Restaurant terms and kitchen slang: the glossary we wish we'd had on day one

Restaurant vocabulary looks like one language and is actually six. Floor shorthand, kitchen commands, menu formats, bar tiers, French classical terms and accounting metrics all get thrown into the same glossary, which is why so many published lists are useless in an actual shift. A cook does not need to know what RevPASH means at 7pm, and an owner reading a P&L does not need to know what “corner” means.

This glossary keeps those six groups apart. Every metric gets its exact formula. Every piece of slang gets an example of how it is actually said. And the section that matters most legally, the difference between a service charge and a tip, is sourced to the IRS and the Department of Labor rather than to another glossary.

The 40 most-used restaurant terms

Start here if you need one term fast. Definitions below are compressed to eight words; the full entries follow in their own sections.

Term	Group	Short definition
86 / 86’d	Floor and kitchen	Item is sold out and unavailable now
A la carte	Menu	Every dish priced and ordered separately
A la minute	Classical	Cooked to order, not batched in advance
All day	Kitchen	Total quantity of an item currently ordered
Average check	Metrics	Total sales divided by number of covers
Behind	Kitchen	Warning called when passing behind someone
Campers	Floor	Guests staying long after finishing and paying
Chit / ticket	Kitchen	Printed or screen order sent to line
COGS	Metrics	Cost of the inventory actually used
Comp	Floor	Item made, then given away free
Corner	Kitchen	Warning called at a blind turn
Covers	Floor	Number of individual guests served
Deuce / two-top	Floor	Table set for exactly two guests
Drop	Kitchen	Start cooking a time-sensitive item now
Dying on the pass	Kitchen	Plated food degrading under the heat lamp
Expo	Kitchen	Person calling tickets and checking plates
Family meal	Kitchen	Staff meal cooked before service
Fire	Kitchen	Begin cooking this ticket immediately
Food cost %	Metrics	Food cost as a share of food sales
Four-top	Floor	Table set for exactly four guests
In the weeds	Floor and kitchen	Overwhelmed and unable to catch up
Labor cost %	Metrics	Payroll as a share of total revenue
Line cook	Kitchen	Cook responsible for one station in service
Low boy	Kitchen	Under-counter fridge on the cook line
LTO	Menu	Limited time offer, a temporary menu item
Menu mix	Metrics	Share of sales each item accounts for
Mise en place	Classical	Everything prepped and in place before service
No-show	Floor	Booked guest who never arrives or cancels
On the fly	Floor and kitchen	Needed immediately, jumping the ticket queue
Par level	Metrics	Minimum stock needed until the next delivery
Prime cost	Metrics	Cost of goods sold plus total labor
Prix fixe	Menu	Multi-course meal at one fixed price
RevPASH	Metrics	Revenue per available seat per hour
Service charge	Metrics	Mandatory fee set by the restaurant
Side work	Floor	Prep and cleaning tasks around a shift
The pass	Kitchen	Counter where finished plates leave the kitchen
Turn time	Floor	How long a party occupies a table
Void	Floor	Item removed before the kitchen made it
Walk-in	Floor	Guest arriving without a reservation
Working	Kitchen	Spoken confirmation that an order was heard

Front-of-house terms

Front-of-house language exists to move guests through a finite number of seats without anyone feeling moved. Most of it is about capacity: who is sitting where, for how long, and what that costs.

86 / 86’d

86 means an item is sold out and must stop being sold. “We just ran out of sea bass, 86 it.” Applied to a person, it means refusing service. The term shows up in print in the early 1930s as soda-fountain slang, and its origin is honestly unknown. Merriam-Webster’s own account judges rhyming slang for “nix,” meaning to reject, the most probable explanation, and treats the popular 86-proof-liquor story as folklore.

Campers

Campers are guests who stay long after paying. “Table 12 settled up an hour ago, they’re camping.” The cost is not the guests; it is the seating you cannot sell while they sit.

Comp

A comp is an item that was made and then given away free, usually to fix a mistake. “The steaks came out overcooked, comp their desserts.” The food cost is already spent, which is why comps need manager approval.

