Western food is usually five courses. The first course is appetizer, salad salad, soup, main course and dessert, but few people can eat them all, just three courses. The first course, salad, soup (one or two of them, generally speaking, few people eat salad after the first course, and vice versa), then the main course, and finally the dessert. Of course, some people finally want some coffee or tea.

Fish dishes are generally considered as the third course of western food, also called side dishes. Species include all kinds of freshwater and marine fish, shellfish and molluscs. Aquatic dishes, eggs, bread and crispy box dishes are usually called side dishes. Because fish and other dishes are tender and easy to digest, they are placed in front of meat dishes, which is different from the main course of meat dishes. Western-style fish dishes pay attention to the use of special sauces, including tartar sauce, Dutch sauce, hotel sauce, white cream sauce, archbishop sauce, American sauce, sailor fish sauce and so on.