Restaurant Service types
by Gourmet Tree on Thursday, 18 August 2011 at 20:18
§ Types
§ 1.1 Fast food
§ 1.2 Fast casual
§ 1.3 Casual dining
§ 1.3.1 Family style
§ 1.4 Fine dining
§ 2 Variations
§ 2.1 Bistro and brasserie
§ 2.2 Buffet and smörgåsbord
§ 2.3 Café
§ 2.4 Cafeteria
§ 2.5 Coffeehouse
§ 2.6 Destination restaurant
§ 2.6.1 Tabletop Cooking
§ 2.7 Mongolian barbeque
§ 2.8 Pub
§ 2.9 Teppanyaki-style
§ 3 Rating of restaurants
§ 4 See also
§ 5 References
Types
Fast food
Fast food restaurants emphasize speed of service. Operations range from small-scale street vendors with carts to franchise business franchised mega-corporations like McDonalds.
Fast casual
Fast casual restaurants do not offer table service, but may offer non-disposable plates and cutlery. The quality of food and prices tend to be higher than those of a conventional fast food restaurant but may be lower than casual dining.
Casual dining
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. They are frequently, but not necessarily, part of a wider chain, particularly in the United States.
Family style
Family style restaurants are a type of casual dining restaurants with diners seated at a communal table such as on bench seats. The menu may include items targeted toward multiple age groups, including young children and the elderly. These restaurants tend to be small single-family businesses[citation needed].
Fine dining
Fine dining restaurants are full service restaurants with specific dedicated meal courses. Décor of such restaurants feature higher quality materials with an eye towards the "atmosphere" desired by the restaurateur. 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.
Variations
Most of these establishments can be considered subtypes of fast casual dining restaurants or casual dining restaurants.
Bistro and brasserie
In France, a brasserie is a café doubling as a restaurant and serving single dishes and other meals in a relaxed setting. A bistro is a familiar name for a café serving moderately priced simple meals in an unpretentious setting, especially in Paris; bistros have become increasingly popular with tourists. When used in English, the term bistro usually indicates either a fast casual dining restaurant with a European-influenced menu or a cafés with a larger menu of food.
Buffet and smörgåsbord
Buffets and smörgåsbord offer patrons a selection of food at a fixed price. Food is served on trays around bars, from which customers with plates serve themselves. The selection can be modest or very extensive, with the more elaborate menus divided into categories such as salad, soup, appetizers, hot entrées, cold entrées, and dessert and fruit. Often the range of cuisine can be eclectic, while other restaurants focus on a specific type, such as home-cooking, Chinese, Indian, or Swedish. The role of the waiter or waitress in this case is relegated to removal of finished plates, and sometimes the ordering and refill of drinks.
In the United States, Buffets, Inc., is a large buffet chain corporation which owns Old Country Buffet, Country Buffet, and HomeTown Buffet. HomeTown Buffet popularized the "scatter buffet", which refers to the layout of separate food pavilions. Other American restaurant chains well-known for their buffets include Golden Corral, which features food products presented in pans, Souplantation/Sweet Tomatoes (known in particular for its soups and salads), Gatti's Pizza, CiCi's Pizza, Fresh Choice (a smaller competitor of Souplantation), Pancho's Mexican Buffet, Ryan's and Ponderosa Steakhouse. Sizzler is another prominent restaurant offering a buffet.
Café
Cafés are informal restaurants offering a range of hot meals and made-to-order sandwiches. Coffee shops, while similar to cafés, are not restaurants due to the fact that they primarily serve and derive the majority of their revenue from hot drinks. Many cafés are open for breakfast and serve full hot breakfasts. In some areas cafés offer outdoor seating.
Cafeteria
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. Cafeterias are common in hospitals, corporations and educational institutions.
In the UK, a cafeteria may also offer a large selection of hot food similar to the American fast casual restaurant, and the use of the term cafeteria is deprecated in favour of self-service restaurant.
Coffeehouse
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.
Destination restaurant
A destination restaurant is one that has a strong enough appeal to draw customers from beyond its community.[1]
Tabletop Cooking
Customers are seated as in a casual dining setting. 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.
Mongolian barbeque
Despite the name, this form of restaurant is not Mongolian, actually derived from Taiwan and inspired by Japanese teppanyaki[citation needed]. Customers create a bowl from an assortment of ingredients displayed in a buffet fashion. The bowl is then handed to the cook, who stir-fries the food on a large griddle and returns it on a plate or in a bowl to the consumer.
Pub
Main article: public house
Mainly in the UK and other countries influenced by British culture, a pub (short for public house) is a bar that sometimes serves simple food fare. Traditionally, pubs were primarily drinking establishments with food in a secondary position, whereas many modern pubs rely 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.
Teppanyaki-style
In North America, 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. Diners, often in multiple, unrelated parties, sit around the grill while a chef prepares their food orders in front of them. 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.
A restaurant is a commercial establishment committed to the sale of food and beverage.A
restaurant may be a licensed part of a hotel operation, whereby the sales of the restaurant
contribute to the sales performance of the hotel as a whole. Restaurants may also be
independent business entities under individual ownership and management.
There are different types of restaurants:
Coffee Shop
-A concept borrowed from the United States, distinguished by its
quick service.Food is pre-plate and the atmosphere informal.
Table cover layouts are less elaborate and have basic essentials
only.
-The atmosphere is more sophisticated and caters for peoplewho can eat at leisure. The accent is on good continental foodand elaborate service.