Covers

A cover is one paying guest, not one table and not one check. “We did 250 covers tonight.” A four-top that orders three plates is still four covers. This is the single most misdefined term in restaurant reporting.

Deuce, four-top, six-top

Tables are named by how many they seat. “Seat the walk-in deuce at 12.” Naming tables by capacity lets a host assign seating without describing the floor plan every time.

Double-sat

Double-sat, or triple-sat, means one server’s section received two or three tables at once. “I just got triple-sat.” It is a pacing failure at the host stand, not a server failure, and it shows up later as slow service scores.

Dietaries

Dietaries is shorthand for allergies, intolerances and religious restrictions on a booking. “Any dietaries on table eight?” Treating this as an afterthought is how kitchens create liability.

In the weeds

Being in the weeds means falling behind past the point of self-rescue. “Can you run these drinks, I’m in the weeds.” The useful response is to take one named task, not to ask what to do.

No-show

A no-show is a confirmed booking that neither arrives nor cancels. “Two large parties no-showed.” The lost revenue is unrecoverable, which is why deposits and confirmations exist.

On the fly

On the fly means an item is needed immediately, ahead of the queue, usually because something was forgotten or remade. “I need a side salad on the fly.” Overusing it destroys the kitchen’s pacing.

Side work

Side work is the prep and cleaning attached to a service shift: rolling silverware, restocking stations, polishing glassware. “Finish your side work before you clock out.” Note that how side work is scheduled has wage-law consequences, covered further down.

Turn time

Turn time is how long a party occupies a table, from seating to reset. “Average turn on a four-top is 90 minutes.” Turn time multiplied by seats is your real capacity, not the seat count on its own.

Void

A void removes an item from the check before the kitchen makes it, normally to fix a ring-in error. “I rang two steaks instead of one, I need a void.” Unlike a comp, nothing was cooked and nothing was lost.

Walk-in

A walk-in is a guest arriving without a reservation. “We just got a rush of walk-ins.” Holding tables for walk-ins is a deliberate trade against booked covers, not a courtesy.

Back-of-house terms

Kitchen language is built for a loud room where a misheard word costs a plate or a burn. It is short, imperative and repeated back out loud.

All day

All day is the running total of an item across every open ticket. “Seven steaks all day.” It lets a cook work from one number instead of re-reading a wall of tickets.

Behind, corner, hot

These are safety calls. “Behind you.” “Corner.” “Hot pan.” They are not politeness; they are the reason people do not walk backwards into a pan of boiling stock.

Bump

To bump a ticket is to clear it from the kitchen display once the dish is plated. “That’s up, bump it.” On a screen system, bumping is also what records ticket times, so bumping early flatters your data.

Chit / ticket

A chit is the order that reaches the line, printed or on screen. “We’re missing three chits for table nine.” The chit sets the sequence the whole kitchen works to.

Dead plate

A dead plate is food that can no longer be served, usually because it sat too long. “That’s a dead plate, refire it.” Every dead plate is spent food cost with no revenue attached.

Drop

Drop is the command to start a timed item, typically into a fryer or boiling water. “Drop the calamari.” Dropping too early is as damaging as dropping too late.

Dying on the pass

Food dying on the pass has been plated correctly and left under the lamp. “The halibut is dying on the pass.” This is nearly always a communication failure between the kitchen and the floor rather than a cooking failure.

Expo

The expo, or expeditor, reads tickets, calls them to the stations, checks plates and sets the pace. “Chef is on expo tonight.” In a busy room this is the position that decides whether food arrives together.

Family meal

Family meal is the staff meal cooked and eaten before service. “Family at four.” It is also where most kitchens use up trim and product that would otherwise be waste.

Fire

Fire is the command to start cooking a ticket now. “Table six is clearing, fire their mains.” Firing is the single lever that controls how long guests wait between courses.

