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 Périchole", and "La Grande-Duchesse de Gérolstein", Lecocq's "La fille de Madame Angot" and Léon Vasseur's "La Timbale d'argent"), paired with two one-act English after-pieces ("Happy Hampstead" and "Trial by Jury"). Carte acted as the musical director of this travelling company that included W.H. Denny. Encouraged by the success of "Trial by Jury", Carte made attempts in 1875–76 to raise money for either a revival of "Thespis" or a new piece. A year later, he finally found four backers and formed the "Comedy Opera Company" to produce the future works of Gilbert and Sullivan, along with the works of other British