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Inrestaurants,à la carte (/ɑː.lə.ˈkɑːrt/,ah-lə-KART;French:[alakaʁt],lit. 'at the card')[1] is the practice of ordering individual dishes from amenu in arestaurant, as opposed totable d'hôte, where a set menu is offered.[2] It is an early 19th centuryloan fromFrench meaning "according to the menu".[3][4]
The individual dishes to be ordered may include side dishes, or the side dishes may be offered separately, in which case, they are also consideredà la carte.
The earliest examples ofà la carte are from 1816 for the adjectival use ("à la carte meal", for example) and from 1821 for the adverbial use ("meals were served à la carte").[3] These pre-date the use of the wordmenu, which came into English in the 1830s.[5][6][3]
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