Flash

To flash something is to give it a short blast of high heat to bring it back up to temperature. “Flash it for thirty seconds.” Useful for recovery, damaging if used to disguise food that should be remade.

Line cook

A line cook works one station through service: grill, saute, fry or pantry. “We need a grill cook for Fridays.” The station, not the classical French title, is how US kitchens actually organise the line.

Low boy

A low boy is the under-counter refrigerator on the cook line. “Restock your low boy before service.” Everything a cook needs at arm’s length lives here; everything else costs steps.

Mise en place

Mise en place is having every ingredient and tool prepped, portioned and positioned before service starts. “If your mise isn’t done by five, you’re going down.” It is the difference between cooking and reacting.

Prep list

The prep list is the day’s bulk production plan: stocks, sauces, portioning, breakdowns. “Prep list isn’t finished.” When the prep list slips, service pays for it three hours later.

The pass

The pass is the counter where finished plates leave the kitchen and the expo takes over. “It’s on the pass.” It is both a physical place and the handover point of responsibility.

Walk-in

In the kitchen, the walk-in is the refrigerated room where bulk stock lives. Note that “walk-in” means two completely different things depending on which side of the door you are standing.

Working

Working is the spoken confirmation that an order was heard and started. “Two salmon on the fly.” “Two salmon, working.” A kitchen without call-and-response loses tickets.

Menu terms

Menu terminology describes how a meal is sold rather than how it is cooked, and it is where menu design meets accounting.

A la carte

A la carte means every dish is listed and priced separately, so guests build their own meal. It is the default structure of most restaurant menus.

Cycle menu

A cycle menu is a set of daily menus that rotate on a fixed schedule, common in institutional catering. “We run a three-week cycle.” It buys variety and predictable purchasing at the same time.

Du jour

Du jour means “of the day,” used for specials that change with the market. “The soup du jour is butternut squash.” It is how a kitchen uses transient product without reprinting anything.

LTO

An LTO is a limited time offer, a menu item deliberately available for a short window. “The autumn LTO launches in September.” LTOs create urgency and test dishes with a built-in exit.

Menu engineering

Menu engineering is the analysis of every item by profitability and popularity, then acting on the result. The four quadrants come from the Kasavana and Smith matrix: stars, plowhorses, puzzles and dogs. We separate the replicated findings from the folklore in our menu engineering statistics.

Menu mix

Menu mix is the share of total sales each item represents. “Poultry is 40% of our menu mix.” It is the input to theoretical food cost, and it exposes concentration risk when one protein carries the menu.

Prix fixe and table d’hote

Both describe a complete meal sold at one fixed price. In US usage they are effectively interchangeable, although they began as different things. Our guide to a la carte vs prix fixe compares all four menu formats and explains why the prix fixe versus table d’hote distinction is genuinely contested.

Tasting menu

A tasting menu is a fixed sequence of many small courses chosen by the kitchen, usually seven or more.

Bar terms

Bar language sorts spirits by price tier and drinks by preparation. Both distinctions exist to keep pours consistent when the room is three deep.

Well or rail drink

A well drink uses the unbranded house spirit kept in the speed rail at the bartender’s knees. “Well drinks are five dollars at happy hour.” These carry the highest percentage margin on the menu.

Call drink

A call drink is one where the guest names the brand. “Jack and Coke” is a call drink. It sits between well and premium on price.

Top-shelf

Top-shelf refers to the most expensive spirits, physically displayed on the highest shelf. These raise absolute profit per drink even though their percentage margin is lower.

Neat, up, on the rocks

Neat is poured straight from the bottle at room temperature with nothing added. Up means chilled with ice, then strained into a stemmed glass with no ice. On the rocks means served over ice.

Back

A back is a small non-alcoholic glass served alongside a spirit. “Bourbon neat, water back.” It lets the guest drink water without diluting what they paid for.

Dirty and dry

Dirty means olive brine added, most often to a martini. Dry means very little vermouth. Both describe adjustments to a standard build rather than separate drinks.

