restaurant

Etymology

Borrowed from French restaurant, present participle of the verb restaurer, corresponding to Latin restaurans, restaurantis, present participle of restauro (“I restore”), from the name of the 'restorative' soup served in the first establishments.

noun

1. An eating establishment in which diners are served food, usually by waiters at their tables but sometimes (as in a fast food restaurant) at a counter.
   That Italian restaurant serves some of the best food I've ever had in my life.
   By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed, and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country. 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 5, in Death on the Centre Court