Online menus: entice you to try a new restaurant?

[Gifted Gourmet]

With the advent of the Internet to offer information on every possible topic, I have begun to contemplate whether online menus actually encourage you to try some dish or meal which they offer ...

Do you choose by the items offered?

By the prices?

Are you more or less likely to dine at a place which does not offer a menu for your perusal before eating? In Europe, menus are posted near the entrance to a restaurant ... you can always run off if the place looks too chic and pricey ...

So, how often do you read online menus?

[Nina C.]

Frequently - I don't eat very much meat, and so an online menu helps me know what non-meat options are available. And, it gives me an ide of price, style, etc.

[LaurieB]

My husband & I don't travel a great deal, but when we do -- we want to make the most of dining time & dollars, so being able to check out restaurant menus & other pertinent info on-line is crucial. We look to checking places out on-line while making our travel plans -- although we're always open to change when we get to where we're going, on advice from the locals.

[TPO]

I am terrible when it comes to deciding what to order at a restaurant. An online menu gives me a head start in figuring out what I want to eat, so I use them often.

[britcook]

You can get a surprising amount of information about a restaurant just by reading the menu, what's on it, how it's described, how much it costs, general presentation etc. and this is just as true for on-line menus as it is for the printed version. On my travels I always look for good places to eat and a restaurant menu that I can check out before I even leave home is always a big plus and I have made many a reservation at places I may not even have heard of on the evidence of the on-line menu (backed up by the restaurant site). So far I haven't been disappointed. If there isn't an on-line menu I'll wait till I get there before making a booking, unless it's a restaurant that already has a good reputation that I know about.

Deciding what to eat from an on-line menu is slightly trickier as even those that are updated frequently often show only a representative selection, so setting your heart on a particular dish may prove disappointing if they don't actually have it on the menu when you visit.

[alanamoana]

i think on-line menus are great...if they are updated frequently. nothing like getting your hopes up for a particular dish and getting to the restaurant and they've changed chefs, changed cuisines, closed

but i guess even without a disclaimer, as many websites have, you should expect the menu just to be a rough guide.

[BeeZee]

I definitely prefer to look at the menu online...as others have mentioned, they are not always updated and you run the risk of seeing something you want to order, only to find out that it was from the "winter menu". I spend my dining dollars judiciously and don't like that sense of disappointment of going somewhere new only to find that it didn't offer anything especially interesting (or the prices are not what I expected). What a bummer to order something off the menu that you are ambivalent about, vs. a place that has so many great choices that you can't decide!

[Tweety69bird]

My girlfriend and I go to NYC yearly for the Chocolate Show in November. Given the amount of activites that there are to do in the 4 days we are there, we don't like to waste time searching for restaurants. What we do is use Menupages, which is a great little site dedicated to NYC restos. You can seach by location, price, type of cuisine, etc... and there are generally reviews for you to read as well. When you have located a resto that looks good, you can view the menu on screen too. The reviews are dated so that you can see how long ago they were left. I think it's a great site. Helps us plan ahead, and keep within the budget too.

[Rebo]

I love online menus, both to learn about what's served and how much it costs. I just wish they were kept more up to date and included info about fixed-price and tasting menus.

[Eden]

With a limited dining budget, food allergies, and so many places I already know are good, I really appreciate seeing an online menu w/prices when I'm trying to decide if I want to try someplace new.

From the restaurant's point of view I know it must seem like a hassle sometimes to keep these pages up to date, but really isn't it worth it to get your vision of your restaurant out there, rather than leaving potential customers dependant on other folks reviews?

When I Google a restaurant I'll always go to the direct webpage first if it's an option...

[LynDel]

I love it when a menu is online. I can see the type of menu and the price range, it helps me to decide if it's a place I want to go to. In this circumstance, I don't make any real decisions on what to order until I'm actually there. In a new place I like to see the daily special or wait and see what I'm in the mood to eat. So I very rarely encounter a situation where I saw a particular menu item and can't order it once I arrive.

The other situation is if I'm ordering a takeout lunch while I'm at work, it's even more convenient to have the menu online.

[Busboy]

I think of on-line menus as one of several resources while travelling, but generally don't read them too closely.

It's more of a lit crit exercise, like something you'd learn at the Duke English department. I'm less worried in what the menu says than the way it's. What's the font, how wordy are the descriptions, how many chefs are listed. Is the web site helpful or annoying. Are the graphics cool, too cool by half, or not cool at all. What languages do the assume you know a least a little of. How many dishes have I heard of. That kind of thing.

