Comment by codyb | Hacker News Reader

Comment by codyb | Hacker News Reader

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Here in NYC where there are restaurants on every corner, one of the best ways to figure out which restaurants are the best to eat at is to look at the menus. If they have a lot of choice they'll probably attract people and be able to stay in business even if their food is mediocre. But if they only have 6-8 items on the menu, you know that menu is filled with 6-8 delicious items, because they couldn't stay in business any other way.

When the market's large enough, you can get by by offering so many options that a bunch of people naturally take you up on some of them enough to maintain a profit, or you can offer a small selection of very quality items that continually please. I know which one I prefer.

I use this method for everything. If I see a restaurant with pages and pages of options, I know that it's extremely rare for a kitchen to be able to properly manage all those dishes and make them well. Unfortunately, it leaves little room for an amazing dish because the kitchen is so busy with all the other random dishes. And it usually means they are freezing things or otherwise not using very fresh ingredients.

If you have a single page menu, it usually means some very careful thought went into what went on that menu. And like others have said, those places are turning people away due to lack of choice, so if they continue to be in business with a small menu, it's usually a sign of good food. Or really great marketing/atmosphere ;)

I always look for restaurants for a limited menu for precisely this reason, and am rarely disappointed by them. on the flip side I find it a turn off when a place has a 3-4 page menu, and the food is often (but not always) mediocre.

Downside is that the "6-8 items on the menu" often means "vegetarians have 1 option" and similar problems for people who have restricted diets.

At the other end are the Vietnamese restaurants with 2 pages of soup where English-language names are "soup with noodles and pork" for like 4 different items.

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