

Ask HN: How come restaurants are still using food menu full of text? - kilimchoi

I think that it will be more convenient for customers if they can see photos of food on the menu before they decide what to eat. Are there no companies that are trying to solve this problem? I mean it would also benefit restaurant owners too because they can update the availability of food in real time.
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stevekemp
Once I was sent to Tokyo. The language barrier was difficult. As a European
I'm used to the idea I can figure out French, German, Spanish, etc. But the
symbols were just alien. One day we were looking for food and found a small
place which had pictures on their menu. Perfect I thought. I can see exactly
what I'll eat, with no confusion and no complicated discussions.

I ordered a burger. Or I thought I did.

What I got was a fish-cake in a bun.

And that's exactly why picture menus fail. A bowl of soup? How do you
photograph that? If it is green does that mean pea soup? Does it mean
asparagus soup? Does it mean lentil soup? They will look identical.

Similarly a chicken-burger, vegetarian-burger, fish-cake in a bun, or
hamburger will look identical. You need the text to differentiate them. (Not
to mention the text is more concise. Just imagine "jacket potato with toppings
such as: tuna, cheese, beans, salad, tomato." How many pictures do you include
before you just give up and say "More available"?)

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DanBC
It is difficult to photograph food and make it look nice. If you photograph
real food as t comes from the kitchen it looks nasty. If you fake the food
(boat varnish the chicken) it sets unrealistic expectation.

Restaurants don't have much money. Single colour printing; dual colour
printing; are cheaper than full colour printing. That cost recurrs every time
you change your menu. You don't want anything forcing you to stay to the same
menu.

Photographs of food are associated with low quality places.

I do agree that a photo of the food would normally be a good thing. It's more
accessible than writing - to people with a reading disability; people with a
learning disability; people who don't speak the language the menu is written
in.

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aren55555
Probably because a physical menu actually takes less time to select a meal
from. In the worst case, if every restaurant had their own menu app/site think
about how long it would take a newcomer to install/navigate then figure out
how the UI worked.

Plus you would still need to have physical menus as backup for those customers
that don't have smartphones, are out of battery, etc.

I've seen some sushi spots have their menu on an iPad; and it worked pretty
well. However, personally I also enjoy the conversational aspect of placing an
order with a human server (with the interaction influencing the value of my
tip).

This virtual menu concept brought this article to my mind:
[http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/07/vira...](http://www.slate.com/articles/business/moneybox/2014/07/viral_craigslist_post_on_smartphones_in_restaurants_is_tech_ruining_the.html)

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brudgers
Conventionally iterating images is harder than conventionally iterating
sounds...people typically speak faster than they draw. The success of text is
that it abstracts over speech in the realm of drawing.

Text allows us to talk about the future. Photographs only let us talk about
the past. I can write a description of a dish I plan to make. I have to make
the dish to photograph it. A week later I can edit "a medley of peas and
carrots" to "a medley of peas, carrots and chicken gizzards" without setting
up lights and trying to photograph chicken gizzards in a way that
distinguishes them from chicken livers.

The standard way to visually express a restaurant menu is by showing the
actual food...e.g "Here is today's special" or "here is the desert cart."

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seanccox
I was traveling in Homs, Syria, about a decade ago and I met a Dutch couple at
the hotel. We had dinner together, and I had enough Arabic to order most of
the food, but I was trying to stress that the woman was vegetarian.

When I couldn't clearly do so, the boyfriend pulled out a large picture book
and started flipping through the pages. He came to one with an image of
meat/chicken and a large, red circle with a slash through it. He pointed at
his girlfriend, then at the picture, and the waiter nodded. She got the
vegetarian version of a bean dish that often has some meat served in it as
well.

I was impressed. The book was indexed and divided into categories for
everything – bathrooms, the airport, food, hospital visits, etc. It covered so
many cases that I had needed addressed in my travels and many more I had never
considered needing to communicate. I travel enough that I have sought this
book for a decade, and I would pay good money for an indexed app that could do
the same thing.

Menus are just the tip of the iceberg.

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golfstrom
IMO: Menus can change often Good food photography is hard/expensive Hard to
present tastefully/there's a stigma Overall, there's no demand from customers
for pictures/limited utility over text descriptions

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mrcold
With text all you need is a name and a list of ingredients. The customer's
imagination does the rest. In his mind, he will see the perfect dish,
especially if he is hungry.

If you use photos, you need a professional photographer with a studio. You
can't just snap pictures in the kitchen because the food won't look
appetizing. In the end, it's all about effort vs gain. And a text menu takes
the least effort and provides the most gain.

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newman8r
My favorite is to have a decent artist do illustrations - the abstraction of
food, the idea of food - is always more appetizing in my opinion. Do not show
the actual food. Actual food usually doesn't look that great without
manipulating the environment.

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newman8r
actually a universal 'menu language' via some sort of emoji-like icon would be
awesome

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nitin_flanker
In India, some restaurants still provide a printed menu. Most of the time,
when I order something, it uses to be a hit and trail exercise.

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Mimu
Fast foods have pictures.

Also I never see a menu full of pictures good looking. Typography > images.

