Menu Evaluation In Restaurants

Menu Evaluation

Discuss about the Menu Evaluation in Restaurants.

Menu plays a key role in the success of any restaurant. A menu consists of various foods, dishes and wines that a given restaurant offers. Menu presentation matters a lot as the design a restaurant adopt speaks more of the restaurant operations (Ozdemir and Caliskan, p. 9). Some customers can judge a restaurant based on the menu presentation. When preparing a menu therefore, some factors such as scale of function, staff, time, facilities, capital, occasions and type of customers you are targeting should be put into consideration. Menu planning is not an easy task and the management should thereby consider menu psychology, types and the suitability of the developed menu in relation to their target customers (Reynolds et al., p. 6). Putting these factors into consideration can give one a competitive advantage given the field of food services is growing tremendously and competition is very high.

A Hereford Beefstouw is one restaurant that has invested much on menu planning. It is located on Hutt Street, Adelaide South Australia and its meals are appetizing and amazing. Many online reviews have commended this restaurant explaining how their services exceeded their expectations. This paper therefore, discusses menu presentation strategies, menu psychology, different types of menu, factors affecting menu planning process and sustainability of the menu based on management decisions.

Menu is a common thing to find in any restaurant. However, the presentation of the menu is key to satisfying your customer’s needs and wants (Thomas and Mills, p. 5). Creating a memorable menu requires careful planning. Menu is a tool for internal marketing and sales of meals and beverages to the customers. They can be printed and placed on every table on the restaurant or hanged on the walls. Many restaurants also have their menu on their website and due to technology many advertise on restaurant screens. Once a customer reads the menu, it influences on what to order as well as the amount they are going to spend. Strategic planning of the menu ensures appropriate design by putting menu items strategically and thereby maximizing on sales revenue.

A Hereford Beefstouw has structured its menu in the most efficient way by indicating various kind of meals they offer, starting from the Starters, Lunch, Main courses, Extras, desserts and coffee as well as children’s Menu. On top of this, they indicate days as well as the hours when they serve every meal including price of each category. For instance, they don’t offer lunch on Sundays and therefore, customers can plan themselves hence avoiding wastage of time. The restaurant is shaking the whole Adelaide area by offering Grass-fed meats which is served in a blonde-wood Scandinavian-style space. The restaurant offers quality steak and awesome wines. The design and art is just amazing as they work with renowned designers and artists. Customers can select various meals from their wide range of menu depending on what they want.

Types of Menu

A La Carte Menu- The dishes available are arranged in courses with each meal priced separately. This kind of menu offers the customers with wide range of dishes to choose from. There is waiting time since food is ordered first then cooked. Table D’hôte Menu- The set menu comes with set price (Mirzaei et al., p. 777). The courses are limited and every guest is served at the same time thereby reducing wastage and offering faster service delivery.

Du Jour Menu- The menu changes daily. Function Menu- It is useful in special occasions such as business conventions, parties and weddings. Finally, the Cyclic Menu offers fixed meals (Cato, p. 577) generally the breakfast, lunch and dinner.

A menu should entice your customers while communicating the restaurant’s personality. Menu engineering therefore becomes an important aspect in dealing with menu psychology. Eye gaze motion has seen the introduction of the golden triangle rule in menu design. Since many people tend to focus on the middle of the menu first before roaming to other areas, meals with high profit margin should be placed here (Yang, p. 1026). Color also speaks volume of words. Colors such as green, orange, yellow and red will capture the attention of the customers. Green is usually associated with fresh foods, orange is known to stimulate appetite, yellow and red are attention grabbers.

A Hereford Beefstouw has maximally utilized the secret of psychology in their menu design. They have implemented the psychological ploy known as the paradox of choice in their menu (Johns et al., p. 281). Their menu always has entrees. They also use captive adjectives and lines (for example, farmers and chefs are aware that healthy, happy animals taste better) that feed the customer’s imagination hence tickling the taste buds. The animals they use for making their meals are 100% grass fed, free range with guarantee of no antibiotics are hormones used.

