Restaurant Terms: A Practical Glossary of Essential Industry Lingo

Restaurant terms are the abbreviations, culinary phrases, slang, and business metrics used to communicate in a restaurant. They range from kitchen calls like “86” to operational abbreviations like COGS and POS.

Knowing this vocabulary helps owners, managers, and employees coordinate service and use connected systems such as Toast POS, which brings menus, orders, payments, and reporting together in one platform.

This glossary defines common terms used across restaurant menus, kitchens, dining rooms, financial reports, and technology.

Key takeaways

• Restaurant terminology creates a shared language that helps teams coordinate everything from menu questions and kitchen timing to reporting.

• Menu terms define the offering, FOH and BOH terms guide service, financial terms measure results, and technology terms connect those workflows.

• Distinguishing similar terms—such as comp and void, cover and table, or ticket and check—helps prevent operational confusion.

Restaurant terms at a glance

Restaurant terminology covers every part of the operation, from menu formats and kitchen calls to financial metrics and technology. These categories show where each group of terms is used and provide a few common examples.

Restaurant menu and dining terms

Restaurant menu terms describe how food is prepared, packaged, priced, and served. Understanding them helps employees answer questions accurately and helps guests know what they are ordering.

• À la carte: A menu format in which every item is ordered and priced separately rather than included in a set meal.

• Amuse-bouche: A small, complimentary bite served before the meal to introduce the chef’s style or prepare the guest’s palate.

• Appetizer: A small dish served before an entrée or main course.

• Corkage fee: A charge for opening and serving wine that a guest brings to the restaurant; restaurants should confirm local rules before establishing a corkage fee.

• Course: One part of a meal served separately, such as an appetizer, entrée, or dessert.

• Du jour: French for “of the day,” indicating an item offered only that day, as in “soup du jour.”

• Entrée: The main course in common U.S. restaurant usage, although the term traditionally described an introductory course.

• Family-style: A service format in which food is placed in shared dishes for the table.

• Market price or MP: A flexible price based on the current cost or availability of an ingredient; seafood and seasonal ingredients are commonly listed as market price.

• Menu engineering: The process of analyzing item popularity and profitability to improve menu pricing, placement, and design.

• Modifier: A selection that changes or adds to an item, such as a side, cooking temperature, topping, or substitution.

• Prix fixe: A multi-course meal offered for one fixed price, sometimes with limited choices within each course; restaurants may offer a prix fixe menu permanently or for specific services and events.

• Set menu: A predetermined selection of dishes sold together, usually for one price.

• Special: A dish or promotion offered outside the regular menu, frequently for a limited time.

• Table d’hôte: A set-price meal that gives guests a limited selection of dishes within each course.

• Tasting menu: A curated sequence of small courses designed to present the chef’s culinary point of view or explore a theme; a tasting menu may also include optional beverage pairings.

• Wine pairing: A wine selected to complement the ingredients and flavors of a particular dish or course.

Clear categories, prices, modifiers, and descriptions make these terms easier for guests to understand. Restaurant menu templates can help operators organize their offerings, while menu engineering can help evaluate each item’s popularity and profitability.

Kitchen and back-of-house terms

Kitchen slang gives employees a fast, consistent way to communicate when timing and safety matter.

• 86 or 86’d: An item is unavailable, removed from an order, or taken off the menu; the term can also refer to removing a guest from the premises.

• À la minute: Prepared fresh when the guest orders rather than made in advance as part of a batch.

• All day: The total quantity of an item needed across all active tickets; if three tickets require two burgers each, the kitchen needs six burgers all day.

• Behind: A safety call warning someone that another employee is passing behind them.

• Brigade: The hierarchy of positions and stations used to organize a professional kitchen.

• Chit: Another word for an order ticket or slip.

• Corner: A warning called before walking around a blind corner.

• Dead plate: Prepared food that can no longer be served because of its time in the window, temperature, appearance, or quality.

• Dish pit: The kitchen area where dishes, cookware, and utensils are collected and washed.

• Drop: Begin cooking an item, particularly by placing it in a fryer or boiling water.

• Expo or expeditor: The person who coordinates tickets, plating, timing, and communication between the kitchen and dining room.

• Family meal: A meal prepared for restaurant employees before or after service.

