Restaurant menu tricks (2020)
bbc.com
bbc.com
> A study conducted by researchers in Switzerland found that a wine labelled with a difficult-to-read script was liked more by drinkers than the same wine carrying a simpler typeface.
But from the abstract of the study linked to (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S09503...):
> Fluency was manipulated via an easy- or difficult-to-read font. Results showed that there was no effect of the consumption domain. However, the wine was liked more in the high-fluency condition compared to the low-fluency condition. Thus, the results indicate that a wine tastes better if the labeled visual information can be processed relatively fluently.
Which is exactly the opposite.
Is it a “trick” to use “grass-fed Angus steak with thick-cut rosemary fries“ rather than just say “steak and chips”, as the article claims? I don’t think so. The former is a more detailed description of what’s being offered. The latter refers to a much simpler meal.
I have in the past complained about bugs like this to a cousin of mine who works for the BBC. The response? "Hell, we're the press; what do you expect?"
(At one point we discussed it in person and she said that she actually thinks the BBC standards are pretty high, but that's merely relatively high in an industry where the standards are low. I suppose the years have made her cynical).
Middle tier, chain restaurants (like the cheescake factory) will have heavy menus with elaborate food descriptions and departments of people who work on optimizing them.
But then at the very high end, it actually wraps back around. The nicest restaurants I've been to will often have a paper menu, with a very, very small selection of things on it.
My personal opinion is that some of these things are actually a counter-indicator. If you obviously put a lot of thought into your menu, bought an obnoxious folder for it, have lavish descriptions, etc. it's because you are leaning into the perception of your food/atmosphere, rather than the reality of it.
To make my point: here is the menu for the french laundry: https://portlandfoodanddrink.com/because-we-all-need-to-see-...
And throwing in unnecessary french words is just as off putting to my sensibilities (but can be forgiven, given their name). So is omitting dollar signs. Or unnecessary italics. I could go on. My point is they absolutely are trying to put out a perception of quality food/atmosphere with their menu design, just in a different way and with fewer items than they Cheesecake Factory version. They're just doing the humble brag version of the same thing.
Atlantic and Pacific (spiny) lobster (not really a lobster) are quite different though and it would otherwise be ambiguous.
Maine (well New England) lobsters are different from langoustines which are often referred to as lobsters in English. Though personally when eating the tail I can't tell the difference. Perhaps I'm a philistine and some can. This is up there with the "Spanish" capers..I know you can tell the difference.
"French Laundry garden" cabbage..."grown in our garden" is good enough for me. "Sacramento Delta asparagus" ... not as good as Half Moon Bay? "local" would be fine.
A "King Richard" leeks actually is a specific breed of leek. Oh but wait, it's the plain old leek you'd find in any grocery store. Sure glad they let me know.
For true prevention let's switch to the nouns, shall we? It's OK to use a foreign word that has no, or only a distant, English relative. But "Streusel" is called "strudel" in English. The Saboyon doesn't exist in English but the French word is for a sweet dessert which I really doubt is used in an oyster dish. etc.
With all those adjectives someone should do a "truth in advertising" sting on those restaurants. It'd make great TV
But you’re eating at French laundry. The grow spot shouldn’t make any difference for a restaurant where A) they are supposed to prepare excellent dishes and B) you have so few choices.
“Well we finally got into French Laundry but decided to leave when we saw the menu and found they were serving garlic from Gilroy instead of garlic from Morgan Hill.”
I think you’re confusing two things. Strudel seems to be strudel as well in English, while Streusel is a kind of crumble, it’s not a dish by itself.
Strudel is a bigger (generous 1 portion or more) piece of pastry (usually puff pastry, but plain pastry dough is also not unusual) with fruit filling, commonly apples and raisins. Often served with vanilla sauce.
Of those, I've usually seen strudel to have the original German meaning while streusel in english is usually used to mean Streuselkuchen with fruit.
It isn't good or bad, it's just the current fashion that dictates how things are done. 20 years in the future, this will have changed.
As chains adopt the simple and local style the high end will move on to something else.
I think the big changes happen in terms of generations of chefs and guests, so around a 30year timeline. Caveat: everything is just my observation, no statistics or anything to prove it.
You don’t go to the French Laundry for a meal, you go for an experience.
Another place we never even got a menu - the food just started appearing, much to our confusion! Apparently it was a prix fixe multi-course meal arrangement, and you get whatever you get - the server had assumed we knew. The food was fabulous, but it took three hours longer than we had planned to spend.
I find this unfathomable. What if you have allergies? I guess just don't eat there. But the server assumed you knew? Wild.
My brother and I went to Eleven Madison Park back in 2016 and mentioned my allergies ahead of time. Not only did they plan alternatives for me, they even included them in the printed out menu that they give to each diner as they leave as a memento of the meal.
That said, it's entirely possible they're unable/unwilling to accommodate every allergy and/or preference. There are well regarded restaurants near me that only do prix fixe tasting menus that I don't dine at as I know based on what they tend to serve that the likelihood of me being served things I won't want is high, and at that price point it's not worth it to me.
