A la carte (pronounced “ah lah cart”) describes ordering individual items from a menu rather than getting a complete meal package. The phrase comes from French and literally means “from the menu.”

When you order a la carte at a restaurant, you select each dish separately: maybe you want the grilled chicken but not the side dishes that normally come with it, or you want to add an extra appetizer. This is different from ordering a combo meal, where everything is bundled together at one price.

Restaurants often use a la carte pricing for flexibility. You might see a menu that lists a burger a la carte for eight dollars, or as part of a meal with fries and a drink for twelve dollars. This lets customers build exactly the meal they want, though ordering everything separately usually costs more than getting a set combination.

The term appears beyond restaurants too. A cable company might let you choose channels a la carte instead of requiring you to buy a whole package. A music service might sell songs a la carte rather than requiring a monthly subscription. Basically, a la carte means picking and choosing individual pieces rather than accepting what someone else has bundled together for you.