• Fire: Start preparing a dish, ticket, or course.

• Flash: Reheat or finish an item quickly, often in a hot oven or beneath a broiler.

• Hands: A call indicating that completed food needs to be carried from the kitchen immediately.

• Heard: Confirmation that an instruction was received and understood.

• In the weeds: Overwhelmed with orders or tasks and falling behind during service.

• Line: The group of stations where cooks prepare menu items during service.

• Lowboy: A refrigerated unit positioned beneath a counter or workstation.

• Mise en place: The ingredients, equipment, and preparation organized before cooking begins; the French phrase mise en place translates to “everything in its place.”

• On the fly: Needed urgently, often because an item was missed, returned, or must be remade.

• Pass or window: The area where completed dishes move from the kitchen to the service team.

• Refire: Remake a dish because the original cannot be served.

• Stage: A short working interview or educational kitchen shift used to evaluate or develop a cook’s skills.

• Ticket: The record of items ordered for a table or customer.

• Walk-in: A large refrigerated storage room that employees can enter.

Restaurant employees may also encounter technical names for ingredients, equipment, and preparation methods.

Front-of-house and service terms

Front-of-house terms help hosts, servers, bartenders, bussers, and managers coordinate guests, tables, checks, and service flow. The front of house works closely with the kitchen to move each order from seating through payment.

• Back of house or BOH: The kitchen, storage, dishwashing, and other non-guest-facing areas and employees.

• Camper: A guest or party that remains at a table for an unusually long time, limiting the restaurant’s ability to reseat it.

• Check: The itemized record of a guest’s purchases and the amount owed.

• Closeout: The process of finalizing checks, payments, tips, and sales at the end of a shift.

• Comp: A prepared or served item removed from the guest’s bill, often to resolve a service issue or provide hospitality.

• Cover: One guest served during a defined period; a four-person table represents four restaurant covers.

• Cross-sell: Recommend an item that complements the guest’s selection, such as a glass of wine with an entrée.

• Deuce or two-top: A table or party of two.

• Double-sat: Two tables seated in the same server’s section at nearly the same time.

• Front of house or FOH: The guest-facing employees and areas of a restaurant, including the dining room, host stand, and bar.

• No-show: A guest who does not arrive for a reservation and has not canceled it.

• Open tab: A check that remains open so additional purchases can be added before payment.

• Regular: A guest who visits the restaurant frequently.

• Reservation: An arrangement to hold a table for a guest at a specified time.

• Section: The group of tables assigned to a particular server.

• Sidework: Cleaning, stocking, and preparation tasks completed outside direct table service.

• Table turn: The process of serving, clearing, resetting, and reseating a table.

• Tip pool: Tips collected from multiple employees and redistributed among eligible team members according to the restaurant’s policy.

• Turn and burn: Serve and reset tables quickly to accommodate more parties.

• Upsell: Encourage a guest to choose a higher-priced item, upgrade, or add-on.

• Void: An item or transaction canceled before it is finalized.

• Waitlist: A list of guests waiting for tables when immediate seating is unavailable.

• Walk-in: A guest who arrives without a reservation.

Restaurant business and financial terms

Restaurant operators use financial and management terms to evaluate costs, sales, efficiency, and profitability. Many are KPI’s (key performance indicators) used to monitor restaurant operations.

• Average check: Total sales divided by the number of checks or transactions.

• Break-even point: The sales level at which total revenue equals total costs.

• Contribution margin: A menu item’s selling price minus its variable cost.

• Cost of goods sold or COGS: The cost of ingredients and products used to generate sales during a specified period; restaurant COGS is commonly calculated as beginning inventory plus purchases minus ending inventory.

• FIFO: First in, first out, an inventory method in which older products are used before newer ones.

• Fixed costs: Expenses that generally stay consistent regardless of sales volume, such as rent and insurance.

• Food cost percentage: Food costs expressed as a percentage of food sales; tracking food cost percentage helps operators evaluate pricing, waste, and purchasing.

• Gross profit: Revenue remaining after COGS is subtracted.

• Gross revenue: Total sales before costs and expenses are deducted.

• Inventory shrinkage: Stock lost through waste, spoilage, theft, inaccurate portions, or recordkeeping errors.

• Inventory turnover: The number of times inventory is used and replaced during a defined period.

