The Secrets Hidden on Restaurant Menus

By Ye Qingqing

Picture an exquisite,leather-bound menu placed in front of you at a restaurant. Inside, the pages bear a tightly printed script and inviting pictures, and your eyes are drawn to a couple of items whose names are embellished with adjective- filled descriptions.Then you turn to the waiter and order your food.

A delicious meal is now on its way, but what has led you to choose the food you ate? Was it simply because you liked the dish you ordered or did something else influence your decision? You may not realize it, but the menu probably played a great role in your decision-making. Apart from the price, there are some other elements on a menu that can unconsciously nudge you towards certain choices.

Strategic Fonts

Different fonts will summon different subjective feelings. For example, there is the elegant Italic typeface, the powerful boldface,the relaxing regular script, and the exhilarating round font.Font choice can convey more information than the words themselves.

Italics are often used by top-grade restaurants, as they make people feel the elegant atmosphere of the restaurant.This way, the customer believes they will get superb service and they are also mentally prone to accept the food prices.

But using elaborate fonts that are hard to read could also have another effect—it could alter how the food itself tastes. Consumers often associate rounder typefaces with sweeter tastes, while angular fonts tend to convey a salty or bitter experience. A study conducted by researchers in Switzerland found that a wine labeled with a difficult-to-read script was liked more by drinkers than the same wine carrying a simpler typeface.

一本表皮為皮革制成、裝幀精美的菜單擺在你面前。內頁上字體緊湊，圖片誘人，你被一些有長串形容詞的菜名吸引。隨后，你打個手勢，叫來服務員：點菜。

美味的飯菜即將上桌，但是，你怎樣選擇要吃的食物呢？僅僅是因為你喜歡吃這道菜，還是其他一些事情影響了你的決定？你可能還沒有意識到，菜單也在發揮巨大作用。不僅菜品的價格會影響你點哪個菜，菜單上還有一些你可能沒能察覺到的地方，悄無聲息地左右著你的選擇。

字體的策略

不同的字體會帶給人不同的主觀感覺，宋體秀美，黑體大氣，楷體給人以輕松感，幼圓體給人以愉悅感。這些字體用在菜單上，還可以傳遞更多信息。

比如，斜體字通常會被高檔餐廳采用，它讓顧客感覺到餐廳格調優雅，認為這家餐廳會提供一流的服務，心理上顧客也易接受它們的價格。

如果采用一些讓人很難辨認的精致字體，會產生另一種效果，它可以改變食物本身的口味。消費者經常將圓形字體與甜味聯系在一起，角形字體會傳達食物會更咸或更苦的信息。瑞士專家發現，比起字體簡單的葡萄酒，那些標有復雜文字的葡萄酒，更被認可。

字體的顏色也會對顧客產生影響。某些顏色，比如綠色，經常被用來向你暗示食物是健康的新鮮的，橙色則被認為是刺激食欲的顏色；紅色會讓人感覺時間緊促，也許是想把你的注意力盡快吸引到廚師最想要你點的菜上，那些菜才有更大的利潤空間。

花哨的菜名

叫花雞、美極鴨下巴、泰式打拋豬肉，為什么這些菜會取這么有趣的名字呢？其實道理很簡單，如果你取了個簡單的菜名，如“貴州牛排”，要價500元，會讓人感到物有不值，如果你用一個“阿伯丁安格斯牛排”，會顯得更誘人、更高檔吧。

Besides, the font colors can also have an impact on the customers.Certain colors like green are often used to imply the food is healthy and fresh, while orange is thought to stimulate the appetite, and red suggests a sense of urgency and perhaps draws attention to dishes the chef most wants you to order—probably because they have the biggest pro fit margin.

Fancy Names

Beggar’s Chicken, Magic Duck Chin, Pad Ka-Prao (Thai Basil with Minced Pork)… Why do these dishes have such interesting names? Actually, the answer is very simple. After all, an“Aberdeen Angus steak with thick-cut rosemary fries” sounds much more appetizing than simply “Guizhou Steak,” doesn’t it? If the “Guizhou Steak” is priced at 500 yuan, people will feel that it is not worth it.

Scientists at Stanford University found that vegetables that have been given funny descriptions—such as “dynamite chili,” “sweet sizzling green beans,” and “chopped shallots”—on a cafeteria menu were picked 23% more often because it made them sound more exciting and flavorful. When our brain is processing written information,it also triggers our senses of touch and taste, so we may feel as if we have smelled the aromas, and our appetite is increased.

Attaching some provenance or the maker’s identity to the names of dishes is also an effective strategy. For instance,“Grandma ’s home-baked zucchini cookies” sound much more appealing than “courgette biscuits,” as the former name implies the authenticity of the food. Naming dishes with words that mimic the mouth movements of eating will arouse the taste response, which can make our mouths water. Nostalgic labels such as “time-honored” or“handmade” will resonate with our innermost feelings.

Also, restaurants tend to use long-winded descriptions to make a dish seem like a better value for the money, so people will be willing to pay for it. The British retailer Marks & Spencer often uses long descriptions in the commercials to convey the impression of the quality of its products. “This is not just a pudding,” one advert declared.“This is a melt in the middle,Belgian chocolate pudding served with extra thick Channel Island cream.” Thanks to the wonderful pitch, its sales soared by an astonishing 3,500%.

