Friday, July 19, 2013

FOOD SPECIAL .... HOW RESTAURANTS TRICK YOU TO MAKE YOU PAY MORE


HOW RESTAURANTS TRICK YOU TO MAKE YOU PAY MORE
RESTAURANT CONFIDENTIAL 

You may take pride in your knowledge of food, but restaurants can still outsmart you with a few sneaky tricks. tells you how to stay on top of your game while enjoying a good meal

CLEVERLY-ENGINEERED MENUS
There’s a reason why fancy restaurants place their most profitable item topmost on the menu; we tend to scan the menu in a Zshaped fashion, starting at the top-left hand corner. What’s their aim here? To make all the other items seem reasonably priced. Brian Wansink, author of Slim by Design, Mindless Eating Solutions to Everyday Life, has studied menu designing thoroughly. He says, “What ends up initially catching the eye has an unfair advantage over anything a person sees later on.” Unprofitable dishes, like a seafood combo plate, that require expensive ingredients and a lot of time and effort to prepare, are banished to a corner that’s hardly noticeable. Also, restaurants often interrupt hungry patrons by highlighting certain food items by putting them in boxes. It’s nothing but a promotion initiative.
SMALL SIZE FITS ALL
The small plate/large plate conundrum is quite old. A restaurant may offer a small bowl of Caesar Salad for 180 and a medium one for 210. “You may think there’s no harm in spending a little more if you are getting a good quantity in return. But when the server arrives with the salad bowl, there’s nothing more than some extra lettuce thrown in, which makes the price differential almost pure profit,” says Aparna Balasubramanian, who runs the food blog, My Diverse Kitchen. Also, the quantity served at times (especially in five-stars) is very little, compared to the price charged for the dish. “A while back, I happened to order a lobster dish worth 1,200 at a high-end restaurant. I was hungry and thought that a big-size lobster would be enough, but I was surprised to see the quantity when the server got it. I realised I had been fooled,” says Kunal Vijaykar, actor and food show host.
FANCY NAMES
Which one sounds better? ‘Alfredo pasta’, or ‘To Die For Fettuccine Alfredo served in a rich, creamy Parmesan cheese sauce’? Of course, the latter. A lot of thought goes into how the food items appear when you open the menu. According to a six-week field experiment by Cornell University Food and Brand lab, descriptive names in menus increase sales by 27 per cent. “Evocative and flowery descriptions have an impact on customers. People tend to pay more attention to a certain feature, flavour or texture in a dish rather than its price tag,” says Balasubramanian. Oxford psychologist Charles Spence, who has studied the effect a dish’s name can have on diners, says, “When you give a dish an ethnic name, for example Italian, people will rate the food as more authentic.” You may have experienced this... you find it hard to resist an appetising dish after reading its ‘authentic’ name, and descriptive details. You visualise the food in front of you. Even pictures of food items are great sales vehicles that restaurants use to attract the already-tempted foodies.
THE HAPPY MEAL STORY
What’s your usual reaction to the popular package deals and combo meals at fast food joints? ‘I’m getting a burger, coke and French fries, all for 99? Awesome!’ But you have already spent way more. The single burger you intended to buy was only worth 49. Those few extra bucks spent by diners each day, thinking the combo meal is available for cheap, is a great source of revenue for food establishments.
NEVER-ENDING WAITLIST
Often, restaurants keep customers waiting despite a number of tables available inside. Within a few minutes, they get you to sit in their lounge, which always seems to be vacant. This gives the bar server an opportunity to upsell you on drinks and appetizers. You are dying of hunger and the alcohol menu on the table further makes it difficult to ignore the instant craving. And there you go. You order a few items which are separately added to your bill. You may have walked in with a certain budget but you ended up spending a bomb. Not just this, they make you feel obligated to tip both, the restaurant and the lounge server. Mission successful!
WHY SO SALTY?
Why do you think most bars are happy to offer you complimentary snacks like peanuts, popcorn, pretzels and chips? Because they are generous? No. These high-in-sodium snacks set in front of you are just another way to make you feel thirsty. When you consume salt, your cells dispatch a signal to your brain’s ‘thirst centre’, which in turn, sends you a message to sip more liquid. This scientific tidbit is definitely lucrative for bar owners, who profit from sodium’s dehydrating effects. If you wish to keep a self-conscious drink tab, order a glass of water with your drink to keep yourself hydrated, and avoid curing your tongue with salty snacks that drive you to drink more.
THE OVER-FRIENDLY SERVER
Servers gifted with charisma and the art to strike a conversation never fail in their attempt to please diners. We are sure you remember the last time you had fallen victim to one such steward. They know the menu inside out and never leave you stranded at the table. “They successfully convince you that the pizza served at their restaurant is unbeatable and that you shouldn’t miss pairing it with your favourite beer,” says Deeba Rajpal, who runs a food blog named The Rabid Baker. And since you end up becoming best friends with them, you may find it awkward to inquire about the price of the dish they have suggested, especially when you are with a woman. You not only order the dish blindly but even end up giving him an exceptionally generous tip. End of story.
MUSICAL MANOEUVRES
While Beethoven and Mozart can foster love, they can also burn a nasty hole in your pocket. Researchers at the University of Leicester, UK, have discovered that soft, classical music makes restaurant diners feel more affluent, posh and cultured. It encourages them to spend more money. With no music being played, the amount of money spent by diners is dramatically less. The study further says that soft music increases sales of fine wines, while pop music ups the consumption of soft drinks. Also, drowned in music, customers linger, thus ordering more food, particularly desserts and appetizers.
THE BUFFET MONSTER
Buffets do allow you to feast on a bountiful selection of entrées, but we recommend you go for it only if you have a good appetite or else you’ll just be helping the restaurant owner fill his pocket. You may have probably noticed that buffet lines often start with an assortment of low-cost soups, breads, salads and sugary beverages to fill you up before you even get to the main course. “Another trick restaurants use is having smaller plates on their buffet line, which reduces the amount of food you can take at a time,” says Deesh Mariwala, founder of food club Mumbai Meat Marathon.
TODAY’S SPECIALS
You may immediately want to order the item offered by the restaurant in ‘today’s special’ or ‘chef recommends’, but stop and read this. While some eateries are known for their excellent specials, sometimes these unique offerings are tools for pushing high-profit menu items. So when the chef comes and says, “I wish to offer you something new and refreshing...”, think twice. Often restaurants also like to push big-ticket entrées as a featured item to give the impression that an upscale meal is available for less. Sometimes these deals are worth it but be wary and check the regular menu to see if the ‘special’ price is actually less than the regular price. Being sceptical of subjective descriptions can certainly help you avoid paying up for false value.
THE WATER-Y TRICK
Restaurants charge exorbitantly for bottled water. “In many places, the servers are instructed to leave a pricey bottle of mineral water on the table even before the diners occupy it,” says food blogger Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal. Once you are seated and open the bottle and boom... it goes on your bill. So the next time the waiter asks you if you wish to go for ‘still’ or ‘sparkling’, do not feel embarrassed to say ‘tap’.
WINE WHINE
The sommelier waits for you to order the wine that helps him make maximum profit as customers pay a minimum of 200 per cent mark up for wine. It isn’t that difficult to save money here. Tell the waiter your price range and he can get you wine that fits your budget. Avoid buying wine by the glass, as restaurants try to recoup the price of the bottle with the first glass as they are unsure whether you’ll order a second glass. Moreover, a single glass of wine is usually priced at or above the wholesale cost of an entire bottle.
Shikha Shah TL130707

No comments: