à la carte is a typical French expression meaning "how is it on the menu" or "as listed on the menu", widely used in the field of gastronomy, especially among restaurants.
A restaurant à la carte is an establishment that works by serving a greater variety of dishes and drinks, all listed on a menu (menu) with the respective prices of each product.
This service model emerged to counteract the table d'hôte, an expression in French that means "fixed menu", when the restaurant offers little or no choice to the customer, and the dishes are served for a single price. An example of table d'hôte they are called "Dishes Feitos" (PF) or rodízios.
The system à la carte it has also been introduced in other branches of the industry, as a model where the customer has the option of purchasing separate components of a product, in addition to purchasing a factory-preset package.
Many people get confused when writing, but the correct expression of à la carte it's back-to-back.