# Early 20th century restaurant/hospitality industry: What was a "table d'hote"? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 2, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512 "2008-06-02T18:19:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/1 "2008-06-02T18:19:05Z")
I’ve googled around and tried to find a definition for this, but haven’t been successful. And surprisingly, Wikipedia is down and appears to have been since some time last night. I’ve seen references to a “table d’hote” in fiction, from about 1910 to at least as far as 1927, and it’s some sort of meal that you went out and ate, but what was it exactly? In one novel that I read, a New York couple is struggling financially, and the wife says she’s too tired to cook something and asks if they couldn’t get a table d’hote. In another novel from 1927 a character is having a table d’hote at his hotel. What _was_ it? ---
**Author:** ![Zagalejo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Zagalejo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zagalejo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 6:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/2 "2008-06-02T18:26:16Z")
Does this help? [A Google Books excerpt](http://books.google.com/books?id=zErxVkv7yjEC&pg=PA81&dq=%22table+d%27hote%22&sig=r4ctXwKsFVOSEUwyfrUMTiHaOjk) ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/3 "2008-06-02T18:27:11Z")
Wikipedia’s working fine for me. Apparently it’s the same thing as _prix fixe_. IOW, a limited multi-course menu where each option for each course costs the same. [Wikipedia link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_d'hote). ---
**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/4 "2008-06-02T18:55:45Z")
Here’s OED, showing the development of meaning: > [@](#): > > [Fr., = host’s table.] > > ``` > A common table for guests at a hotel or eating-house; a public meal served there at a stated hour and at a fixed price; an ordinary. Also attrib. as table d'hôte dinner. > > ``` > > 1617 MORYSON Itin. III. 60 Neither at this time was there any ordinarie Table (which they call Table de l’hoste, the Hosts table). a1667 COWLEY Ess. Verse & Prose, Liberty Wks. (1684) 83 All this is but Tabl’d Host, 'tis crowded with people for whom he cares not. 1759 H. WALPOLE Let. to H. S. Conway 19 Sept., Mrs. Howe, who rides a fox-chase, and dines at the table d’hôte at Grantham. 1816 Gentl. Mag. LXXXVI. I. 198/2 At Dunkirk..I found a good table d’hote, a luxury which foreign travellers do not find in England. 1838 Murray’s Handbk. N. Germ. 300/1 The table-d’hôte dinner..takes place at 2 o’clock. ---
**Author:** ![Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spectre_of_pithecanthropus/32/12343_2.png) [@Spectre\_of\_Pithecanthropus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spectre_of_Pithecanthropus)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/5 "2008-06-02T19:11:34Z")
[QUOTE=friedo] Wikipedia’s working fine for me. Apparently it’s the same thing as _prix fixe_. IOW, a limited multi-course menu where each option for each course costs the same. [Wikipedia link](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Table_d'hote). [/QUOTE] Your link works for me to, but the old [www.wikipedia.org](http://www.wikipedia.org) link doesn’t, at least for me. It’s been my experience that _prix fixe_ service is generally on the expensive side, and a higher quality of ingredients and cuisine is expected. Was that always the case, or did _prix-fixe_ arrangements used to be common in cheaper eating places? ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/6 "2008-06-02T22:21:52Z")
I’ve seen this term in current use here. \*Table d’hôte \* describes a fixed menu where you get little or no choice and the prices are fixed, as opposed to an \*à la carte \* menu, where you are given options. ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [June 2, 2008, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/7 "2008-06-02T23:40:02Z")
So, how do you pronounce it? ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/8 "2008-06-03T01:19:01Z")
Tab-luh (The first part is an “a” sound like when someone hesitates to say something “ahhhh” but the second part is kind of barely pronounced… just barely make an l sound) The second word is a bit tougher: the d makes a barely audible “duh” sound, the h is basically silent, and the o is said as you would name the letter - “oh”, then just finish with a “tuh” or “te” (short e), but again barely heard. Tab-luh duh-oh-te Literally, host’s table. You see this a lot in Montreal on restaurant menus. Nowadays it is typically a multi-course menu, usually soup and/or salad, appetizer\*, main course, dessert and coffee. A restaurant may have a choice of 2 soups, or one soup and a salad, of the salad may be it’s own course. Then you’d have a choice of 4-6 appetizers, then often 6-8 main courses and 4-6 desserts to choose from. It might be all one price, or it might be a set price based on the main course, but all within a similar price range (chicken table d’hôte for 28$ but duck for 32$, for example). \*an appetizer is the entrée… the word means “entry” or “entrance” and is therefore the first “real” course to the menu. I don’t know why the rest of the continent chooses to name the main course that. It annoys me a little 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/le_ministre_de_l_au-dela/32/12181_2.png) [@Le\_Ministre\_de\_l\_au-dela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Le_Ministre_de_l_au-dela)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 1:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/9 "2008-06-03T01:21:29Z")
**Tab** - luh **dote**. Tab is just like the English word, luh is tricky - it’s like the vowel in ‘her’ without the final ‘r’; or like the vowel in ‘cut’ but much more closed. Dote is just like the English word for ‘love to pieces’. Stronger accent on the ‘dote’ than on the ‘Tab’. One other thing to watch out for - in English, we say Tay - bull; in French, the vowel has to be on the other side of the ‘l’ consonant. Very tricky for Anglos because it’s the same word as our ‘table’, but it doesn’t sound the same. It literally means ‘the host’s table’. Yeah, just like **Mnemosyne** said… ---
**Author:** ![FatBaldGuy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecd19e/32.png) [@FatBaldGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FatBaldGuy)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/10 "2008-06-03T14:45:22Z")
My first (and until now only) encounter with this term is in the movie, _The Sound of Music_. In the song, _The Lonely Goatherd_, one line says, “Men in the midst of a table d’hote heard…” In the song, it’s pronounced like “tobble dote.” ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 4:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/11 "2008-06-03T16:13:56Z")
Wow, I came in to learn about table d’hote and now I know what they were saying in that song too. Thanks, **FBG**! ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/12 "2008-06-03T17:05:08Z")
It’s a reasonably common term here if you’re eating out, especially in hotels with more than one restaurant. But I used to do admin for a hotel rating scheme and got sent all the menus etc. so maybe I notice it more… ---
**Author:** ![Seventy-five](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ab992/32.png) [@Seventy-five](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Seventy-five)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2008, 5:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/early-20th-century-restaurant-hospitality-industry-what-was-a-table-dhote/451512/13 "2008-06-03T17:18:55Z")
Still in common usage in France but it’s rare IMO to find such places in Paris (though I did fine a Kiwi resto last week with this type of ‘menu’)