A restaurant is a business that serves food, drink and dessert to customers for a price. In most cultures restaurants are a central part of social life, and the act of dining out can be traced back over 1000 years.

What types of restaurant are there?

Restaurants range from basic, unpretentious, casual diners which cater for local workers, to expensive restaurants in a highly formal setting. Restaurant-goers can choose a restaurant based on its price, its cuisine, its ambience, location or even its entertainment.

All restaurants have some kind of theme, even if it is simply "local cuisine at a low price". Restaurants can specialise in seafood dishes, vegetarian dishes, or in a cuisine from a particular country or region. Restaurants can be specific to a type of dish, such as pizza restaurants, and they can cater to a certain type of customer, such as family restaurants.

What is Casual Dining?

Casual dining refers to a restaurant that serves a range of moderately priced food in a generally casual atmosphere. There are no airs and graces in casual dining but there will be table service, and the restaurant will commonly be part of a chain.

What is a Fast Food Restaurant?

A fast food restaurant, above all else, emphasizes speed of service. This can be at the detriment to quality or ambience, with customers usually eating using plastic cutlery and there is rarely table service. Despite their issues, fast food restaurants are ubiquitous and very popular across the world.

What is Fine Dining?

Fine dining restaurants are the opposite of fast food restaurants in that they cater for those looking for a high quality dining experience. This is focused on ensuring there is a decor with higher quality materials, the food is well prepared, the wine list well chosen, and the staff usually wear formal attire. There are more social rules of dining that patrons must follow when entering a fine dining establishment.

What types of cuisine will be available?

Every country has its own flavour of cuisine, and most can also be split into regions with very specific dishes. In metropolitan areas, there will be many choices, from local cuisine restaurants to restaurants offering fare from around the world. The most common types of restaurant in the UK, apart from those selling local fare, are those selling Indian, Chinese and Italian cuisine. Much of the food sold in these restaurants has taken on UK flair, and will be quite different from the original dishes of the country. In coastal areas, fresh seafood restaurants are also very common.

How are restaurants rated?

Restaurants can be rated on a number of factors, such as cleanliness, ambience, price, quality of the food prepared, and service. In the U.K, as with the rest of Western Europe, the most famous award that a restaurant can gain is a Michelin star. There are three levels of Michelin star - a restaurant with three Michelin stars is considered to have "exceptional cuisine". Michelin stars are rated solely on the quality of the food served, but also have a separate scale for setting and decor.