70 free Restaurant trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 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 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What is the maximum number of Michelin stars a restaurant can hold?
Three
The zero-to-three hierarchy arrived in 1931; the top rating officially means 'exceptional cuisine, worth a special journey'.
Q 02Burger King's signature sandwich, added to the menu in 1957, is called what?
The Whopper
The chain began in 1953 as Insta-Burger King in Jacksonville, Florida before its Miami franchisees bought it out in 1959.
Q 03The Michelin Guide, which awards restaurant stars, was originally published by a company that makes what?
Tyres
The Michelin brothers gave the first 35,000 copies away free in 1900 to persuade France's few thousand motorists to drive more and wear out more rubber.
Q 04Every Chick-fil-A restaurant is closed on which day of the week?
Sunday
Founder Truett Cathy was a devout Southern Baptist; the chain still has the highest per-store sales of any US fast-food brand.
Q 05What is the name of Wendy's signature soft-serve frozen dessert?
The Frosty
It is served alongside square patties whose corners poke out of the round bun to make the burger look bigger.
Q 06Wendy's founder Dave Thomas named the chain after whom?
His daughter
Melinda Lou 'Wendy' Thomas was his fourth child; the square patties came from Kewpee Hamburgers in his home town of Kalamazoo.
Q 07Starbucks opened its first store in 1971 at which Seattle landmark, originally selling only coffee beans?
Pike Place Market
For its first decade it was a bean retailer; Howard Schultz turned it into an espresso bar and led its expansion as CEO from 1986.
Q 08Which parent company owns Taco Bell, alongside KFC and Pizza Hut?
Yum! Brands
It was spun out of PepsiCo in 1997 as Tricon Global Restaurants and took its current name in 2002.
Q 09The word 'restaurant' comes from a French term for a dish meant to do what?
Restore you
The earliest Paris establishments of the 1760s sold 'restorative' broths, and by 1802 the label had jumped from the soup to the shop.
Q 10Louis' Lunch in New Haven, Connecticut claims to have invented which dish in 1900?
The hamburger
The patties are still cooked on the original 1898 vertical cast-iron broilers, and asking for ketchup is frowned upon.
Q 11Ray Kroc was selling what when he visited the McDonald brothers' San Bernardino restaurant in 1954?
Milkshake mixers
He became their franchise agent, opened his own outlet in Des Plaines, Illinois in 1955 and bought the brothers out for $2.7 million in 1961.
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
They sold for a nickel, and the gleaming white buildings were designed to convince customers that ground beef was safe.
Q 22Burger King's Australian outlets trade under what different name because of a trademark dispute?
Hungry Jack's
A takeaway in Adelaide already owned the Burger King name, so the Australian franchise picked a different one and kept it after a series of court cases.
Q 23Before founding Taco Bell in 1962, Glen Bell ran what kind of eatery in San Bernardino?
A hot dog stand
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
Dan and Frank Carney opened in Wichita; a young Bill Parcells, later a Hall of Fame NFL coach, worked for them as a student.
Q 15The first Hard Rock Cafe opened in 1971 in which city?
London
Two Americans opened it on Old Park Lane; the wall-of-memorabilia tradition began in 1979 with an unsigned red Fender guitar from regular customer Eric Clapton.
Q 16Outback Steakhouse, the Australian-themed chain, was founded in 1988 in which US city?
Tampa
None of the founders had been to Australia; the theme rode the Crocodile Dundee wave and now the chain even has outlets down under.
Q 17Ordering 'à la carte' literally means ordering 'according to the' what?
Board
The first menus offering a choice were chalked on a small board, a carte; a table d'hôte instead offered a fixed meal for a set price.
Q 18Caesar salad was invented on 4 July 1924 in a restaurant in which city?
Tijuana
Caesar Cardini ran the place to serve Americans dodging Prohibition; a holiday rush emptied his kitchen and he improvised tableside.
Q 19Which Copenhagen restaurant, opened by René Redzepi in 2003, led New Nordic cuisine?
Noma
It was voted best restaurant in the world several times and closed as a conventional restaurant to become a food lab with pop-up residencies.
Q 20Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives began airing on Food Network in which year?
2007
He earned the show by winning the second season of The Next Food Network Star the year before.
He learned his taco technique from the Mitla Cafe across the street, which still has a dish named after the woman who taught him.
Q 24Which US disaster agency informally gauges storm damage by whether Waffle House is open?
FEMA
The chain keeps generators and pre-positioned food ready and almost never closes, so a shut Waffle House means things are truly bad.
Q 25Rainforest Cafe opened its first location in 1994 inside what?
The Mall of America
The Bloomington, Minnesota original was bought by Landry's in 2000, and the fake storm still rolls through every few minutes.
Q 26Nathan's Famous began in 1916 as a Coney Island stand selling hot dogs for how much?
Five cents
Nathan Handwerker undercut his old employer Feltman's, who charged a dime, and the annual Fourth of July eating contest now bears his name.
Q 27Which chef, working with César Ritz at the Savoy, created the kitchen 'brigade' system?
Auguste Escoffier
The 'king of chefs and chef of kings' drew on his army service to organise cooks into stations, and codified the five mother sauces.
Q 28Nando's, the flame-grilled peri-peri chicken chain, was founded in 1987 in which city?
Johannesburg
Two friends bought a Portuguese-Mozambican takeaway called Chickenland; the logo is the Rooster of Barcelos and the name is a nickname for Fernando.
Q 29Zagat, the diner-survey restaurant guide founded in 1979, was bought in 2011 by which company?
Tim and Nina Zagat began by polling their friends about Manhattan restaurants; the deal was worth more than $150 million.
Q 30Which restaurant menu innovation did Howard Johnson's build its 1930s brand on?
28 flavours of ice cream
The orange-roofed chain pioneered franchising and the highway restaurant, and by the 1960s was the largest restaurant chain in the United States.