Restaurant Trivia
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120 free Restaurant trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
This restaurant trivia quiz is written for restaurants and bars that run quiz nights, and for anyone who loves eating out. It covers how restaurants came to be (Song-dynasty China, the restorative broths of 1760s Paris, the world's oldest restaurants in Madrid, Salzburg and Boston), the Michelin Guide and how a tyre company came to hand out stars, and the origin stories of chains everyone knows: McDonald's and Ray Kroc, KFC and the Colonel, Starbucks, Subway, Wendy's, Pizza Hut, Domino's, Taco Bell, Chick-fil-A, Waffle House and more. There are questions on legendary single restaurants (Delmonico's, Antoine's, Rao's, Katz's, Noma, El Bulli, The French Laundry), on restaurant culture (the kitchen brigade, sommeliers, à la carte, buffets, automats, diners, food trucks, doggy bags) and on dishes born in restaurants such as the Caesar salad and nachos. Difficulty runs from easy warm-ups to genuinely obscure history, so a host can pull a themed round at any level. Every answer has been checked against encyclopaedia entries and each question shows its source, so you can settle disputes at the table.
30 of 120 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the maximum number of Michelin stars a restaurant can hold?
Three
Three stars is the top Michelin rating, defined as 'exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey'; the next rung down means 'worth a detour' and the lowest 'a very good restaurant in its category'.
Q 02Burger King's signature sandwich, added to the menu in 1957, is called what?
The Whopper
The Whopper was created in 1957 by co-founder James McLamore, who wanted a bigger burger than rivals offered; it originally sold for 37 cents.
Q 03The Michelin Guide, which awards restaurant stars, was originally published by a company that makes what?
Tyres
Tyres are Michelin's business: brothers André and Édouard Michelin gave the 1900 guide away free to get France's few thousand motorists driving more and wearing out more rubber.
Q 04Every Chick-fil-A restaurant is closed on which day of the week?
Sunday
Sunday closing dates from founder Truett Cathy's first diner, the Dwarf Grill, opened in Hapeville, Georgia in 1946; the devout Southern Baptist wanted staff to have a day for rest and worship.
Q 05What is the name of Wendy's signature soft-serve frozen dessert?
The Frosty
The Frosty has been served since the first Wendy's opened in Columbus, Ohio in 1969; the original flavour is a chocolate-vanilla blend chosen so it would not overpower a burger.
Q 06Wendy's founder Dave Thomas named the chain after whom?
His daughter
His daughter Melinda Lou Thomas, nicknamed Wendy because she pronounced her own name 'Wenda' as a small child, was eight when the first restaurant opened in Columbus, Ohio in 1969.
Q 07Starbucks opened its first store in 1971 at which Seattle landmark, originally selling only coffee beans?
Pike Place Market
Pike Place Market's original 1971 store sold only whole beans and brewing equipment; Howard Schultz bought the company in 1987 and turned it into an espresso-bar chain.
Q 08Which parent company owns Taco Bell, alongside KFC and Pizza Hut?
Yum! Brands
Yum! Brands was spun out of PepsiCo in 1997 as Tricon Global Restaurants and adopted the Yum! Brands name in 2002; it is headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky.
Q 09The Four Seasons restaurant opened in 1959 inside which Manhattan skyscraper?
Seagram Building
The Seagram Building, Mies van der Rohe's bronze-clad tower on Park Avenue, housed the Four Seasons from 1959 to 2016; Philip Johnson designed the restaurant's Grill Room and Pool Room.
Q 10Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut claims to have invented which dish in 1900?
The hamburger
The hamburger, as Louis' Lunch tells it, was born in 1900 when owner Louis Lassen slipped a ground-beef patty between two slices of toast for a customer in a hurry.
Q 11Ray Kroc was selling what when he visited the McDonald brothers' San Bernardino restaurant in 1954?
Milkshake mixers
Milkshake mixers were Kroc's line: he sold the Prince Castle Multimixer, which whipped several shakes at once, and the brothers' order for eight of them drew him west; he opened his own outlet in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955.
Q 12Which chain overtook McDonald's in 2011 to have the most locations of any brand?
Subway
Subway passed McDonald's store count in 2011. It began in 1965 as Pete's Super Submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut, funded by a $1,000 loan from a family friend.
Q 13Delmonico's, often called America's first fine-dining restaurant, opened in 1827 in which city?
New York
Q 21Which chain, founded in Wichita in 1921 and famous for 'sliders', is considered America's first fast-food chain?
White Castle
White Castle was founded in 1921 by cook Walter Anderson and insurance man Billy Ingram; its small square burgers, steam-grilled over onions, and gleaming white buildings were meant to convince customers that ground beef was clean.
