Comments on: 5 Tips to Reading a Restaurant Menu (and Getting the Best Deal)

By: marc

marc — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 18:08:22 +0000

The statement by the restaurant owner above is more or less correct. Alcohol or at least non-alcoholic beverages other than water are what keep a “table service” restaurant afloat. A self seating, self bussing “counter service” place has far less overhead and can survive on food alone. But a full service restaurant is utterly dependent on beverage sales ESPECIALLY true if the owner leases the building as opposed to owning the property.
Did you ever stop and think about what is paying all those busboys, food runners, waiters, bartenders, and managers? Do you have any idea how many people it takes to run a kitchen? A well run, high volume, popular restaurant can make its payroll and pay the bills on food profits alone. Remember, this is a VERY WELL RUN and VERY POPULAR establishment that can do this. Do you understand this? Before the owner(s) have made a single penny, it has to take the money it makes from food and pay bills and employees! It is only from beverages that a restaurant is profitable and more often than not, the money made from beverages cover the losses food sales failed to achieve. When you order tap water instead of at least a soda, bottled water, or cup of coffee, you are bringing very little value to that establishment.

By: Johnny Clay

Johnny Clay — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:04:00 +0000

Lemme share a couple of tips:

1) Know your palet. It might sound dumb to say but if you know what you like that’s half the battle. A majority of people are incredibly picky eaters. They believe they are foodies but they not. I waited tables for 8 years, and when people asked me to suggest something it normally took about 4 questions to narrow down the choices.

2) Don’t change a dish to your palet, order something else. Good restaurants have good chefs who create dishes to balance flavor and feel. When you start substituting, you open yourself up for disappointment. One restaurant I worked at had an awesome Sea Bass that I refused to let any guest change.

3) Ask your sever but beware. The uncouth server will suggest the most expensive items on the menu. I worked at a sushi restaurant where the most expensive rolls were awful, so I didn’t suggest them. Be sure to ask the server “what do you like” or even better “what do you get when you order food?” Do not ask “what’s popular?” Popular dishes are 75% crap you can get anywhere and 25% good stuff. Asking “what’s fresh?” is a great question especially for seafood. Ask for whatever came in that day.

By: giniajim

giniajim — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 03:24:48 +0000

We usually order a drink of some sort (tea, coke, wine, etc), but we’ll also ask for a glass of water too. I’m surprised that a restaurant would run so close that water would make that big of a difference, but on the other hand, I’m aware of the huge markup for things like colas, and coffee, so maybe there’s a point there. I like the bottled water idea, and I do like Perrier! So thanks Alfy for that suggestion.

By: Alfy

Alfy — Mon, 19 Sep 2011 02:31:31 +0000

I own a restaurant and if everyone ordered water we would be out of business… if you are being cheap eat at home, if you really only drink water (like me) then splurge on the bottled water or order an extra side or a more expensive item.

By: Super Football

Super Football — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:24:32 +0000

Thanks for sharing your Information…I think it’s very important and useful for your information.. hopefully. we can share any kind of information and I’m looking forward to reading the next article……

Best Regards,

Super Football

By: Always a server

Always a server — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 21:48:21 +0000

Some might see it as a good suggestion, but as a server, I am genuinely uncomfortable when guests ask me for recommendations. Often people ignore the recommendations completely, which is fine, though I often wonder why they asked in the first place. The worst case scenario is that the person doesn’t have the same taste I do and when they order something I recommend, they then complain. This once led to a party leaving without tipping me and ripping the bill they had paid in half to further demonstrate their anger (While other parties haggled me for not recommending the same dish, because after they tried it, they loved it.)

I am also uncomfortable when someone asks me if something is “spicy.” There’s no way for me to adequately convey to another person’s tastes what “spicy” is.

Chances are, you might get good information on asking a server’s opinions, but you might also be setting up both the server and the enjoyment of your dinner for failure.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:34:13 +0000

Ha, yeah, and to the haters. Chill out. I don’t get all of the comments ridiculing journalism everywhere online. Yes there are a lot of writers out there, and billions of not-front-page topics.

So just chill out. Are you upset you read it? Were you desperate for saving money at a restaurant. It’s not like you paid for it. If anything, maybe Thursday made the title more dramatic than the actual article. But come on, that’s the art of marketing. Make it look appealing. And look what it did, got you here to up his hit count.

Regardless of how groundbreaking the “tips” were, this is an interesting topic that I bet will come up in many readers’ future conversations at restaurants.

By: Scott

Scott — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 17:27:59 +0000

I try to be conscious of certain things, like coupons that require you to buy 2 drinks, but as infrequently as I dine out, I usually let myself fall prey to whatever marketing schemes are out to grab my attention. I do avoid simple pasta or chicken dinners that I would eat at home.

I love watching my wife though. She is so much more susceptible to marketing, or at LEAST, I can see when she is easily taken in. While walking down the dairy aisle, there was a desserty-looking new yogurt. The packaging was chocolate brown and the writing in cursive. I saw her glance that way, then on to the sale stuff, but I asked, “You wanted to get that, didn’t you?” And she said, “Ha yeah, how did you know.”

If a menu has an appealing picture it always gets her. And her favorite thing to do is to suggest what I order, too, so she gets to try more than one meal.

By: Miles

Miles — Fri, 07 Jan 2011 20:50:27 +0000

I’m guessing he means “water”.

By: Alex

Alex — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 16:34:01 +0000

An interesting read–thanks for sharing… Some of the tips are a bit more obvious than others, but the post made me reflect back to the most recent time I dined out at a chain restaurant. Definitely remember a few of these sneaky menu tactics in play. (Even though I tend to be a creature of habit, ordering things based on the tastes I know and crave at the time.)

Also, some of the comments on here are incredibly acrid–what’s up with all the hate? I, for one, enjoyed the post–so kudos to the author on writing something light and interesting, and I hope you’ll ignore what some of these negative commenters are spewing. Think positive.