Food Service Types

Eating out and the art of dining both involve food and beverage, but the service method to be used will depend on the type of establishment, customers' expectations, the type of menu offered and how fast customers come.

There is a broad range of foodservice types.  They are table service, assisted service, self-serve, single-point service, and specialized service.

In general, the topics which will be discussed are table service and assisted service which is most related to restaurant dining.

In table service, both food and beverage are brought to and served to the customers.  This type of service has several variations:

American plated service
English platter service
French platter service
Simplified gueridon service
Russian gueridon service
French gueridon service
Family service

All or some combination of these types of table service may be used in a restaurant.  It is all based on the type of dining and menu offered.  Some items may require table side gueridon service like de-boning Dover sole or making a caesar salad tableside.

For the most part in Canada, the United States and Europe we are a custom to American plate service.  This is where the chef and kitchen staff plate all the food in the kitchen ready to be delivered by the service staff to the customers.  The delivery is made from the left or the right side depending on how the table is oriented in the room.  Thus, the American plate service is the easiest and most widely used.

When it gets fancy we get into the more delicate platter type service and gueridon type service.  This will be discussed in the next article.