Free · France
Understanding the French Menu Formule
You recognise the food words and the price, but one small word changes the order: ou—“or”. A starter and main or a main and dessert is not the same offer as all three.
A restaurant formule is best read as a specified combination with conditions. The heading attracts attention; the lines beneath it tell you what you are actually choosing. Read those lines before turning the printed price into your expected bill.
First, separate the document from the offer
In French, menu can mean the list or printed document, but also a meal offered for a combined price. The Académie française distinguishes that set-price meaning from à la carte, where dishes are charged separately. Context tells you which meaning is intended. Académie française, menu, restaurant definition.
So asking to see a menu is not itself an order for a set meal. Likewise, seeing a dish somewhere on the restaurant's full list does not establish that it belongs to the particular combination you are considering.
Do not memorise “menu means three courses, formule means two”. A real counterexample appears on Le 5's own published menu: under its lunch-formula heading, it lists both a two-course choice and a three-course combination. This page was read on 28 October 2026; it is a language example, not confirmation of an offer for your visit. Le 5, Carte & Menus, “Formule déjeuner”.
The reliable unit is therefore the offer as written, not a fixed number of courses attached to its name.
Identify the pieces before adding them together
The core course words in the examples below are:
- Entrée: starter, not the main course in this French restaurant context.
- Plat: the main course when used in an entrée–plat–dessert combination.
- Dessert: dessert.
- Plat du jour: the day's featured dish; the phrase alone does not mean a complete meal with a drink.
These are basic restaurant terms also included in TV5MONDE's learner vocabulary. The explanations and examples here are original, not a reproduced lesson or recording. TV5MONDE, Au restaurant.
Now look at the connectors. A plus sign or et joins components; ou presents an alternative. A slash can be visually ambiguous: establish whether it separates headings, choices or the parts of one combination rather than guessing from typography alone.
Example A: count what is included
Invented teaching board—not a real restaurant, current price or recommended budget.
Formule déjeuner
Du mardi au vendredi midi, hors jours fériés
Entrée + plat ou plat + dessert : 18 €
Entrée + plat + dessert : 22 €
Choix parmi les suggestions du jour
Boissons non comprises
Meaning: Lunch combination, Tuesday to Friday at lunchtime, excluding public holidays. Starter plus main or main plus dessert costs €18; starter, main and dessert costs €22. Choices are from the day's suggestions. Drinks are not included in those combination prices.
Three things follow from this invented wording:
- The €18 option provides two courses, not three. It does not offer starter plus dessert as a third possible pairing.
- “The day's suggestions” defines the selection. It does not promise free choice from every dish elsewhere on the full menu.
- A restaurant being open at another time would not make this lunch offer applicable then.
The board also leaves questions unanswered. Which suggestions are available today? Does “lunchtime” have a stated service window elsewhere? A missing detail should remain a question, not become an invented condition.
Read the time restriction as part of the offer
DGCCRF's visitor FAQ says that when a reduced-price menu applies only on certain days or at particular times, those conditions should be stated. A restaurant's opening hours and a particular menu's availability are different pieces of information. DGCCRF, restaurant-information section, 10 June 2026.
Useful expressions to recognise include uniquement le midi (“at lunchtime only”), du lundi au vendredi (“Monday to Friday”) and hors jours fériés (“excluding public holidays”). Read them together: a weekday that is also a public holiday may be excluded by the second condition.
Do not use a photograph of an old board as today's timetable. Even a current-looking webpage needs to be matched to the restaurant, the date and the service you mean.
Example B: distinguish the base price from a selected extra
A second invented offer. All amounts and choices are fictional.
Menu — 24 €
Entrée + plat + dessert
Entrée : soupe ou salade
Plat : légumes mijotés ou poisson du jour (+3 €)
Dessert : compote ou gâteau du jour
Boissons non comprises
Jus de pomme 25 cl : 3,20 €
Prix en euros, taxes et service compris
Meaning: A €24 starter–main–dessert menu. Choose soup or salad; vegetable stew or the day's fish, with a €3 supplement for the fish; and fruit compote or the day's cake. Drinks are not included. A 25-centilitre apple juice costs €3.20 separately. The stated prices include taxes and service.
If the fictional customer chooses the fish and that juice, the stated total is €24 + €3 + €3.20 = €30.20. The supplement belongs to the fish choice; it is not added to every menu. The juice is one specified drink, not an unlimited-drinks package.
This arithmetic explains the text, not whether the meal is good value. Nor does a listed combination authorise substitutions that have not been agreed. If you want two starters instead of the main, ask whether that is possible and what price would apply before ordering.
Drinks and service are different questions
DGCCRF's restaurant guidance says menus should state whether a drink is included. It also explains that where service is charged, the displayed price includes it and taxes. “Service included” is therefore not the same information as “drink included”. DGCCRF, Restaurants : droits et obligations des professionnels, 10 February 2025.
If a combination says boisson comprise, identify which drink, what size and how many. Do not assume that every beverage on another page is eligible. Similarly, a coffee offered in conversation should not silently become either “free” or “already part of my menu”: check the offer if that distinction matters to your order.
Make the choice explicit when ordering
Here is an original illustrative exchange based on Example A, not an actual restaurant conversation:
Customer: Je voudrais la formule à dix-huit euros, plat et dessert.
“I'd like the eighteen-euro combination, main and dessert.”
Server: Quel plat souhaitez-vous ?
“Which main course would you like?”
Customer: Quels plats font partie de cette formule ?
“Which main courses are included in this combination?”
The customer has identified the price tier and course combination, but has not yet chosen the dish. That is a useful intermediate step, not a failed order. If the answer is unclear, ask for the relevant section to be pointed out or written down rather than agreeing to something you have not understood.
Three quick checks
- In Example A, does the €18 line include a starter, main and dessert? No: the word ou creates two alternative two-course combinations.
- In Example B, must someone choosing vegetable stew pay the €3 fish supplement? No: it attaches to the fish option.
- Does the word formule itself establish a drink, a portion size or a guaranteed service speed? No: those need their own information.
The practical habit is short: identify the combination, check when it applies, establish the eligible choices, then clarify additions before ordering. A formule becomes much easier to understand when you read it as a complete offer rather than as one appealing price.