what is the meaning of ala carte ? reply in 2 mins?

If you request just a piece of fried fish at a restaurant, rather than the fish platter that includes French fries and coleslaw, you can say you ordered a la carte, or a single item from the menu.

When a restaurant offers separately priced items, you can describe its menu as a la carte. Ordering this way is also a la carte, like choosing individual pieces of sushi instead of an entire platter or meal. The literal meaning of the French phrase is "by the card," although it's used in both languages to mean "according to the menu." The opposite of a la carte is a table d'hôte, or "meal served at a fixed price."

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/a+la+carte

http://phoenix.about.com/od/foodanddrink/g/A-La-Carte.htm

In restaurants, there used to be two options for ordering your food:

1) You could order the set dinner, for a fixed price. It consisted of an appetizer, the main course, and a dessert. The food selections were set by the restaurant, but the cost was low.

2) If you didn't want the set menu, you could order "a la carte" instead. You choose your own appetizer from a list, and select any main course you want. Then you pick a dessert from the list on the menu card (which is the "carte").
You can customize your meal this way, but it is more expensive choosing the items one-by-one than it would be if you ordered the set meal.

À la carte /ɑːləˈkɑrt/[1] is a French language loan phrase meaning "according to the menu", and used

in reference to a menu of items priced and ordered separately, i.e., the usual operation of restaurants. This is in contrast to a table d'hôte, at which a menu with limited or no choice is served at a fixed price.
to order an item from the menu on its own, e.g., a steak without the potatoes and vegetables is steak à la carte
to describe a retail pricing model in which goods or services traditionally bundled together are separated out, putatively giving the consumer greater choice at lower cost. Examples include airline pricing where in-flight drinks or snacks are not complimentary, on-line music purchasing where individual tracks can be bought instead of entire albums, or pay television where individual channels can be ordered rather than a bundle of channels.
The phrase was adopted into English in 1826, predating by a decade the common use of the French language loanword "menu".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%80_la_carte

http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/9200.html

"On the side." As in, adding in an apple to your regular meal. Or whatever extra item you want to add, but must pay extra for.

listed in any manu

Dinner for $25 includes soup or salad, entree, dessert, drink

Ala carte means ordering individually such as entree for $18.99 and drink for $2.99.

à la carte

(of a menu or a section of a menu) having dishes listed separately and individually priced Compare table d'hôte
(of a dish) offered on such a menu; not part of a set meal

http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/%C3%A0-la-carte

http://www.audioenglish.org/dictionary/a_la_carte.htm

the food on the a la carte section of a menu can be ordered separately so for example, onion rings can be added to your set meal but you will be charged extra for them.

à la carte