My “anti shampoo aisle” strategy (that drives my wife mad) is to stop at the first item that satisfies my requirements.
“You didn’t even look at the back of the menu!!”
“Good point. I’ll start reading menus from random locations each time.”
“You didn’t even look at the back of the menu!!”
“Good point. I’ll start reading menus from random locations each time.”
Mine is:
'I like being surprised, if you have any love it or hate it "controversial" items I'd like to try that, otherwise surprise me :-)'
Along with a genuinely friendly demeanor it is almost always a delight.
Worst case scenario they just give me the most popular item on the menu, occasionally I get something weird tasting but never bad and always fun.
No menu required.
That's my hack when life is demanding that I make too many decisions and I'd like someone else to be taken care of that at meal time.
(Only when the server and environment doesn't seem soul crushing/crushed, I would never do this at a chotchkie's.)
Apparently they get sent back more often than they're eaten. I thought it was delicious (certainly not good if you don't like tripe!) and demolished it. The waiter confided that it's the one food that most reminded him of home, which was a human moment I still remember that I wouldn't have had if I'd ordered a steak frites.
We once had to shop for new curtains to decorate the new home we bought together. We walked into this giant store with 500 options and I directly walk to a rack and point at my preferred choice. She's puzzled and navigates the store for a full hour only to come back and confirm it to be the most favorable choice, much to her disgust.
At restaurants, I decide in less than a minute, which puts this hilarious time pressure on the other to make a choice. It completely ruins the "fun" ritual of pondering over choices and debating pros and cons with each other.
It's not that I'm some expert fast decision maker, it's pure and raw indifference.
For instance ask the waiter if he tried the items on the menu and pick the one he likes the best. (And if he didn’t tried most of them because he is new which one is the most popular). If it’s tech go to your best guy about the topic and ask him what you should pick.
It works well if you are good at choosing the right person. And for most not that important things since the person already have more information than you it will be better than flipping a coin.
Not sure that will do the trick... Imagine a long list with the only two satisfactory items being right next to each other... You'd almost always end up with the first in the list.
Picking a random direction is slightly more robust, but still fails sandwich scenarios... You need to shuffle the menu entirely somehow...