The standard way in which restaurants operate is that customers sit at tables, a waiter comes to take their order, and later brings the food, and the customers pay the bill afterwards. Depending on local custom, a tip of varying proportions of the bill (often 10—20 %) is added, which (usually) goes to the staff rather than the restaurant.
Restaurants often specialise in certain types of food. For example, there are seafood restaurants, vegetarian restaurants or ethnic restaurants. Generally speaking, restaurants selling "local" food are simply called restaurants, while restaurants selling food of foreign origin are called accordingly, for example, a Chinese restaurant and a French restaurant.
Depending on local customs and the establishment, restaurants may or may not serve alcoholic beverages. Often, laws governing the sale of alcohol prohibit restaurants from selling alcohol without a meal, because otherwise, such a sale would be an activity for a bar, which are meant to have more severe restrictions. Some restaurants are licensed to serve alcohol ("fully licensed"), and/or permit customers to "bring your own" alcohol (BYO / BYOB*).