"All hospitality establishments in Europe are now required to declare ingredients contained in their foods that may induce allergies or food intolerances."
https://www.wko.at/branchen/tourismus-freizeitwirtschaft/gas...
But we spoke with the server, and she found me a dish from the prix fixe arrangement that I could eat, and spent the night just making sure there was always some of that dish on the table.
Everything went better than expected. Sure, I don't have to be worried about death from being exposed to food I won't eat, but I could've called ahead, and would've, if the stakes were that high.
I guess all that's to say: good restaurants are pretty accommodating, even when they aren't doing the normal menu thing. It's really not that crazy.
I'm a very similar way as you wrt food, but not the social pressure part. I don't like eating in professional settings (eating is messy, for one), so I will usually eat alone beforehand and then only order something very small and light (or even just beverages) at the meeting meal. The social pressure thing I find to be easily deflected.
Same goes at bar/drinking events. I don't like drinking alcohol but everyone seems to report perceived pressure to drink alcohol at such things. I haven't found drinking nonalcoholic things to be the big hassle others claim it to be.
I think people build up the expectations more than they actually are in reality. Most other people don't really care that much what you're eating or drinking, if they are eating or drinking what they like.
WRT drinking, it can take a lot longer to build trust without the shared alcohol experiences. You’re correct that there isn’t direct social pressure, but you end up getting left out of “after-event” drinks as well.
I noticed these things when I had to go on a strict diet with no alcohol for about a year. You might argue that nothing important happens during non-formal events, but that’s a big mistake.
Yes! Because [they are signalling that] they update it and print it each day.
According to what is available fresh, from the market, on that day.
Not just signaling. Probably 20-30% of tables do get personalized menus due to dietary restrictions or preferences.
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I finally found a place and poked my head in. A bunch of old bearded Somali men in skullcaps all turned and stared at me and Al Jazeera was on in the corner.
No menu was visible so I approached the counter and asked the man behind it what was for lunch. He responded, “Goat.”
I replied, “Can you be more specific?”
He replied again “Goat.” but added “$8”
Most good restaurants I’ve been to don’t actually have a menu you choose from - you get what’s seasonal and what the kitchen has planned for. The only real inputs are how much you are going to eat and how drunk you want to be at the end of it.
I’ve been to one restaurant in the lower price range that also adopted this concept, though with a twist. There’s not really a menu to choose from, you get what you get, but the waiter will update the blackboard with “what you get if you order now”.
The reason I prefer this is because it tends to focus on what’s seasonal and what is the chef good at.
You don't have to spend $250, although you probably have to spend $125 (based on my experiences in Europe).
I don't think of it as "a meal", at all, eating a meal usually doesn't take me three hours. It's more in the category of an event like a concert or the opera or a theme park visit.
The food descriptions are sufficient but sparse also
What you describe is more like a bimodal distribution of price of a meal in restaurants using paper menus.
€ 12,75
€ 13
13
(no prices)
Special bonus example for Europeans:
E 12,75
Why? For me, I'd just assume what ever the local currency was is implied. Maybe that's just me being in the US, so there's only $. However, when I've been to other non-european countries, this was also a safe assumption. However, even in Europe, would it not be safe to assume euros, unless in the UK, then assume pounds? Am I just being too simple?
Pedantic note: you will routinely see prices specified as “12” on menus in coffeeshops and restaurants in Korea, and it would mean 12000 won.
I personally treat it as just one of the tactics a place employs to set expectations and attract/repel audience according to its preferred vibe.
Like this https://www.brooklynbarmenus.com/
I think it might be actually illegal to not have prices on menus
That was another time/age, but it was certainly legal.
I've lived in a very expensive city and a medium cost of living city in the US and the lower quality of restaurants is the biggest difference for me.
There are some very famous and very expensive restaurants, but even those places have been disappointing too frequently. It's often something really basic like the food being too salty.
This wasn't as much of a problem in the very expensive city. It's unlikely that my taste buds have gotten more sensitive because I lived in the more expensive city at a younger age and taste buds get less sensitive as you get older to my knowledge.
Almost every attempt at finding a small town gem has not really worked out for me in the US.
In countries like France, I know that I can find small town gems just by checking the Michelin guide. I can go to Vonnas (population 3000) and find a great restaurant just by checking the Michelin guide. I would love to do that in the US.
Often the local subreddit is a great place to look. Also, old trip advisor Q&A threads if it is moderately touristy. (But not reviews)
I really like the Eater guide. Especially their posts where it is popular local chefs talking about their favorite restaurants. These posts aren't usually highlighted to you have to go digging a bit to find it.
Local youtubers are also great resources, if you know how to find them. The fewer subscribers the better.
Yelp can work sometimes. Yelp's top restaurants are usually 'mass appeal' places. If there is a top rated restaurant that looks totally out of place, it is very likely a local gem.
