dedicated meal courses. Décor of such restaurants feature higher quality materials. The wait staff is usually highly trained and often wears more formal attire. Fine-dining restaurants are almost always small businesses and are generally either single-location operations or have just a few locations. Food portions are smaller but more visually appealing. Fine dining restaurants have certain rules of dining which must be followed by visitors.

Cafés are informal restaurants offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches. It is important to note that coffee shops, while similar to cafés, are not restaurants due to the fact that they primarily serve beverages. Many cafés are open for breakfast and serve full hot breakfasts. In some areas cafés offer outdoor seating. The major difference with a café and most other casual dining establishments is how the guest orders and pays. A café can offer table service, but many times the guest orders at the front, and the food is brought out to the table. Then, while at most casual dining restaurants the guest pays with the server, at a café the guest most often times pays with a single cashier.

A cafeteria is a restaurant serving ready-cooked food arranged behind a food-serving counter. There is little or no table service. Typically, a patron takes a tray and pushes it along a track in front of the counter. Depending on the establishment, servings may be ordered from attendants, selected as ready-made portions already on plates, or self-serve their own portions.

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.

Mainly in the UK and other countries influenced by British culture, a pub (short for public house) is a bar that serves simple food fare. Traditionally, pubs were primarily drinking establishments with food in a decidedly secondary position, whereas the modern pub business relies on food as well, to the point where gastropubs are often essentially fine-dining establishments, known for their high-quality pub food and concomitantly high prices. A typical pub has a large selection of beers and ales on tap.

17. Make questions to the sentences using ‘Pardon, what … (preposition)?’