Plate emoji 🍽️
The plate emoji 🍽️ shows a white plate with a fork and knife laid across it. People use it for meal plans, restaurant visits and anything about dining.
Published · Updated
What the plate emoji means
The plate emoji 🍽️ depicts a white plate with a fork and knife placed across it, ready for a meal. It represents dining, dinner, or food service in general. When you see 🍽️, it usually points to a literal meal, a restaurant, or the act of sitting down to eat.
The Unicode name for this emoji is fork and knife with plate, which describes exactly what you see. Unlike the fork and knife emoji 🍴, which shows cutlery without a plate, 🍽️ adds the plate itself. That extra detail shifts the meaning slightly — it’s less about the utensils and more about the full dining experience, from a home-cooked dinner to a table at a café.
People also use 🍽️ for special occasions like holiday lunches, birthday dinners or date nights. It can signal that a meal is part of the plan, and it works well in invitations or when sharing a photo of a beautifully set table.
How people use the plate emoji
The 🍽️ emoji appears most often in messages about food plans, dinner invitations and meal photos. It’s a compact way to say food is ready or let’s eat out without typing the whole phrase.
- On restaurant social posts: “New menu this weekend 🍽️”
- In personal chats: “What’s for dinner? 🍽️”
- In food blogs: “Five places for a great brunch 🍽️”
- As a label in food delivery apps: “Your order is being prepared 🍽️”
When someone posts about a restaurant reservation, a new menu or a food review, 🍽️ serves as shorthand for the whole dining-out experience. It often appears alongside other food emoji, such as the cooking emoji 🍳.
Compare fork and knife with plate with similar emoji
| Emoji | Name | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| fork and knife with plateU+1F37D U+FE0F | The full dining set: plate plus cutlery, for meals and restaurants | |
| fork and knifeU+1F374 | Cutlery only, often for cooking or eating utensils | |
| chopsticksU+1F962 | East Asian dining, noodles, rice dishes | |
| spoonU+1F944 | Soups, desserts, or baby food | |
| kitchen knifeU+1F52A | Food preparation, chopping, or general kitchen work | |
| jarU+1FAD9 | Storage, preserves, or DIY containers |
Related dishware emoji and when to use them
The plate emoji belongs to the food and drink family, and several other emoji carry similar meanings. Choosing the right one depends on what you want to emphasise — the plate, the cutlery, or a specific eating style.
For a quick reference: fork and knife 🍴 works for cutlery alone, chopsticks 🥢 for East Asian dining, and spoon 🥄 for soups or desserts. The 🍽️ emoji is the one to pick when the plate is part of the picture.
If you are talking about a single dish rather than a full table setting, you might choose the cooking emoji 🍳 or a specific food emoji. But when the focus is on the meal as a complete experience, 🍽️ sends the clearest signal.
How to copy and use the plate emoji
On most phones, it’s available from the emoji keyboard under the food and drink category, often grouped with other dishware such as 🍴 and 🥄.
The emoji works in any app that supports standard emoji. If it doesn’t appear correctly, the app or device may not support the emoji’s colour glyph. Using the text version “🍽” (without the variation selector) can sometimes help, though it may appear monochrome.
On desktop, you can also open the emoji picker with Windows key + . (period) or Control+Command+Space (Mac) and search for “fork and knife with plate”. That brings up 🍽️ ready to insert into your document or message.
Questions people ask
What does the plate emoji 🍽️ mean?
The plate emoji shows a white plate with a fork and knife. It represents dining, dinner, a restaurant, or food in general. People often use it when planning a meal, sharing food photos, or inviting someone to eat.
Is there a restaurant emoji?
There is no emoji officially named “restaurant” in the Unicode set. The plate emoji 🍽️ is the closest symbol for a restaurant meal, and the fork and knife emoji 🍴 is also used. Some people use the hotel emoji 🏨 for a hotel restaurant, but 🍽️ is the most direct choice.
What is the difference between 🍽️ and 🍴?
The 🍽️ emoji includes a plate beneath the fork and knife, so it emphasises the whole dining setting. The 🍴 emoji is just the cutlery, often used for cooking or eating utensils. Use 🍽️ when a full meal or table setting is the point.
How do I type the plate emoji on my phone?
On most phones, open the emoji keyboard and look under the food and drink category.
What does the dinner plate emoji look like on different platforms?
The plate emoji typically shows a plate with a fork and knife. Different systems may use slightly different colours or shading, but the basic elements remain the same.
About this guide
Written and maintained by the Emoji Directory editorial team, without ads or sponsorship. Meanings describe how the emoji is commonly used in public posts and messages, not an official definition. Names, code points, versions, keywords and translations come from the Unicode Emoji 18.0 and CLDR data; shortcodes from the gemoji project. Last reviewed . Spotted a mistake or a new usage? Tell us, or read how the directory is made.