Of course, the restaurant has to guarantee the authenticity of the food description. For example,if a dish called “Green Dragon Crossing the Sea” is nothing but a normal soup with green shallots,the customers may feel duped and never want to come back.

Pricing Strategy

If you go shopping often, you may encounter interesting phenomena on pricing. Sellers always like to put a “9” behind the decimal point, such as 12.99 and 14.99.Although there is only one cent difference between 12.99 and 13, customers are more likely to accept the former price, as if it is a real bargain.

斯坦福大學的科學家發現，在一個自助餐廳，如果蔬菜名的前面有一些有趣的描述，如“炸藥辣椒”“甜鐵板綠豆”“碎蔥”，會多出23%的銷售額。這些名字會讓人眼前一亮，而大腦在處理文字信息時，也會觸發觸覺和味覺，讓你似乎聞到香味，進而增加食欲。

將一些食品的起源地、制作者加在食品前，比如，“奶奶家烤的西葫蘆餅干”聽起來比“小胡瓜餅干”更有吸引力，它們暗示了食品的權威性；用模擬吃飯聲音的擬聲詞來形容一道菜，會激發味覺反應，讓你口水直流；用懷舊的標簽，如“老字號”“手工制作”，則會激起你的情懷。

商家還會用很長的一段文字來描述，使得這道菜看上去物有所值，讓人們樂意掏腰包。英國零售商瑪莎百貨經常在廣告中使用長篇敘述，讓潛在顧客對其食品產生好的聯想。它的布丁廣告是這樣打的：“這不僅僅是一個布丁，夾心處融化的是比利時巧克力配上英吉利海峽醇香奶油。”就因為這個廣告，公司的布丁銷售增長了3500%。

當然，商家必須得保證菜品信息的真實性，否則弄巧成拙。比如，你為一盤菜取了很好聽的名字——“青龍過海”，假如只是一碗普通的湯里面加了一根蔥，消費者初次上當，下次就不會再光顧了。

定價策略

如果你經常購物，會發現一個有趣的現象：商品定價經常出現尾部為9的情況，如12.99、14.99。盡管12.99元與13元僅相差1分錢，可是你會更愿意接受前者，覺得自己撿了大便宜。

在設計菜品價格上，人們也會選擇這樣的策略。最常見的是將價格降低3分，比如將一道打折菜的價格設定為15.97元。

餐廳還有另一個花招，也許你在拿到菜單時并沒有察覺到，那就是很少有哪個商家在價格后標上“元”。這個漢字會提醒你，你正在花錢，而花錢會讓人心疼。

缺位的圖片

美食，怎能少了圖片來增色呢？附上圖片，可以引起人的直觀感受。不過如果你經常在外面吃飯，就會發現那些便宜的快餐往往會配上更多的圖片，而更高檔的餐廳，菜單上圖片出現得并不多。

在菜名旁邊附上圖片，在點的菜上桌之前，你的大腦已經構想出食物的味道，而這時如果食物并不像你想象的那么好，你就會感到失落。

圖片與食物不符，是一個非常常見的問題。如果你吃過麥當勞的漢堡包，就會發現漢堡包個頭比圖片小很多，顏色也沒那么鮮艷，奶酪可能濺出來。好在價格不貴，你也不會過于計較。而在高檔餐廳，如果出現這樣的情況，由于成本高昂，消費者就不會去第二次。

菜單里的門道很多，它可以帶動餐廳的銷售額，所以在歐美國家，誕生一個新的產業——菜單工程。從業者致力于設計好的菜單，向顧客傳達特定信息，鼓勵他們花費更多，并且樂意當回頭客。像一個每天人流量達到百萬的大型連鎖餐廳，菜單工程師會對菜單上的所有食物進行測試，可能需要長達18個月才能更新出一份菜單。

你下次點菜，看到一份菜單時，會不會驚訝于它竟然藏了這么多門道？

（摘自《大科技》2018年第3期）

When it comes to food pricing in a restaurant, owners often adopt the same strategy. For example, they would price a discounted dish 3.97 yuan.

Besides, restaurants have another trick, which you may not notice when you get a menu—that is, dropping the currency signs altogether. This sign is a pain point that reminds the diner that they are spending money.

The Missing Pictures

How could images of appealing foods ever be missing from a menu? With pictures attached,customers can get a direct feeling of the food. People who always dine out will realize that pictures of food tend to appear more on menus of cheaper fast food stores and are rarely seen on the menus of fancy restaurants.

The problem with attaching a picture besides the name of a dish is that before the meal is served on your table, your brain has already“tasted” the food when it sees a picture, so when the food comes out and is not quite as good as you imagined, it could upset you.

It is a common problem that the food doesn’t come out looking as good as it does in the pictures. Anyone who has eaten at McDonald’s will find that the large-sized burger with oozing cheese and shining meat juices on the menus are rarely reflected in the real burger that is served. Fast food is cheap, so very few people will make a fuss about it. But in top-grade restaurants, where the food is usually expensive,consumers will never want to come back again if that happens.

There are so many tricks hidden on a menu, which can help boost sales of a restaurant,so in European and American countries, there is now an entire industry known as “menu engineering,” dedicated to designing menus that convey certain messages to customers,encouraging them to spend more and come back again. For a large chain restaurant that might have one million customers per day,it can take up to 18 months for a menu engineer to update a menu,as he needs to test every food before designing.

So, will you be aware of the tricks on a menu next time you order?