À la carte À la carte In restaurants, à la carte is the practice of ordering individual dishes from a menu in a restaurant, as opposed to "table d'hôte", where a set menu is offered. It is an early 19th century loan from French meaning "according to the menu". The individual dishes to be ordered may include side dishes, or the side dishes may be offered separately, in which case, they are also considered "à la carte". The earliest examples of "à la carte" are from 1816 for the adjectival use ("à la carte meal", for example) and from 1821 for the adverbial
Richard D'Oyly Carte those works for over a century, and they are still performed regularly today. Carte was born in Greek Street in the West End of London on 3 May 1844. He was the eldest of six children. His father, Richard Carte (originally Cart; 1808–1891), was a flautist, and his mother was the former Eliza Jones (1814–1885); they had eloped, to the disappointment of her father, Thomas Jones, a clergyman. His siblings were Blanch (1846–1935), Viola (1848–1925), Rose (b. 1854), Henry (1856–1926) and Eliza (1860–1941). Carte was of Welsh and Norman ancestry; D'Oyly is a Norman French name which "was a forename