I think I am clear on a cafe vs a restaurant but why do you call some places cafes or bistros or brasseries?

Restaurant is kind of a generic term, but places called "restaurant" have a pretty extensive menu.

A bistro or bistrot is a small restaurant, usually, that serves a prix fixe menu with some choices in each category -- entrées, plats principaux, desserts -- but not an extensive menu otherwise. Bistros were the first fast-food restaurants, really.

Brasseries were originally beer-halls. They are often open longer hours than restaurants and bistrots, and they serve a pretty standard menu of classic French dishes -- boeuf bourguignon, escargots, coq au vin, steak-frites, salads, all the standard starters, etc.

All the distinctions are pretty fluid and the terms come in and out of fashion as names of trendy eating places. The most important distinction is that of café as opposed to the other three. Cafés serve drinks and have only minimal menus -- a daily special, sandwiches, etc.

Hope that helps.

This leads me to another question : What is a 'prix fixe menu' ? i see this term often on US based travel forum. As a native french speaker, leaving in France i have never seen this term used. Is it what we call a 'menu or a 'formule' ?

Norween, yes.

Thank you, Nikki !

Many of us use the term prix fixe to distinguish it from a menu as used in the American sense, meaning the carte.

I just noticed it because it sounds so funny : an expression made out of 3 french words but with a structure such as it doesn't make any sense in french

Hi Norween,

>I just noticed it because it sounds so funny...<

It has become popular in the US when serving roast beef "au jus" to ask if one would like some au jus.

(Actually, they say, "You want some au jus with that?".)

Well Ira, that's another pseudo-french expression no french speaker would understand
Very interesting thread, now i know the "translation" for : bistrot, prix fixe menu, au jus...:-?

Very interesting norween and ira.
Someone asked in a thread on places to eat in Lyon, what the term "bouchon" means. My dictionary says it means "top". Any help here?

Hi Norween

In the US we pronounce "lingerie" as lon jer aye.

How is it pronounced in France?

A "bouchon" is what you would call a....bistrot!
The name is typical to Lyon and surroundigs, it cames from the old postal relays where the travellers stopped just long enough to have a fast meal and open one bottle's cork (aka bouchon).

Difficult question Ira, both "in" and the french 'e' have no equivalent in english.
Something like "lun jur ee" (the 'j' pronounced without the 'd' sound that comes in english)

robjame, you better google with key-words "bouchon and Lyon"

http://frenchfood.about.com/cs/4/p/bouchon.htm

Of course the first meaning of "le bouchon" is : wine bottle stopper (usually made of cork). Traffic jam is also called un bouchon.

Thank you norween. And kappa that link is fascinating. I didn't know.
ira and norween - have the terms "a la mode" and "a la carte" taken on different English meanings? we think of a la mode to be exclusively - with ice cream
a la carte pretty well means alone or with nothiing else...
certainly "menu" and "entree" have vastly different meanings - entree being the main course in North America

> entree being the main course in North America.

I learned that here on this board. Unlike "prix-fixe", can we fairly say you got this one completely "wrong"? It would have been naturally and literally translated as a starter.

"A la mode" in France ('except at 'Pizza Hut" as nothing to do with ice cream but is related to meat : beef stew or tripes (boeuf à la mode, tripes à la mode (de Caen)).
"A la carte" is what i suppose you call the 'menu' : it's when you order each item separatley from the complete list of what's available (and not from a preset selection in each section).
"Entree" is , in France, as you know, the starter; the main course being called 'plat principal'.

Just curious, how do you North Americans pronounce "entree" as meaning the main dish, like entry ? And you say entree more often than main dish? Perhpas entree is considered a more sophiscated way to say main dish ?

pronounced same way as French except without rolling the r
en - tray
exactly for the meaning of entree - the plat principal
On menus (cartes) you will actually see headings - appetizers (French entrees); entress (plat principal); desserts;

Just to clarify, "entree" is pronounced the same way in English as in French, but I would write it phonetically as "on- tray".

By writing "en-tray" one might interpret it as kappa supposes, with the first syllable like the English word "entry", which it is not.

"Entree" is used in restaurants, but not what one would normally say at home.

Nikki - right on. Thank you.
In my above post of course I wanted to type "entree" not "entress"