Restaurant Trivia
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119 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 119 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 most Michelin awards; the rating is decided as a team by anonymous inspectors, full-time staff who have each eaten at the restaurant.
Q 02Burger King's signature sandwich, added to the menu in 1957, is called what?
The Whopper
The Whopper was created in 1957 by Burger King co-founder James McLamore, who had seen a rival restaurant draw crowds with a bigger burger at a time when McDonald's sold only small ones.
Q 03Every 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 04What 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 05Wendy's founder Dave Thomas named the chain after whom?
His daughter
His daughter Melinda Lou Thomas was eight when the first Wendy's opened in Columbus, Ohio in 1969; her nickname grew out of 'Wenda', a childhood mangling of Melinda.
Q 06Starbucks, which sold beans rather than drinks when it began in 1971, keeps its oldest store at which Seattle landmark?
Pike Place Market
Pike Place Market houses the 'original' Starbucks, though the 1971 shop first stood nearby on Western Avenue and moved in the mid-1970s; Howard Schultz bought the firm in 1987 and built the espresso-bar chain.
Q 07Which parent company owns Taco Bell and KFC, and owned Pizza Hut until 2026?
Yum! Brands
Yum! Brands began as PepsiCo's restaurant arm: the drinks giant bought Pizza Hut, Taco Bell and KFC between 1977 and 1986 and spun them off in 1997; Yum! sold Pizza Hut in 2026.
Q 08The Four Seasons restaurant opened in 1959 inside which newly built Park Avenue skyscraper?
Seagram Building
The Seagram Building housed the Four Seasons from 1959 to 2016; Mark Rothko painted a mural series for it, then pulled out of the commission and kept the canvases, some of which now hang in the Tate.
Q 09Louis' 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 10Ray 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 11Which chain overtook McDonald's at the end of 2010 to become the world's largest by number of restaurants?
Subway
Subway began in 1965 when 17-year-old Fred DeLuca, needing money for college, borrowed $1,000 from family friend Peter Buck to open Pete's Super Submarines in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Q 12Delmonico's, often called America's first fine-dining restaurant, opened in 1827 in which city?
New York
New York's Delmonico's reopened on a grand scale in 1837 after the city's Great Fire, and patrons were told that the columns by its door had been shipped from the ruins of Pompeii.
Q 13Pizza Hut was started in 1958 by two brothers studying at a university in which US state?
Kansas
Q 21Burger 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 22Before founding Taco Bell in 1962, Glen Bell ran what kind of eatery in San Bernardino?
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 23Which US agency informally gauges storm damage by whether Waffle House is open?
FEMA
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 14The 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 15Outback Steakhouse, the Australian-themed chain, was founded in 1988 in which US city?
Tampa
Tampa, Florida saw the first Outback Steakhouse open in March 1988; its Bloomin' Onion starter became such a signature that the parent company later renamed itself Bloomin' Brands.
Q 16Which Chicago restaurant did chef Grant Achatz open in 2005 as a showcase for molecular gastronomy?
Alinea
Alinea opened in 2005 under Grant Achatz, who was diagnosed two years later with advanced cancer of the mouth and lost his sense of taste for a time during the treatment that saved him.
Q 17Caesar Cardini's Prohibition-era restaurant, where the Caesar salad was first made, stood in which city?
Tijuana
Tijuana was where Italian-born Caesar Cardini fed Americans who crossed the border to drink legally; by his family's account, a Fourth of July rush in 1924 emptied the kitchen and he improvised the salad tableside.
Q 18Which Copenhagen restaurant, opened by René Redzepi in 2003, led New Nordic cuisine?
Noma
Noma joins the Danish words nordisk and mad, 'Nordic food'; opened in 2003 in a waterfront warehouse, it built its menus on foraged local ingredients and was five times ranked the world's best restaurant.
Q 19Guy Fieri's Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives grew out of a 2006 special on which channel?
Food Network
Food Network aired the one-off special in 2006, months after Fieri won a six-episode cooking show as the prize in its contest The Next Food Network Star; the weekly series followed in April 2007.
Q 20Which 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.
FEMA chief Craig Fugate popularised the 'Waffle House Index' in 2011: the chain so rarely shuts that a limited menu signals trouble, and of a closed one he said, 'That's really bad.'
Q 24Rainforest 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 in 1994; founder Steven Schussler staged regular thunderstorms among its animatronic animals, and Landry's bought the chain in 2000.
Q 25Which Coney Island hot dog chain began in 1916 by undercutting a rival's ten-cent frankfurters by half?
Nathan's Famous
Nathan's Famous began when Nathan Handwerker, who had sliced rolls at Feltman's restaurant, quit and sold his own frankfurters nearby for a nickel, half his old employer's price.
Q 26Which 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 27Nando's, the flame-grilled peri-peri chicken chain, was founded in 1987 in which city?
Johannesburg
Johannesburg was where Fernando Duarte and Robbie Brozin tried the peri-peri chicken at Chickenland, a Portuguese-Mozambican takeaway in Rosettenville, and bought the place in 1987; the name is short for Fernando.
Q 28Zagat, the diner-survey restaurant guide founded in 1979, was bought in 2011 by which company?
Google bought Zagat in September 2011 and sold it to The Infatuation in 2018; Tim and Nina Zagat had started in 1979 by asking their friends to score New York restaurants and pooling the results.
Q 29Which restaurant menu innovation did Howard Johnson's build its 1930s brand on?
28 flavours of ice cream
28 flavours of ice cream was Howard Johnson's trademark boast; his recipe doubled the usual butterfat, a richness that built the business from the single soda fountain he took over in Quincy, Massachusetts in 1925.
Q 30Which rocking-chair-porched chain was founded in 1969 by a Shell Oil representative beside a Tennessee interstate?
Cracker Barrel
Cracker Barrel's first store opened in September 1969 by an Interstate 40 exit in Lebanon, Tennessee, where Dan Evins modelled it on the country stores of his childhood and sold Shell petrol alongside.