Chapter 4 Th e World of Food and Beverages 63
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Fine-Dining Restaurants
A fi ne-dining restaurant emphasizes the
highest quality in service, ingredients, décor, and
atmosphere. Service is lavish, with a relatively
large number of employees per customer. Prices
are very high. These restaurants are usually small,
with seating for fewer than 100 customers. Most
fi ne-dining restaurants hire professional chefs
with years of culinary training and experience,
4-4. Only about one percent of full-service restau-
rants are considered fi ne-dining restaurants.
Casual Dining Restaurants
The rest of the full-service restaurants fall into
the category of casual dining. These include the
affordable restaurants that many people frequent,
such as McDonald’s and Denny’s. The many types
of casual dining restaurants range from budget
to expensive, and from very casual to somewhat
formal. Types of casual dining restaurants include
single-item, ethnic, and family restaurants.
A common casual restaurant is the single-item
restaurant. These restaurants choose to specialize
in a single item of food. Examples include pizza,
steak, pancakes, and seafood. These restaurants
may serve a few other types of food, but their
strength is a single food.
Another popular casual restaurant is one
that specializes in ethnic cuisine. Italian, Greek,
Mexican, and Chinese restaurants have always
been popular. More recently, Ethiopian, Indian,
Japanese, Spanish, and Thai restaurants have also
become popular, 4-5.
Family restaurants cater to the needs of fami-
lies and emphasize variety and comfort. Family
restaurants usually serve breakfast, lunch, and
dinner and have an extensive menu. They may
offer salad bars, breakfast bars, and dessert bars,
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4-4
Professional chefs prepare meals with
the highest quality ingredients in fi ne-dining
restaurants.
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4-5
Asian restaurants are a popular type of
casual dining. What types of casual dining are
most popular in your community?