• Labor cost percentage: Labor expenses expressed as a percentage of restaurant sales.

• Net profit: Revenue remaining after all operating expenses, interest, and taxes are deducted.

• Par level: The target quantity of an ingredient or supply a restaurant aims to keep available.

• P&L statement: A profit-and-loss statement summarizing revenue, costs, and expenses over a specified period.

• Prime cost: The combined total of COGS and labor costs; monitoring prime cost helps operators track two of their largest controllable expense categories.

• Product mix: The number and proportion of different menu items sold.

• Profit margin: Profit expressed as a percentage of revenue.

• Revenue per available seat hour or RevPASH: Sales divided by the number of available seats and hours measured.

• Variable costs: Expenses that change with sales or production volume, such as ingredients and some labor costs.

• Variance: The difference between an expected amount and the actual result.

• Yield: The usable quantity produced from an ingredient after trimming, cooking, or preparation.

Par levels, FIFO, turnover, and shrinkage are central concepts in inventory management. Tracking them consistently helps restaurants maintain stock while limiting spoilage and overordering.

Restaurant technology terms

Restaurant technology terms describe the systems used to manage menus, orders, kitchens, payments, guests, and reporting. Understanding the vocabulary makes it easier to evaluate how different restaurant technologies fit together.

• API: Technology that allows separate software applications to exchange information; the Toast Partner Directory includes software integrations built to connect with the Toast platform.

• CRM: A customer relationship management system that organizes guest profiles, preferences, and activity; Toast Guest CRM brings orders, visits, reservations, and feedback into connected profiles.

• First-party ordering: Orders placed through digital channels owned or controlled by the restaurant.

• Integration: A connection that lets separate restaurant systems share data or workflows.

• Kitchen display system or KDS: Digital screens that organize and route incoming orders to the appropriate kitchen stations; Toast KDS connects directly with Toast POS.

• Menu management: The process of creating, updating, pricing, and publishing menu items across ordering channels.

• Mobile POS or mPOS: A handheld or mobile device used to enter orders and accept payments, such as the Toast Go 3.

• Online ordering: A digital channel through which guests select, pay for, and submit restaurant orders; Toast Online Ordering connects those orders with the restaurant’s POS and kitchen workflows.

• Point-of-sale system or POS: The technology used to manage menus, orders, checks, payments, and sales records; Toast Point of Sale brings those functions together in one restaurant-focused system.

• QR code ordering: A system that lets guests access a digital menu or ordering page by scanning a code; Toast Mobile Order & Pay lets guests order and pay from their phones.

• Self-ordering kiosk: A guest-facing device used to browse the menu, submit an order, and often pay, such as the Toast Self-Ordering Kiosk.

• Third-party marketplace: An outside platform that lists restaurants and facilitates pickup or delivery orders; Toast third-party delivery integrations can send supported marketplace orders directly to Toast POS.

Toast POS supports real-time menu management and records item-level order and sales data. This means operators can keep menus accurate across channels and use performance data to support menu-engineering decisions through a connected restaurant platform.

Speak the same language across your restaurant

Restaurant terminology helps employees communicate quickly, understand expectations, and interpret performance consistently. Shared language is especially important when menu, ordering, kitchen, payment, and reporting workflows affect one another.

Toast Restaurant POS connects those workflows through one restaurant platform, which means FOH, BOH, and management teams can work from the same operational information.

FAQ

What does “86” mean in a restaurant?

In a restaurant, “86” means an item is unavailable or should be removed from the menu or an order.

What is the difference between FOH and BOH?

FOH covers guest-facing areas and employees, while BOH includes the kitchen, storage, dishwashing, and other behind-the-scenes operations.

What does “in the weeds” mean in restaurant slang?

“In the weeds” means an employee or team is overwhelmed with orders or tasks and falling behind.

What is mise en place?

Mise en place is the practice of preparing and organizing ingredients, tools, and workstations before cooking begins.

What is prime cost in a restaurant?

Restaurant prime cost is the combined total of cost of goods sold and labor expenses.

What does “all day” mean in a kitchen?

“All day” means the total quantity of a particular menu item needed across every active ticket.

What is a table turn in a restaurant?

A table turn is the process of seating and serving a party, collecting payment, and resetting the table for the next guests.