AZ Restaurants

A restaurant prepares and serves food, drink and dessert to customers. Meals are generally served and eaten on premises, but many restaurants also offer take-out and food delivery services - some of them are listed as online takeaways. Restaurants vary greatly in appearance and offerings, including a wide variety of cuisines and service models.

One of the most famous contemporary guides, in Western Europe, is the Michelin series of guides which accord from 1 to 3 stars to restaurants they perceive to be of high culinary merit. Restaurants with stars in the Michelin guide are formal, expensive establishments; in general the more stars awarded, the higher the prices. The main competitor to the Michelin guide in Europe is the guidebook series published by Gault Millau.

In some cases, there are facilities for customers to order food by telephone, fax, or over the Internet, to be collected or delivered. This trend is thought to be on the rise as many small businesses take to the Web to promote their take-outs.

Food that is delivered by a restaurant to a customer (often called delivery) is also sometimes called take-out. Establishments that sell take-out exclusively without providing table service are called take-out restaurants or order take-aways online.