Meaning & use
restaurant
Last updated
Meanings
nouncountable
A place where people sit and pay for food and drinks that are cooked and served there.
Grammar: Countable: a restaurant, many restaurants.
Patterns
- eat at a restaurant
- a restaurant in somewhere
- book a table at a restaurant
We booked a table at a small Italian restaurant.
The restaurant is closed on Mondays.
She works as a chef at a busy restaurant downtown.
nouncountable
The business or staff of such a place, as a company.
Grammar: Used when talking about the owner or workers: the restaurant announced new hours.
Patterns
- the restaurant announced something
The restaurant announced it would stay open late on weekends.
The restaurant hired five new waiters this month.
The restaurant lost money in the first year.
Word forms
| plural | restaurants |
|---|
Common combinations
- a fast-food restaurant
- They stopped at a fast-food restaurant for lunch.
- book a restaurant
- I booked the restaurant for seven o'clock.
- a fine-dining restaurant
- The couple celebrated at a fine-dining restaurant.
- a restaurant review
- He writes a restaurant review for the paper each week.
- run a restaurant
- Her parents run a restaurant in town.
- a family restaurant
- We often go to a family restaurant on Sundays.
Synonyms and how they differ
- eatery
- Eatery is informal and often means a modest or casual place to eat.
- diner
- Diner is an American casual restaurant, often cheap and serving breakfast all day.
- bistro
- Bistro is a small, relaxed place that usually serves simple French-style food.
- café
- Café serves drinks and light meals rather than full dinners.
Word family
- restaurateur noun
- a person who owns or runs a restaurant
- restaurant car noun
- a train carriage where meals are served
- restorative adjective
- giving back strength, related to the word's French source
- restaurants noun
- plural of restaurant
Commonly confused: restaurant or restaurateur?
restaurant vs restaurateur
A restaurateur is the person who owns a restaurant, and it is spelled without a n.
Practice
We booked a table at a new ___ near the harbor.
Choose one answer.
A restaurant is a place to eat out. A restaurateur is the owner, not the place.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “restaurant”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.