
The psychology of restaurant menu design - sea6ear
http://www.wired.co.uk/article/the-hidden-psychology-of-menu-design
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marak830
A lot of this is industry myth. Often passed around, but very rarely used.

Example: Items that the chef wants to sell - I want everything to sell, fairly
evenly (to keep my stock rotating and to minimise wastage.)

The no dollar sign? Yeah - that's pretty damn common, I do it myself.

Box's? No - i prefer clean menus, with nice designs (personal preference to a
sketch of plated items in the background).

Overall I believe its a pretty bland write up, and really doesn't cover a lot
of how menus are really designed.

Source: I'm currently the head chef of a high end restaurant (and former
executive chef) and am going on 17 years experience.

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taneq
> We never regard customers as a source of income but as people we want to
> have a good time, whatever their budget. We are happy to offer the
> opportunity to spend, but it's not mandatory.

Because of course they were going to say "our customers are our cash cows and
we herd them into choosing quick-to-prepare, high profit dishes."

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golergka
It depends on your business model. If you depend on repeat business, extorting
the highest possible cheque every time isn't an optimal strategy.

I live in a small quiet town, and I have a couple of neighbourhood cafes and
restoraunts where I go several times a week, and most of the customers live
nearby, too. Difference in attitude with typical tourist traps is immense.
Different business models, different behaviour.

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BrandoElFollito
This. I live in Versailles, France and never go to the restaurants which face
the castle or to the touristic spots. My feeling (no hard bullets, though) is
that they target one - shot customers will win likely never come back but have
to eat something. I fear that this something is overpriced and not that good.
2 km away you will find great small restaurants.

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throwaway2016a
> Menu consultants often recommend unfamiliar terms: not sure what a "passion
> fruit tuile" is? Why not order it to find out...

I guess I'm not their target market. I'm sure I'm not alone on this one. I see
unfamiliar terms and will never order that item. I like to know what I'm
eating. Sometimes if I'm feeling adventurous I will Google the unfamiliar
item.

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coldtea
> _I guess I 'm not their target market. I'm sure I'm not alone on this one. I
> see unfamiliar terms and will never order that item. I like to know what I'm
> eating._

That's why they have some ultra familiar stuff next to the exotic fair, for
your like...

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dmmartins
"We never regard customers as a source of income but as people we want to have
a good time, whatever their budget.”

Yeah, I see.

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another-dave
It's interesting to read through, but little disappointed that there was
nothing on his methodology — is this all just the hypothesis of the author
having read a lot of menus? Or did he do anything more in-depth?

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samwillis
Having had the pleasure of eating at the Wolseley I highly recommend their
breakfast, the pancakes with camaralised bananas was amazing.

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zappo2938
This is BS. The algorithm for creating a menu is very simple. Write a menu
that is easy to read. At the end of each month look in the POS system for the
least selling 1 or 2 dishes. Replace them. This is how a restaurant builds
demand.

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asdfologist
I'm not sure whether this is sarcastic.

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zappo2938
11 years I cooked in the most prestigious restaurants in San Francisco,
Portland, and Las Vegas, why would I joke about something like that? If you
want to make money in a restaurant give people what they want.

