7 Menu tricks that influence what we eat at restaurants

When we go out to eat at restaurants there are a few tricks that are used by restaurateur’s to influence our choices in the menu.

• Menu is filled with pictures of the yummy food

Some menu cards can prove to be a visual treat for food lovers. Just looking at the menu makes you want to eat it.

• Descriptive mouthwatering language

The menu will probably be describing the creaminess of the sauce or the level crisp on the potatoes. For example, words related to meat such as ‘succulent’, ‘moist and juicy’ when referring to meat makes you want to order that beef steak right away.

• Pricing

When the prices are mentioned with the decimal points, it makes us seem as if the dishes are pricey. Most restaurants adopt the method of mentioning only price minus the decimal points so that the price seems smaller. They even sometimes avoid mentioning the prices in a straight line so that people draw their attention to the food descriptions rather than the prices.

• Suggestions

When a restaurant tells you what is good to eat or is recommended, they usually might be trying to sell off their most pricey dish and which they try to popularize and make it one that sells the most. Fancy restaurants suggest it to the diners in a more subtle way by referring to it as, ‘The chef’s special’.

• Highlight and font

They highlight the dishes in a stylish font on the menu card to draw your attention to the dishes they want you to eat. For example lobster might be highlighted stylishly and the salads ignored.

• They avoid using terms that relate to being healthy

People are of the mindset that healthy food is not tasty. So if a restaurant is serving healthy food like salads or vegan stuff they usually use a green symbol to indicate it being vegan.

• Create a feeling of nostalgia

When you pop open a menu card and find a dish that says ‘Mammas meat roast pie’ or ‘grandmas Christmas pudding’ you are likely to order it with the thought in mind that it could bring back  memories of your mom’s or granny’s cooking.

Now do get fooled by these selling tactics adopted by restaurants. Order what you had in mind and don’t get swayed by peeping into the menu card, else you’ll land up eating more than what you planned and might even exceed your budget for the meal.

Written by: Rasha Ashraf