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The upper right-hand corner of a menu is like the front window of a high-end shop—it is the place to put items that are most desirable, though not necessarily most affordable. Bier Markt’s $18 salads, noticeably framed with an array of lines, boxes and a swirl, seem to call out “Order me!”
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Listing two sizes of a dish (as is done at Churrasco Villa), without any indication of the difference, is torture for the indecisive customer, who inevitably asks the waiter to mime the approximate size of each dish with his hands. Either way, the restaurant wins: if a customer can recall ordering a small that was too small in the past, they will opt for the expensive upgrade; if a customer goes for the small, they are likely choosing the size—and price—that benefitted the restaurant all along.
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Placing items in boxes separates menus into little cliques. It’s like high school for dinner plates: items that are in the box seem more popular, while everything out of the box is, well, out. On this menu from Fred’s Not Here, the boxes curiously draw attention to the menu’s most expensive appetizers and mains.
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Not to suggest that O Noir is keeping diners in the dark, but by bundling its entire menu into two basic rates (one three-course dinner, one two-course dinner), it’s impossible to tell what any individual component is worth, making the overall value of the meal ambiguous (not to mention the fact that O Noir’s electricity and decor budgets are likely next to nothing).
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Twelve dollars would be a hefty price to pay for a burger at McDonalds, especially when nothing else cracks two figures at the Golden Arches, but when a $12 burger sits on a menu a few items down from a $28 entrecôte grillée frites, the price suddenly seems reasonable. Strategically anchoring expensive items so that others look cheap by comparison seems to be a strategy used on Tati Bistro’s menu, where almost every section begins with a top-dollar item.
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Menu designers often make the mistake of listing prices in a vertical column, allowing diners to pick items based on price, not preference. More experienced establishments, like Zee Grill, shuffle items in different price ranges around the menu, making comparison shopping more difficult and encouraging customers to choose the most appetizing meal, not the cheapest.