Gregg Rapp
Gregg Rapp, a menu “engineering” consultant based in Palm Springs, California. He has helped design menus for establishments ranging from Taco Bell to the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. www.menutechnologies.net.
The human eye tends to go first to the upper right-hand corner of a page. So, that’s where you can expect to find a menu’s “stars”—restaurant industry lingo for popular entrées with the highest gross profit margins. The upper right-hand corner won’t necessarily display the most expensive things on the menu, only the most profitable. That’s because highlighting a costly porterhouse steak or lobster might scare customers away.
This doesn’t mean that you should avoid these items if they appeal to you, but study the price—there may not be as much value for the dollar as with dishes listed elsewhere.
Commonly overpriced: Filet mignon in a steakhouse…salmon in a seafood restaurant…a margarita at a Mexican restaurant. Hint: You’ll get better value with Mexican beer.
Slick: Shrewd restaurateurs leave out the dots between an item’s description and its price, making it harder to connect dishes to their prices. When you see this sort of layout, you are being distracted from watching your wallet.
In contrast, a menu that lists its items down a left-hand column on a page and uses a series of dots to guide your eye to their prices practically invites comparison shopping.
Extra slick: The menu at Norma’s at the Parker Meridien Hotel in New York City lists a $1,000 frittata with caviar and, right above it, a $28 asparagus omelette that seems like a bargain in comparison. It is not.
A menu’s details can make you spend more, too. When a trendy restaurant rounds its prices ($15 instead of $14.95, for instance), it sends a flattering message that you, the customer, don’t need to feel as if you’re getting a bargain when you dine out. You’re getting the same signal when the dollar signs are missing. Even the choice of typeface can put you in a spending mood—if it seems elegant or hip, it can make you feel elegant or hip. That may induce freer spending.
A block of type printed in all capital letters is hard to read, so some restaurants use that for less profitable meals, such as hamburgers or soup and salad, to “downsell” them.
Extra information can divert your attention from how much an entrée costs. When you see calorie counts listed or a long description of how a dish is prepared, make sure that you’re not throwing budgetary caution to the wind just because an item is touted as healthful or organic.
The best way to get good value when dining out is to ask your server not just what’s good but also what regular customers tend to order. Regulars know where the value is.
