Answer to Question 1
On an la carte menu, each item is individually selected by the guest, and is charged according to the selections. Therefore, the la carte menu offers a greater opportunity to the server for suggestive selling.
Answer to Question 2
American Service - The food is plated in the kitchen and individually served to guests. This is the most popular type of service among today's restaurants.
Butler Service - Hors d'oeuvres and / or light refreshments are placed on hand-held trays and offered to guests by servers. This type of service is provided during a cocktail party or during the cocktail portion of a banquet or catered event.
English Service - The server presents a platter to the guest by the guest's left side and serves the food onto the plate by using a serving fork and spoon with his/her right hand. This service is used in more formal presentations.
Russian Service - Sometimes referred to as silver service because there is an extensive use of platters and serving bowls which create a dramatic food presentation. Servers will serve guests from the platters onto their plates. Russian monarchy favored this type of service and introduced it to France. This service is not often used.
French Service - A service that requires special equipment such as a guridon or flamb cart. The guridon is used so that a server can cook and plate food in front of the guest. This requires servers to have additional culinary skills such as sauting and flambing. This type of service takes a longer period of time to prepare and is associated with high-end dining where there is a limited amount of tables, creating an intimate dining-room atmosphere. The tableside service adds an element of showmanship which can be very impressive. Guests enjoy this element of French service and are willing to pay the higher prices to experience this show. Some fine-dining restaurants serve certain menu items from a cart, such as a Caesar salad or flamed desserts such as cherries jubilee.