The hidden messages in menus

[liuzhou]

The UK newspaper, The Guardian has an interesting article by Oliver Thring on menu design and psychology.

Thoughts? From restaurateurs or diners.

[karlos]

Interesting article about something I have given no thought to as a frequent diner. I've always read menues from laft to right, top to bottom. Weird to find out the conventional wisdom said otherwise, although the article points out that that conventional wisdom was wrong anyways. I've never considered the profit margin of any dish I have ordered but obviously the restaurant has. Kind of neat that they can lead your eye to their more profitable dishes with some little tricks on the menu. I'm going to start paying more attention to my menus.

[PlatosPlate]

A lot of menu psychology seems to deal with restaurant economics. I read in an article once that people are likely to spend more money when items are listed in single increments, such as $9 or $9.00; rather than $8.99. Also, that anything that lists the money signs -- $, .99 or dollars, for example, remind consumers of the pain of paying and will turn them off spending as well.

One thing that seems interesting to consider -- what causes menus to fail? Is it a lack of diversity, lackluster menu descriptions or the absence of components whose parts will "mingle" well? It seems that the fault of menus is much broader than personal preference.

Paper quality and fonts would be interesting to delve into as well...and the presence of pictures and how that skews diner's choice. (sometimes it seems it is better to leave something to be desired?)