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A business lunch menu, from Sergey Restaurant on Kammergansky Pereluk, Moscow

In a restaurant, a menu is the list of options for a diner to select. A menu may be a la carte or table d'hôte. The items that are available for the diner to choose from are broken down into various categories, depending on the time of day or the event. A breakfast menu in the Western World has eggs, toast or fruits to help the diner have energy to start the day. Grain and protein are considerations as well. Lunch and dinner menu items are often larger portions of food because one becomes hungrier later on in the day after consuming energy. A degustation menu however may combine elements from breakfast, lunch and dinner. As all things the common menu has evolve, along with the internet you now get an interactive menu akin OnlineMenu.

In Mary Douglas' article, "Deciphering A Meal" she asserts the menu is very important because it is the basis of all society. Through picking items off of a menu, one can learn a lot about a person. If they choose meats or high-protein food, it demonstrates their activity and need to replenish their energy supply. On the other hand, if the items chosen are vegetables or dessert, one could conclude that the person is a vegetarian or they like large amounts of sugar. While this does not apply absolutely, it may give insight into the lives or people by what they order.

An 1899 menu from Delmonico's restaurant in New York City. While the elaborate descriptions of menu prose had not yet reached their contemporary range, the menu still called some of its selections entremets, and contained barely-English descriptions such as "plombière of marrons".

The word menu, like much of the terminology of cuisine, is French in origin. It ultimately derives from Latin minutus, something made small; in French it came to be applied to a detailed list or résumé of any kind. The original menus that offered consumers choices were prepared on a small chalkboard, in French a carte; so foods chosen from a bill of fare are described as à la carte, "according to the board."

The original restaurants had no menus in the modern sense; these table d'hôte establishments served dishes that were chosen by the chef or the proprietors, and those who arrived ate what the house was serving that day, as in contemporary banquets. The contemporary menu first appeared in the second half of the eighteenth century. Here, instead of eating what was being served from a common table, restaurants allowed diners to choose from a list of unseen dishes, which were produced to order by the customer's selection. A table d'hôte establishment charged its customers a fixed price; the menu allowed customers to spend as much or as little money as they chose.^[1]

As a form of advertising, the prose found on printed menus is famous for the degree of its puffery. They frequently emphasize the processes used to prepare foods, call attention to exotic ingredients, and add French or other foreign language expressions to make the dishes appear sophisticated and exotic. Part of the function of menu prose is to impress customers with the notion that the dishes served at the restaurant require such skill, equipment, and exotic ingredients that the diners could not prepare similar foods at home.^[2]

• hospital menus
• railroad menus
• fast food menus
• airline meal
• military rations
• wine list

In fast food restaurants such as this Rally's, the menu is typically a brightly lit public display rather than a printed card.

• Food Timeline - Culinary History Timeline: Social history, manners & menus
• University of Washington Libraries Digital Collections - Menus Menus, placemats, and other graphic materials from many of the Puget Sound area's most famous restaurants and dining facilities in the years between 1889 and 2003. Go to View All Items to see all menus.