   in a restaurant, a menu is a presentation of food and beverage offerings. a menu may be Ã  la carte â which guests use to choose from a list of options â or table d'hÃ´te, in which case a pre-established sequence of courses is served. ==history== thumb|250px|a lighted display board-style menu outside a french kebab restaurant. menus, as a list of prepared foods, have been discovered dating back to the song dynasty in china.gernet, jacques (1962). daily life in china: on the eve of the mongol invasion, 1250-1276. pp. 50, 133â134, 137 in the larger populated cities of the time, merchants found a way to cater to busy customers who had little time or energy to prepare food during the evening. the variation in chinese cuisine from different regions led caterers to create a list or menu for their patrons. the word "menu," like much of the terminology of cuisine, is french in origin. it ultimately derives from latin "minutus," something made small; in french it came to be applied to a detailed list or rÃ©sumÃ© of any kind. the original menus that offered consumers choices were prepared on a small chalkboard, in french a carte; so foods chosen from a bill of fare are described as "Ã  la carte," "according to the board." the contemporary menu first appeared in france during the second half of the eighteenth century, or the romantic age. prior to this time eating establishments or table d'hÃ´te served dishes that were chosen by the chef or proprietors. customers ate what the house was serving that day, as in contemporary banquets or buffets and meals were served from a common table. the establishment of restaurants and restaurant menus allowed customers to choose from a list of unseen dishes, which were produced to order according to the customer's selection. a table d'hÃ´te establishment charged its customers a fixed price; the menu allowed customers to spend as much or as little money as they chose.rebecca l. spang, the invention of the restaurant: paris and modern gastronomic culture (harvard, 2000: isbn 0-674-00685-2) ==economics of menu production== as early as the mid-20th century, some restaurants have relied on âmenu specialistsâ to design and print their menus. prior to the emergence of digital printing, these niche printing companies printed full-color menus on offset presses. the economics of full-color offset made it impractical to print short press runs. the solution was to print a âmenu shellâ with everything but the prices. the prices would later be printed on a less costly black-only press. in a typical order, the printer might produce 600 menu shells, then finish and laminate 150 menus with prices. when the restaurant needed to reorder, the printer would add prices and 
Restaurant_menus