By Izzy Kharasch

To what extent do menu prices affect our customers’ decisions on where to go out and enjoy a meal? As the restaurant operator, your goal is to make sure that guests have a great time and feel good about the money they spend. If we do our job correctly, we will have guests spending more money than they had planned. We do this not by charging more, but by making sure we give them the best time possible, as well as implementing subtle strategies that get them more involved with the menu. Rather than upselling, this has more to do with how we use the menu as the single best marketing tool we have.

The amount of money a guest will spend in a restaurant can be greatly influenced by how we present the menu. Menu design, pricing, presentation, and service are science and art when it comes to how much money the guest will spend.

Done well, the restaurant operator will have the guest spend 20 per cent more than they planned and thank us for the experience. On the other hand, if we forgo strategy and service, we are – at best – likely to have met the most basic expectations of the guest, which means they will spend less and be less likely to be a return guest. When we go out to enjoy a meal, we always want it to be above our expectations, so we must apply that same thinking to our guests.

Pricing and presentation

How our restaurant presents an item on the menu is very important. Let’s look at the same item presented in three different ways and determine which one our guests will order. Quickly review the options below:

Of course, all three options offer the same item for the same price. It is quite possible our guest may not have been planning on having chicken wings, but how items are placed on a menu can get them to change their mind. What is the difference between the three presentations?

Option 1                                                                                                                                                                           $7.99

In the first option, the price is all the way to the right, is in bold type, has a dollar sign, and is the same size font as the menu item. Many restaurants make this mistake, and it can cost them sales.

No matter how our guest tries, their eyes will always be drawn to the far right in this type of presentation. When the rest of the menu is laid out this way and lines up its prices in a neat row, it will force the guest to purchase by price and not item.

Option 2 $7.99

This is a stronger option as it draws the eye closer to the item and the item description. However, the price is still the same font size as the item itself, and the dollar sign is in bold text, causing the customer to primarily think about the price before they read the description. The secret sauce for the restaurant is to get customers to stop thinking in terms of price vs. value and instead think about what sounds most enjoyable.

 Option 3 is the best way to go because we want the guest to purchase the item based on the description and the subliminal message we are sending through the presentation.

First, the item is presented in a substantially different way than the other menu items. It is in a box, which makes it more of a focal point and draws attention. The shading suggests the restaurant considers this a specialty without having to put that into words. Lastly, the placement of the price at the end of the description without bold text places further emphasis on the entirety of the item description. Additionally, the removal of the dollar sign generally does not cause the guest to focus on the cost.

Menus, QR codes, and phones

Restaurants that still use a QR code rather than the physical menu have cheque and drink average totals far below those restaurants that offer a physical menu combined with a real server.

A phone does not offer the best presentation when it comes to items and prices. After scrolling down, customers are far less likely to go back up to determine the best items. With a physical menu, it is easy for their eyes to take it all in and “peruse” the menu until they land on that special dish.

Prices, presentation, and a great server

While pricing and presentation are important, the role of a great server is to be likeable and help personalize the menu to the guests’ tastes by making certain items pop.

The server is the secret sauce to pricing because a great server will make the guest forget about the price and crave what they have told you is their favourite dish. Before the server described it, the guest may have thought the item was overpriced, but now, they absolutely must have it because it sounds so fantastic!

There are two kinds of menus. The first is where everything sounds so good I can’t decide what to have. The second is everything sounds so bad I can’t decide what to have. When it’s the first, price is not important. When it’s the second, price is all I have to choose from.

Over the last 30 years, Isidore (Izzy) Kharasch, President & Founder of Hospitality Works, Inc., has helped more than 700 restaurants, bars, and other businesses worldwide improve their operations and profits. A graduate of The Culinary Institute of America, Izzy also holds a master’s degree in hospitality and hotel management from Roosevelt University, and has taught hospitality courses at colleges and culinary schools, including Kendall College, Roosevelt University and École Hôtelière in Switzerland.