- The entire atmosphere and décor are geared to a particular
type of food or theme.Thus restaurants, which offer Chinese,
Japanese, Indian cuisine would be termed specia
lty
restaurants
.The service is based more or less on the style of the
country from which the particular cuisine originates.
Continental
Restaurant
Specialty
Restaurant
FOODSERVICES
There are some basic principles in food and beverage service that a waiter must know:
·
When food is served by the waiter at the table from a platter onto a guest plate, the
service is done from the left.
·
When food is pre-plated the service to the guest is usually done from the right, though
modern convention permits service from the left also.
·
All beverages are served from the right.
·Soups are served from the right unless it is poured by a waiter from a large tureen into a
soup cup in which case it is done from the left of the guest.
·Ladies are always served first and the remaining guests clockwise. Soiled plates should
always be cleared from the table from the right. Empty
crockeryand fresh cutlery are always served from the right. Never reach across a Customer.
Hence, when a guest is present at the table, all items
and equipmenton the right of guest must be placed from the right and that on the left from
the left
TYPESOF SERVICE
English Service: Often referred to as the "Host Service" because the host plays an active role in
the service. Food is brought on platters by the waiter and is shown to the host for approval. The
waiter then places the platters on the tables. The host either portions the food into the guest
plates directly or portions the food and allows the waiter to serve. For replenishment of guest
food the waiter may then take the dishes around for guests to help themselves or be served by
the waiter.
French Services: It is a very personalized service. Food is brought from the kitchen in dishes and
salvers, which are placed directly on the table. The plates are kept near the dish and the guests
help themselves.
Silver Service: The table is set for hors d'oeuvres, soup, main courses and sweet dish in sterling
silverware. The food is portioned into silver platters at the kitchen itself which are placed at thesideboard with burners or hot plates to keep the food warm in the restaurant. Plates are placedbefore the guest. The waiter then picks the platter from the hot plate and presents the dish tothe host for approval. He serves each guest using a service spoon and fork. All food is presentedin silver dishes with elaborate dressing.
American Service: The American service is a pre-plated service which means that the food is
served into the guest's plate in the kitchen itself and brought to the guest. The portion is
predetermined by the kitchen and the accompaniments served with the dish balance the entire
presentation in terms of nutrition and color. This type of service is commonly used in a coffee
shop where service is required to be fast.
Cafeteria Service: This service exists normally in industrial canteens, colleges, hospitals or hotel
cafeterias. To facilitate quick service, the menu is fixed and is displayed on large boards. The guest mayhave to buy coupons in advance, present them to the counter waiter who then serves the desired item.Sometimes food is displayed behind the counter and the guests may indicate their choice to the counterattendant. The food is served pre-plated and the cutlery is handed directly to the guest. Guests may
then sit at tables and chairs provided by the establishment. Sometimes high tables are provided where
guests can stand and eat.
Counter Service: (Snack-bar Service) Tall stools are placed along a counter so that the guest may eat the
food at the counter itself. In better establishments, the covers are laid out on the counter itself. Food is
either displayed behind the counter for the guests to choose from, or is listed on a menu card or
common black board.
Grill Room Service: In this form of service various meats are grilled in front of the guest. The meats may
be displayed behind a glass partition or well decorated counter so that the guest can select his exact cut
of meat. The food comes pre-plated.
Room Service: It implies serving of food and beverage in guest rooms of hotels. Small orders are served
in trays. Major means are taken to the room on trolleys. The guest places his order with the room
service order taker. The waiter receives the order and transmits the same to the kitchen. In the
meanwhile he prepares his tray or trolley. He then goes to the cashier to have a cheque prepared to
take along with the food order for the guests
signature or payment. Usually clearance of soiled dishes
from the room is done after half an hour or an hour. However, the guest can telephone Room Service
for the clearance as and when he has finished with the meal.
There are two types of Room Service:
· Centralized:Here al the food orders are processed from the main kitchen and sent to the rooms by
a common team of waiters.
·Decentralized:Each floor or a set of floor may have separate pantries to service them. Orders are
taken at a central point by order-takers who in turn convey the order to the respective pantry.
Mobile Pantries: Some hotels have pantries installed in service elevators. Orders are received by a
central point that convey it to the mobile pantry. The pantry has to just switch on the floor and give
instant service. For the sake of information, in countries, which have a shortage of manpower, large
hotels install mechanized dispensing units in rooms. The guest inserts the necessary value of coins into
the machine, which will eject pre-prepared food and beverages for guest consumption.
Buffet Service: A self-service where food is displayed on tables. The guest takes his plate from a stack at
the end of each table or requests the waiter behind the buffet table to serve him.
For sit-down buffet service, tables are laid with crockery and cutlery as in a restaurant. The guest may
serve himself at the buffet table and return to eat at the guest table laid out. The waiter may serve a few
courses like the appetizer and soup at the table.
Russian Service: An elaborate silver service much on the lines of French service except that the food is
portioned and carved by the waiter at the gueridon trolley in the restaurant in full view of the guests.
Display and presentation are a major part of this service. The principle involved is to have whole joints,
poultry, game and fish elaborately dressed and garnished, presented to guests and carved and
portioned by the waiter.
Gueridon Service: This is a service where a dish comes partially prepared from the kitchen to be
completed in the restaurant by the waiter or, when a complete meal is cooked at the table-side in therestaurant. The cooking is done on a gueridon trolley which is a mobile trolley with a gas cylinder andburners. The waiter plays a prominent part, as he is required to fillet, carve, flambé and prepare thefood with showmanship. The waiter has to have considerable dexterity and skill.