Pour cost

Pour cost is the liquid cost of a drink as a percentage of its selling price. Measured pours with a jigger produce a tighter pour cost than free pouring, because the variance is the leak. For how drink tiers sit on the menu itself, see our bar menu guide.

Corkage fee

A corkage fee is charged to open and serve wine a guest brought in. Whether a licensed venue may permit this at all depends on state alcohol law, so check your licence before publishing a corkage policy.

Money and metrics, with the formulas

These are the terms that appear on a P&L rather than on a headset. Each one has an exact formula, and getting the denominator right matters more than getting the number low.

Metric	Formula	Unit
Average check	Total revenue ÷ total covers	Currency
COGS	Beginning inventory + purchases − ending inventory	Currency
Food cost %	(Food cost ÷ food sales) × 100	Percent
Labor cost %	(Total labor cost ÷ total revenue) × 100	Percent
Prime cost	COGS + total labor cost	Currency
Prime cost %	((COGS + total labor) ÷ total revenue) × 100	Percent
Covers per hour	Total covers ÷ operating hours	Count
RevPASH	Total revenue ÷ (available seats × hours open)	Currency
Par level	(Average usage per day × days to next delivery) + safety stock	Units

Food cost percentage

Food cost percentage is food cost divided by food sales. There is no single correct target: the National Restaurant Association’s operator data puts the median near 32% of sales in both full-service and limited-service segments, inside the classic 28 to 35% range, and higher-volume restaurants report lower food cost ratios than smaller ones. Benchmark against your own segment and volume, never against a blog average.

Prime cost

Prime cost is COGS plus total labor, and it is the number to watch weekly. The classic ceiling is 65% of sales. Its importance is easy to see in context: the NRA’s 2026 State of the Restaurant Industry findings report that 42% of operators said their restaurant was not profitable in the prior year, up from 29%. Full benchmarks are in our restaurant profit margin data.

Par level

Par level is the minimum quantity of an item you must hold to reach the next delivery without running out. Set it too low and you 86 items; set it too high and you pay for spoilage, which is where a lot of avoidable restaurant food waste originates.

RevPASH

RevPASH is revenue per available seat hour, a capacity metric developed at Cornell by Sheryl Kimes that borrows from airline revenue management. It exposes the hours where seats exist but revenue does not, which is the actual argument for a happy hour.

Comps versus voids

Both reduce the check, but only one costs you food. A comp gives away something already made. A void deletes an item before it is made. Tracking them together hides which of your losses are kitchen errors and which are ring-in errors.

Service charge versus tip: the definition with legal consequences

This is the one entry in this glossary where a wrong definition creates liability rather than confusion, so it is sourced to the agencies rather than to industry usage. This is general information and not legal advice.

A tip must meet four tests. Under IRS Revenue Ruling 2012-18, a payment is a tip only if it is free from compulsion, the customer has the unrestricted right to set the amount, it is not dictated by employer policy, and the customer generally decides who receives it. Miss any of these and the payment is something else.

A mandatory charge is a service charge. An automatic 18% added to a party of six fails those tests, because the employer set it. It is therefore employer revenue, and when it is paid out to staff it is wages rather than tips, with ordinary withholding and overtime treatment.

The tax consequence is real. Employers can claim the FICA tip credit under section 45B on employer Social Security and Medicare taxes paid on employee tip income. Service charges are explicitly excluded, as the IRS’s guidance on the credit sets out. Relabelling a tip line as an automatic charge changes your tax position, not just your menu wording.

Managers can never be in a tip pool. The Department of Labor states that an employer may not keep employee tips for any purpose, and that managers and supervisors may not receive tips from a tip pool or jar. A manager may keep a tip a customer hands them for service they alone provided (DOL Fact Sheet 15B).

The 80/20 side-work rule no longer applies federally. A great deal of published scheduling advice still tells operators to cap side work at 20% of a tipped employee’s time. The Fifth Circuit vacated the Department’s 80/20 and thirty-minute rules in Restaurant Law Center v. U.S. Department of Labor (opinion), and the Department reverted to the earlier dual jobs regulation, which sets no bright-line time limit. State rules may still differ. For what guests are actually tipping, see our restaurant tipping statistics.

