Food and beverage service, also known as F&B service, is the process of preparing, presenting, and serving food and beverages to customers. It is a professional industry that includes restaurants, bars, cafeterias, canteens, food courts, and other food-based hospitality businesses that provide meals to customers for various purposes like meetings, gatherings, and recreation. The main function of food and beverage service is to provide and deliver food and beverages to customers at a certain location, such as a hotel, restaurant, or hospital.

Food and beverage service is pivotal to the hospitality industry in a couple of different ways. Firstly, it provides additional services and amenities that customers enjoy and can help enhance the guest experience. This can help make the venue more attractive and draw in more guests. Secondly, food and beverage services are a major revenue stream for hospitality venues. Offering these extra services can help diversify how a venue makes money, which can assist venues through quiet times for other parts of their business.

There are different types of food and beverage services, including assisted service, table service, self-service, single point service, and specialized service. Food and beverage services can be broadly defined as commercial or non-commercial. Commercial food and beverage services are those that are there to make money, while non-commercial food and beverage services are those that are not there to make money as much, such as those run as part of an educational institution or charitable organization.

In summary, food and beverage service is a professional industry that involves preparing, presenting, and serving food and beverages to customers. It is a major revenue stream for hospitality venues and provides additional services and amenities that customers enjoy and can help enhance the guest experience. There are different types of food and beverage services, and they can be broadly defined as commercial or non-commercial.