A Menu is a list of dishes in hotels that are available for sale in a food service outlet or that can be served at a meal. In French, “Menu” means in minute detail, and in English, it is also termed as ‘Bill of Fare’
Different types of menu in use:
Different types of Menu offered or planned in most of the food and beverages service outlets are as follows:
- Table d Hote Menu
- A La carte Menu
- Carte du Jour Menu
- Plat du Jour
Table d Hote menu
The term table d hotel menu is also termed as “table of the host”. It is a fixed menu with a limited number of courses with its accompaniment at a set price. It means the complete menu is priced as a whole meal. In this types of menu no choice of dishes are offered to the guest but these days limited choice is given in few courses which are in the menu.
Example of Table d hote menu
Table d hote menu is offered in banquets, buffet at the restaurant, flight catering, or institutional catering. In most of these organizations, these menus are planned for 4 to 5 courses along with tea and coffee.
This type of menu is suggested in places which need to cater to a large number of guests in a short time.
Advantages of Table d hote menu:
- Need less kitchen and service equipment’s
- Less food wastage
- High revenue-generating
- Easy to maintain the food cost
- Less kitchen staff is required as dishes prepared are less
Disadvantage of table d hote menu.
- Limited choice to guests in this types of menu
- Guest have to pay for each dishes on the menu whether they consume them or not which makes the guest feel unsatisfied and charged extra
- This style of a menu does not cater needs of all segments of people. A table d hotel menu cannot incorporate the liking of children, old age and every gender people together.
Ala carte menu
Ala carte menu is also termed as “From the card”. This types of menu offers a wide choice of dishes to guests at each course and every dish is priced separately. The bill of a guest depends upon the dishes they have ordered. This is the most popular style of the menu which is used in most of the restaurants.
There is a waiting time for each dish as every dish is prepared as per the order.
Advantages of Ala carte menu
- Wide choice of dishes are available to the guest from each course
- Every dish is priced separately which helps guest’s plans their meals according to their budget.
- Guests pay for the dishes which they have orders for eating. They don’t have to pay for the dishes which they are not consuming as in case of table d hotel menu
- Freshly ala minute cooked food is served to the guest as dishes are not prepared and kept in the kitchen as the chefs are not aware of the predicted orders at a restaurant.
Disadvantages of A la Carte menu:
- More food wastage in this types of menu.
- More mise en place work needs to be done.
- More kitchen equipment and workplace are required.
- Skilled manpower both in service and kitchen is required.
- Work stress is more on kitchen staff as the food is ordered at a time, so during major meal periods like lunch and dinner too many orders come at the same time and since everything is to be prepared on orders the chefs come under pressure as they need to cook too many dishes at the same time.
- The work load is not evenly distributed among kitchen staff as the popular dishes are ordered more and the chef who handles that counter is most of the time very busy.
Carte du Jour
It’s a French word that means a card of the day or menu of the day. It included the menu of the day including table d hotel menu, a la carte menu and plat du jour being offered in the hotel. It offers different choices to all the customers and checking the market acceptance of any dishes.
Plat Du Jour
Plat du jour means “Plate of the day” or “card of the day”. It includes a dish that has been made especially for that day and it does not feature at any menu inside the hotel. This is prepared every day in almost all the hotels; it could be either soup of the day, the main course of the day. If it would be a set of dishes then it would be termed as carte du jour.
Chefs try to incorporate the seasonal vegetable in the dish or prepare something for any special day like “row di kheer” on Baisakhi.
Regular guest to any outlets is aware of this concept they every time ask the server about the dish of the day so that the monotony can be broken.
Kyeword: Types of Menu; Different types of menu in hotel
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