French and classical terms

The classical vocabulary survives because the organisation it describes still works, even in kitchens that have never used the French titles.

Brigade de cuisine

The brigade de cuisine is the hierarchy of specialised stations codified by Auguste Escoffier for large hotel kitchens. Escoffier did not invent kitchen roles; Marie-Antoine Carême preceded him. What Escoffier did was formalise them into a military-style structure with one owner per category of production. Our guide to restaurant staff roles maps every classical position to what it is called in 2026, with wage data and the tip-pool rules.

Chef de cuisine and sous chef

Chef de cuisine means chief of the kitchen and is the role most US venues now call executive chef. Sous chef means under chief: second in command, running the line and the schedule day to day.

Chef de partie

Chef de partie means station chief. Classically it meant running a department with commis under you. In most US kitchens today it describes one cook working a station alone, which is why the title causes hiring confusion.

Garde manger

Garde manger, “keeper of the food,” runs the cold kitchen: salads, cold starters, charcuterie, terrines. It is the classical station that survived most intact, usually now called pantry.

Saucier, poissonnier, rotisseur, grillardin, entremetier

These are the classical hot stations: sauces, fish, roasts, grilled items and vegetables or soups. Only the grill survives widely under its own name. The rest were absorbed into line cook roles named by equipment.

Commis and plongeur

Commis is the junior cook who assists a station and learns it, now usually a prep or junior line cook. Plongeur is the dishwasher, and the position that quietly caps how fast the rest of the room can move.

Aboyeur

Aboyeur means barker, the classical role that called orders into the kitchen. It survives as the expeditor.

A la minute

A la minute means cooked to order at the moment it is called, rather than batched in advance. Sauces that break on holding, like hollandaise, must be finished this way.

Sous vide

Sous vide, “under vacuum,” is cooking vacuum-sealed food in a precisely controlled water bath, usually then finished at high heat for colour.

The five mother sauces

Escoffier codified five foundational sauces in Le Guide Culinaire: bechamel, veloute, espagnole, sauce tomat and hollandaise. Carême’s earlier list was different and included allemande, which Escoffier reclassified as a daughter sauce of veloute. Le Cordon Bleu’s account sets out the five and their derivatives.

Terms most glossaries get wrong

Term	Common wrong definition	The correction
Covers	Number of tables served	A cover is one guest. A four-top is four covers, whatever they order.
Prime cost	The cost of premium ingredients	Prime cost is COGS plus total labor. It is an operating metric, not a purchasing term.
Auto-gratuity	Tip income belonging to the server	A mandatory charge is a service charge: employer revenue, paid out as wages, no FICA tip credit.
86	Has one known origin story	The origin is genuinely disputed. Merriam-Webster favours rhyming slang for “nix”.
Allemande	One of the five mother sauces	Carême listed it; Escoffier demoted it to a daughter of veloute.
Comp and void	Interchangeable ways to remove a charge	A comp costs food that was already made. A void removes an item before it is made.
80/20 rule	Current federal limit on side work	Vacated by the Fifth Circuit. No federal bright-line limit applies now.
Walk-in	Only a guest without a reservation	It is also the refrigerated room. Context decides which.

Where the vocabulary meets the menu

Three of these terms describe the same problem from different angles. 86 is what you say when an item runs out. Par level is the number that was supposed to prevent it. LTO is the item you wanted to add but did not, because adding it meant reprinting.

All three get cheaper when the menu is a page you control rather than a print run. A sold-out dish is marked once and every guest sees it, including the ones who have already sat down. A seasonal item goes on in the morning and comes off in six weeks. Prices change when your costs change instead of when the next print order arrives. If you are still working from print or a PDF, start with how to digitize a restaurant menu, and see the labor and turnover data for what the staffing side of this actually costs.

Duckhub builds that side of it: a QR menu your team updates in real time, in several languages, with 0% commission on orders.