I never actually believe the actual wording of a menu until I'm holding it in my hand and sipping a martini, so I don't spend much time worrying about individual dishes or prices -- I'm just looking for personality clues and political/marketing agendas. And, in the end, I'd be far more likely to make a decision based on the recommendation of a person I trust, than a survey of a dozen menus.

[Gifted Gourmet]

It would appear that online menus serve as a very strong asset for people who enjoy dining out! Appreciate your input as well as that of anyone who has an opinion on this topic!

[Ling]

I love reading online menus, and not only the menus for restaurants that I might go to in the future, but also the menus of the better restaurants around the world that I'll likely never get a chance to visit. I read them to get a sense of which ingredients might work well together, and try to "taste" the dish in my mind.

When choosing on a restaurant, I will more likely go if I've already read their menu and the dishes sound interesting to me. At the restaurant, I will order whatever I feel like regardless of the price (well, within reason...) so that's not something I pay much attention to when I'm looking at the website.

[Toliver]

Online menus helped me to decide where I was taking my mom for Christmas dinner last year. We always do a big Christmas Eve dinner at home so Christmas Day dinner has always been leftovers. Last year I decided we should eat out instead and searching through the different online Holiday menus was a great timesaver for me. I don't live in the same city as she does so I used the internet to do online research (reading reviews, investigating menus, etc) months in advance.

Think of all the restaurants without online menus that may have been open on Christmas Day but weren't in consideration for my business due to the focused-on-the-internet nature of my search.

[Gifted Gourmet]

For some of us, an online menu can be positively erotic ...

[Lan4Dawg]

I quite often use on-line menus to decide where we are eating when we travel. I look for some thing interesting and a tad unusual. If possible I try to find a place that offers regional fare or emphasizes local ingredients.

I do have two problems w/ on-line menus. One is, as several have mentioned, they tend to not be up-dated in a timely manner and number two is that some times they are difficult to read. Quite often I have tried to read a menu that for what ever aesthetic, designer purposes is white or pastel type on black back ground or some type of off-the-wall script that just does not translate well on a monitor--at least my monitor.

[tommy]

generally speaking, i will not try a restaurant for the first time if i don't see some sort of online menu. not enough time or money to waste.

[Chris Amirault]

We're talking about restaurants of a certain type, aren't we? I mean, there are little holes-in-the-wall that don't have websites much less menus there. That lack doesn't eliminate those places from consideration, does it?

[Gifted Gourmet]

We're talking about restaurants of a certain type, aren't we? I mean, there are little holes-in-the-wall that don't have websites much less menus there. That lack doesn't eliminate those places from consideration, does it?

←

I realize that many smaller places don't get into having a website but I am usually delightfully surprised when they do ... however, those places need not feel that they must post something about what they are offering .... it is, of course, very important to be "visible" and those with websites do offer that option.

[Pouncy]

I love online menus. We take *forever* to decide, and an online menu lets us strategize over e-mail while at work and not blow the first 45 minutes debating while wasting out night and hogging the table.

That and throwing rock-paper-scissors looks so retarded at nice places.

[Toliver]

We're talking about restaurants of a certain type, aren't we? I mean, there are little holes-in-the-wall that don't have websites much less menus there. That lack doesn't eliminate those places from consideration, does it?

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In regards to this topic, yes it does. No online menu? Then no online consideration.

It elminated them for me in my specific case since I was in another city and was using the internet to locate places that were offering Christmas Day dinners in my mom's city. If they didn't have on online holiday menu posted then they weren't in the running for my business.

[Kent Wang]

Absolutely essential. Places without websites are missing out on a lot of my money.

[TPO]

We're talking about restaurants of a certain type, aren't we? I mean, there are little holes-in-the-wall that don't have websites much less menus there. That lack doesn't eliminate those places from consideration, does it?

←

When it comes to small places like that, the lack of an online menu doesn't bother me. However, the lack of a website does. Putting up one page with a few photos, a map, and a phone number doesn't cost much and rarely needs to be updated. To me, websites are what the yellow pages used to be.

However, if I am traveling and I see a little hole-in-the-wall place that looks interesting I often stop. But if I am making plans ahead and there is no website, it's unlikely I will know it exists.

[Gifted Gourmet]

Most of these posts echo my thinking as well. In this highly mobile society, travelers often use their laptops to plan out dining options in cities they plan to visit. Even though I may not be traveling, I peruse websites prior to dining out in my home city. New places open and I want to see whether they are worth my time and money to spend on a meal.

I think that online menus, as I said earlier in this thread, give places visibility. Essential to their own success!