If nothing works then go for the classic combination: "Locally owned - Long queue - Fast service"
Special green-flags:
- Ethnic restaurant has more ethnic people than white people.
- Asian restaurant only has photos and no English menu
- Indian restaurant is full + a 3 star rating on Yelp
- Ethnic restaurant does not have the name of the home country or cuisine in it.
- American restaurant that's open for only half the day, or till supplies last
As a generalisation, I have found that high quality restaurants occur in towns where there is the demand for them. This requires that there is a significant population of customers who eat out enough, pay enough, and are discerning enough to keep restaurants up to standard.
My town (Christchurch) doesn’t really have the culture, so the quality of the majority of places isn’t great. Wellington has a similar population but it has much better restaurants (including in the city centre), because the demographics of Wellington tends towards more disposable income and more foodie culture, so the people that go out often really know what tastes good.
The other significant issue with New Zealand is that the majority of restaurants are delivered their produce and food by restaurant supplier companies; food which often is no better than what you may get at the supermarket. You can really notice the difference when you eat home grown veges or home kill meat - some of the most memorable meals I have had have been simple ones at people’s homes. There needs to be a food culture to care about taste enough for restaurants to seek out better tasting food ingredients.
Take care when asking locals for advice, including young people working in hospo. They are often not foodies so they don’t suggest something that is any good... instead they might mention a new place or a popular place (or even worse, a tourist place).
Southwestern, tacos, Boreal, tagine, American, sandwiches, Polish, sushi, Tamil, no cuisine. It's all good to me.
Some farms and wineries have restaurants out here, but they don't have too many reviews so it's hard to tell if they're good or not.
I think it's actually for some truth to it, and perhaps Berksons paradox is the explanation. If you either make good food or market well, and there's selection based on a frontier of a mix of the two, you end up creating a correlation even where none existed in the underlying set. So places with crap marketing that survive are likely to be doing so because the food makes up for it.
I personally have noticed an "uncanny valley" of restaurants, where I'd much rather eat cheaply (see Chick-fil-a, taco trucks, local pizza shops, or a lot of Asian spots) or expensively (locally renowned restaurants) and ignore most everything in between. It's hard to pay 25 dollars for an meal when it's going to be good but nothing special, when you could pay ~15 for something you'd enjoy just as much. The higher end resturants provide the "novel" experiences and flavors that make spending $35+ worth it.
I can understand why. Next time don't use that, is incorrect (would translate as a strange "an, other"). The correct way would be either just "otra" (another) or "una más" (one more), generally followed by a casual "por favor". Take in mind that beer is feminine in spanish so you have to use "otra" (not "otro").
Many other alcoholic drinks are masculine, but are often served in a coup or bottle, that are feminine nouns. You can ask for "otro vino" or "un vino" but "una copa de vino" (a glass of wine) is also common. To use "un más" instead the correct "uno más" (one more) would be also a common mistake.
When I was forced to travel for work now and again, my instincts were always to find a bar with a decent food menu. It's usually as good (better?) plus it was easier to buy a properly sized meal without all the extra filler.
Also, extra bonus points for things that are a hassle to make at home (typically sushi). Restaurants lose their sparkle as you age. The Sysco truck goes to practically all of them anyway.
There's something to be said for the super old school diners (typically Mexican restaurants in the places I grew up in), but those are towns that scarcely any HN readers would have wandered into.
"I'll go through life either first class or third, but never in second."
Interesting that the study cited says that pictures of the food make you mentally taste it.
Guess it goes to show how localised some of these rules are.
https://statmodeling.stat.columbia.edu/2021/05/08/blast-from...
That's an interesting use of the world authenticity.
"Round fond is associated with sweeter taste" - this is it.
Synesthesia helps make perception of world more vibrant and memorable.
However, you have to be careful to not overreach in inferring why people do things:
>“The dollar sign is a pain point that reminds the diner that they are spending money,” says Allen. “By just using the figure, or even better, writing it out in words, it can reduce that pain.”
This sounds like a rationalization. It could be true. But if I were a menu designer, I wouldn't try to use it to predict anything beyond including currency symbols.
I'm not sure having longer descriptions is so much a trick as it lets the customer buy with more confidence. The customer knows they are getting what they want, and when they get it, they know what to expect.
The only really "scientific" stuff, seems to be the ability to crunch numbers, and calibrate the effect of menu design.
Otherwise, the language used, looks a lot like what I see with fashion, or graphic design. A lot of associating emotional responses with design elements.
The issue with that, is that a lot of these cues depend on societal culture. As in any craft, the designer needs to have a fairly good handle on their target audience.
What I have come to absolutely loathe, have been the "QR code" menus that so many restaurants have adopted; citing COVID caution.
I have gotten up and walked out of a couple of restaurants, because they insisted that I use my phone to scan a QR code on the table, and the phone's screen is immediately dominated by a massive advertisement or branding wank, and I need to scroll down to see the first items (which are often simple PDF scans of their printed menus -scans, not saved as PDF).