Q 22Burger King's Australian outlets trade under what different name because of a trademark dispute?
Hungry Jack's
Hungry Jack's was chosen by franchisee Jack Cowin in 1971 because an Adelaide takeaway already held the Burger King trademark; the name came from a Pillsbury pancake-mix brand, Pillsbury then owning Burger King.
Q 23Before founding Taco Bell in 1962, Glen Bell ran what kind of eatery in San Bernardino?
When it rebuilt on a grand scale after the Great Fire of New York, diners were told the columns by the door had been shipped from the ruins of Pompeii.
Q 14Pizza Hut was started in 1958 by two brothers studying at a university in which US state?
Kansas
Kansas is home to Wichita, where brothers Dan and Frank Carney, students at Wichita State University, opened the first Pizza Hut in 1958 with $600 borrowed from their mother.
Q 15The first Hard Rock Cafe opened in 1971 in which city?
London
London's Old Park Lane hosted the first Hard Rock Cafe, opened by Americans Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton; the memorabilia tradition began in 1979 when Eric Clapton hung a red Fender above his favourite seat.
Q 16Outback Steakhouse, the Australian-themed chain, was founded in 1988 in which US city?
Tampa
Tampa, Florida was home to the first Outback Steakhouse, opened in March 1988 by founders including Chris Sullivan and Bob Basham, none of whom had been to Australia; Crocodile Dundee had made the theme fashionable.
Q 17Which Chicago restaurant, opened by Grant Achatz in 2005, became famous for edible helium balloons?
Alinea
Alinea opened in May 2005 in Chicago's Lincoln Park under chef Grant Achatz and partner Nick Kokonas; Gourmet magazine named it America's best restaurant in 2006, and its edible green-apple helium balloon became a signature.
Q 18Caesar salad was invented on 4 July 1924 in a restaurant in which city?
Tijuana
Tijuana was where Italian-born Caesar Cardini ran his restaurant for Americans dodging Prohibition; a Fourth of July rush in 1924 ran his kitchen low and he improvised the salad tableside.
Q 19Which Copenhagen restaurant, opened by René Redzepi in 2003, led New Nordic cuisine?
Noma
Noma opened in 2003 in a converted warehouse in Copenhagen's Christianshavn; it topped the World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2010, 2011, 2012, 2014 and 2021.
Q 20Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives began airing on Food Network in which year?
2007
2007 was the year Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives launched as a weekly series, in April; Fieri had won the second season of The Next Food Network Star in 2006, and a one-off pilot special aired that November.
A hot dog stand
A hot dog stand called Bell's Drive-In, opened in 1948, was Glen Bell's first business; he studied the hard-shell tacos at the Mitla Cafe across the street and began selling his own in 1951.
Q 24Which US agency informally gauges storm damage by whether Waffle House is open?
FEMA
FEMA administrator Craig Fugate popularised the 'Waffle House Index' after the 2011 tornado season: green means open with a full menu, yellow a limited menu on generator power, red closed.
Q 25Rainforest Cafe opened its first location in 1994 inside what?
The Mall of America
The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota housed the first Rainforest Cafe, opened by Steven Schussler and Lyle Berman in October 1994; Landry's bought the chain in 2000.
Q 26Nathan's Famous began in 1916 as a Coney Island stand selling hot dogs for how much?
Five cents
Five cents bought a Nathan's hot dog in 1916, half the dime charged by Feltman's, where Nathan Handwerker had worked; he opened his stand with $300 in savings.
Q 27Which chef, working with César Ritz at the Savoy, created the kitchen 'brigade' system?
Auguste Escoffier
Auguste Escoffier, the 'king of chefs and chef of kings', drew on his army service to organise cooks into stations under a chef de partie, and his 1903 Le Guide Culinaire codified French cuisine.
Q 28Nando's, the flame-grilled peri-peri chicken chain, was founded in 1987 in which city?
Johannesburg
Johannesburg was where Fernando Duarte and Robbie Brozin bought Chickenland, a Portuguese-Mozambican takeaway in the suburb of Rosettenville, in 1987; the name is Duarte's nickname and the logo the Rooster of Barcelos.
Q 29Zagat, the diner-survey restaurant guide founded in 1979, was bought in 2011 by which company?
Google bought Zagat in September 2011 for a reported $151 million, then sold it to The Infatuation in 2018; Tim and Nina Zagat had begun by polling friends about Manhattan restaurants in 1979.
Q 30Which restaurant menu innovation did Howard Johnson's build its 1930s brand on?
28 flavours of ice cream
28 flavours of ice cream was the boast on every Howard Johnson's sign; founder Howard Deering Johnson began with a Quincy, Massachusetts soda fountain in 1925 and franchised his first restaurant in 1935.