2.1 Types of restaurants and menus

You can find all sorts of different restaurants in France. There are Italian restaurants and pizzerias in practically every town; Vietnamese restaurants are also common. North African immigrants (from Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco) brought couscous (a grain related to semolina cooked with mutton, vegetables and spices), merguez (a spicy lamb sausage) and taboulé (a cold salad made with bulgur wheat and flavoured with mint and lemon).

‘Fusion’ cuisine, which makes use of a combination of international cooking styles, is on offer in a small but growing number of restaurants in France. However, it’s not easy to find vegetarian restaurants.

Le menu or la carte ?

Both le menu and la carte can be translated as ‘menu’ in English. French people will use either to request the menu in a restaurant. However, le menu is always used to refer to set menus. These are normally printed on a separate page in the menu . la carte ) or advertised at the entrance of the restaurant. Set menus can be advertised as, for example, menu à 21 €, menu gastronomique, menu touristique . The expression à la carte is used when you order your dishes from the full range of what is on offer. In brasseries and sandwicheries you may see the word formule instead of menu .

Figure 4

Activité 9

Look at the following pictures of restaurants and match them to the descriptions below, according to the type of cuisine they offer.

(Click on the photos or the words ‘View larger image’ to display a larger version of the photos.)

Maximise

Figure 5

• a.un restaurant grec
• b.une couscousserie
• c.un restaurant kebab turc
• d.une pizzeria
• e.un restaurant de cuisine française

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Answer

The correct answers are:

1 b 2 e 3 a 4 d 5 c

Activité 10

You are in a café-brasserie Le Bistro du Musée, deciding what to order. Look at the food items below and match the English dishes with their French equivalent.

Figure 6

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This is an image of a menu, which reads as follows:

Le Bistro du Musée

Entrée, soupe de poisson 14.50 €; pâté de compagne 8.00 €

Fruits de mer, crabe mayonnaise 10.00 €; homard grillé 30.00 €; langoustines mayonnaise 24.00 €

Viandes, steak frites 12.50 €; rôti de porc 11.00 €

Plat du jour, lapin à la moutarde 11.00 €

Poissons, truites aux amandes 14.00 €; saumon grillé 16.00 €; filet de sole 18.00 €

Dessert, glace à la fraise 6.00 €; mousse au chocolat 7.00 €; tarte aux abricots 7.50 €

Figure 6

a starter

une entrée

rabbit in mustard sauce

lapin à la moutarde

apricot tart

tarte aux abricots

today’s special

plat du jour

Using the following two lists, match each numbered item with the correct letter.

1. a starter

2. rabbit in mustard sauce

3. apricot tart

4. today’s special

• a.plat du jour

• b.une entrée

• c.tarte aux abricots

• d.lapin à la moutarde

The correct answers are:

• 1 = b
• 2 = d
• 3 = c
• 4 = a