Restaurants

According to the Guinness World Records, Sobrino de Botín in Madrid, Spain, is the oldest continuously operating restaurant. It was founded in 1725 and is famous for its traditional roast suckling pig. The artist Francisco de Goya even worked there as a waiter before making it big!

The word comes from the Latin minutus, meaning "small" or "detailed." In French, it came to mean a detailed list. Originally, menus were large chalkboards or spoken lists, but paper menus became popular in 19th-century Paris so diners could calculate costs before ordering.