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In restaurants, à la carte (/ɑː.lə.ˈkɑːrt/, ah-lə-KART; French: [a la kaʁt], lit. 'at the card')^[1] is the practice of ordering individual dishes from a menu in a restaurant, as opposed to table d'hôte, where a set menu is offered.^[2] It is an early-19th-century loan from French 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 considered à la carte.

The earliest examples of à 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 word menu, which came into English in the 1830s.^[3][5][6]

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• Baraban, R.S.; Durocher, J.F. (2010). Successful Restaurant Design. John Wiley & Sons. pp. 17–18. ISBN 978-0-470-25075-4.
• Committee on Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools, Food and Nutrition Board, Institute of Medicine (2007). Nutrition Standards for Foods in Schools. National Academies Press. page 83.
• Mosimann, Anton (1983). Cuisine à la carte. Macmillan Publishers Limited. 304 pages.