Despite the fact that qualified chefs are needed to design a great menu for a restaurant, there are some factors that affect the efficiency and success of menu planning. First and foremost, you have to be in line with the government rules and regulations. If government has prohibited sale of a certain meal or drink, then it should not appear on the menu. Social-cultural factors also play a key role in menu planning. You should consider your location and the culture of the people. People’s taste and preference differ (Rozin, p. 95). Some are vegetarian others prefer a certain food over another. Therefore, the management should have a background information on their customers so as to come up with a menu that accommodates everyone.

Menu Psychology

Aesthetic factors include; flavor, consistency, color, shape and texture. At Hereford Beefstouw, dishes have been known by many people to have the best flavor, texture and consistency.  Reviews online have recommended Hereford Beefstouw for their perfect tasty meals, fully flavored, with great texture and color (Schatzker, p. 3). It has invested in serving the best meals ever with expressional beef in terms of tenderness and flavor. They were the first to introduce dry aged mutton and the meal is super tender, flavored and appetizing. Everything you love about lambs is here and it proves wrong any mutton horror stories you have heard about.

The management should diligently commit themselves in designing the menu as if they are making any other major restaurant investment decision. Inadequate managerial commitment and decisions leads to poor menu design. Hard to read menu due to poor font size selection, font style and background color as well as monotonous design (Magnini and Kim, p. 76) may lead to menu misinterpretation.

There are some dishes which should be located in a spacious area to catch the attention. However, you should never overcrowd the menu. Care should be taken to avoid misrepresentation of the menu by vague information such as means of preservation, nutritional claims, brand names and points of origin.

• In their menu design they should use controlled costing so as to catch more attention of the customers. Instead of using $20 for instance, they could use $19.90. This affects the psychology of the customers making them to spend more.
• They should also use more captivating captions and adjectives on their menu.
• The restaurant should increase more vegetables on the meals especially on the starters. Due to lifestyle change, many people are turning to healthy eating.
• It should reduce more advertising of the preservation methods on the menu.
• Also the restaurant should reduce indication of the source of animals and farm produce.

Conclusion

If every restaurant considers the menu as the silent salesperson and understand the importance of

a properly designed menu, they will invest much in generating a well-crafted menu. Easy to navigate and strategic menu which tickles taste buds of the customers is all a restaurant needs.

References

Cato, S., 2014. Menu dependence and group decision making. Group Decision and Negotiation, 23(3), pp.561-577.

Johns, N., Edwards, J.S. and Hartwell, H.J., 2013. Menu choice: satisfaction or overload? Journal of Culinary Science & Technology, 11(3), pp.275-285.

Magnini, V.P. and Kim, S., 2016. The influences of restaurant menu font style, background color, and physical weight on consumers’ perceptions. International Journal oospitality Management, 53, pp.42-48.

Mirzaei, N., Mirzaei, N., Niroomand, S., Niroomand, S., Zare, R. and Zare, R., 2016. Application of statistical process control in service industry: A case study of the restaurant sector. Journal of Modelling in Management, 11(3), pp.763-782.

Ozdemir, B. and Caliskan, O., 2014. A review of literature on restaurant menus: Specifying the managerial issues. International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science, 2(1), pp.3-13.

Reynolds, D., Merritt, E.A. and Pinckney, S., 2005. Understanding menu psychology: An empirical investigation of menu design and consumer response. International Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Administration, 6(1), pp.1-9.

Rozin, P., 1996. The socio-cultural context of eating and food choice. In Food choice, acceptance and consumption (pp. 83-104). Springer US.

Schatzker, M., 2010. Steak: One man's search for the world's tastiest piece of beef. Penguin. P. 3

Thomas, L. and Mills, J.E., 2006. Consumer knowledge and expectations of restaurant menus and their governing legislation: a qualitative assessment. Journal of foodervice, 17(1), pp.6-22.

Yang, S.S., 2012. Eye movements on restaurant menus: A re-visitation on gaze motion and consumer scan paths. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 31(3), pp.1021-1029.