5 ms·

I wish every menu would come with pictures for every item, if only because portion sizes are so unpredictable. Yelp has pictures sometimes, but they're crowdsou

by dguo 9y ago

I wish every menu would come with pictures for every item, if only because portion sizes are so unpredictable. Yelp has pictures sometimes, but they're crowdsourced, so it's usually only the popular items that have them. Maybe the cost of getting good pictures and making longer menus is a factor. Or maybe it's just another part of the "psychology of food menu design."

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
chrischen 9y ago
I’ve always wondered why they don’t do this in America. I would surmise it’s one of the reasons trycaviar.com took off the way it did. It swept people from sites like grubhub that had lower quality restaurants with no pics. In Japan it doesn’t even end with pictures—most restaurants have realistic physical models of their dishes!
- QAPereo 9y ago
  http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/meet-makers-plastic-food-180959989/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/meet-makers-plastic-foo... Japan definitely has a great tradition of see before you eat.
- stevekemp 9y ago
  Once upon a time I was posted to Tokyo to do some integration work. I had a great time working with Toshiba, and wandering around the city. However a constant pain was the language (not a surprise) and my personal food tastes. I'll eat anything that isn't fish. Several days I'd just select random foods based on conversation with the staff, or pointing to lines on a menu because they looked fun. (That was quite fun, some days I'd get a starter, other days I'd get a desert, and I'd have no clue what I'd ordered!) The only day I was absolutely certain I'd get great food was the day I found a place to eat that had pictures of the food. I thought I'd ordered a hamburger, but what actually arrived was a fish-cake in a bun. And that is when I learned that photo-based-menus were still not terribly useful. If there had been a symbol of a "fish", a "cow", or a "chicken" that would have helped, but a photo can't tell you the difference between tomato-soup and chicken-soup, nor between a hamburger and a fish-cake!
userbinator 9y ago
The pictures would have to be extremely large for that to be useful, or each item very distinctive, since otherwise a lot of food tends to look like "blob of stuff on a dish". I think listing the ingredients would be far more helpful to understand what you're getting. ...and the obligatory "items may not be exactly as shown" disclaimer would make pictures not reliable for portion sizes either.
- sillysaurus3 9y ago
  Everyone has phones now. Ideally the menu would have a QR code that pops open the menu in your browser. All the items could be hyperlinks that show those huge pictures. That would be lovely.
  - davidpelayo 9y ago
    That's exactly what we are starting in https://lomenu.com https://lomenu.com with examples of QR linking to menus like this demo one: https://demo1.lomenu.com/lagramola https://demo1.lomenu.com/lagramola. We just need to gather as many menus as possible from all over the world. Currently Spain -Barcelona focused so far.
    - unkown-unknowns 9y ago
      No pictures in your menu though.
- vyrotek 9y ago
  How about an AR menu? http://www.kabaq.io http://www.kabaq.io
contingencies 9y ago
In some countries (Thailand comes to mind) having photographs of every single menu item is actually a relatively common menu design.
- Grue3 9y ago
  Yeah, and they aren't even particularly high-quality or appetizing photos. I think it's because tourists unfamiliar with Thai cousine would be pretty confused without them. Some restaurants (e.g. in Japan) go even further and make actual-size, plastic models of the food. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_food#Use_by_Japanese_restaurants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_food#Use_by_Japanese_rest...
anewhnaccount2 9y ago
In Romania, many restaurants have weights next to every dish.
Erwin 9y ago
Or calories. It's not impossible, but I've seen just one non-fast-food restaurant do it: Gauthier Soho in London: http://www.gauthiersoho.co.uk/menu-1.php http://www.gauthiersoho.co.uk/menu-1.php The tasting menu is 1785 Calories -- excluding wine.
drdeadringer 9y ago
I am reminded of the scene from "Lost In Translation" where both main characters are comparing two menu-pictured dishes. It's remarked "they look exactly the same, what's the difference?". Comedy aside, similar might happen. I do still find this a good idea.

by dguo 9y ago

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

chrischen 9y ago

I’ve always wondered why they don’t do this in America. I would surmise it’s one of the reasons trycaviar.com took off the way it did. It swept people from sites like grubhub that had lower quality restaurants with no pics. In Japan it doesn’t even end with pictures—most restaurants have realistic physical models of their dishes!

QAPereo 9y ago
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/meet-makers-plastic-food-180959989/ http://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/meet-makers-plastic-foo... Japan definitely has a great tradition of see before you eat.
stevekemp 9y ago
Once upon a time I was posted to Tokyo to do some integration work. I had a great time working with Toshiba, and wandering around the city. However a constant pain was the language (not a surprise) and my personal food tastes. I'll eat anything that isn't fish. Several days I'd just select random foods based on conversation with the staff, or pointing to lines on a menu because they looked fun. (That was quite fun, some days I'd get a starter, other days I'd get a desert, and I'd have no clue what I'd ordered!) The only day I was absolutely certain I'd get great food was the day I found a place to eat that had pictures of the food. I thought I'd ordered a hamburger, but what actually arrived was a fish-cake in a bun. And that is when I learned that photo-based-menus were still not terribly useful. If there had been a symbol of a "fish", a "cow", or a "chicken" that would have helped, but a photo can't tell you the difference between tomato-soup and chicken-soup, nor between a hamburger and a fish-cake!

userbinator 9y ago

The pictures would have to be extremely large for that to be useful, or each item very distinctive, since otherwise a lot of food tends to look like "blob of stuff on a dish". I think listing the ingredients would be far more helpful to understand what you're getting. ...and the obligatory "items may not be exactly as shown" disclaimer would make pictures not reliable for portion sizes either.

sillysaurus3 9y ago
Everyone has phones now. Ideally the menu would have a QR code that pops open the menu in your browser. All the items could be hyperlinks that show those huge pictures. That would be lovely.
- davidpelayo 9y ago
  That's exactly what we are starting in https://lomenu.com https://lomenu.com with examples of QR linking to menus like this demo one: https://demo1.lomenu.com/lagramola https://demo1.lomenu.com/lagramola. We just need to gather as many menus as possible from all over the world. Currently Spain -Barcelona focused so far.
  - unkown-unknowns 9y ago
    No pictures in your menu though.
vyrotek 9y ago
How about an AR menu? http://www.kabaq.io http://www.kabaq.io

contingencies 9y ago

In some countries (Thailand comes to mind) having photographs of every single menu item is actually a relatively common menu design.

Grue3 9y ago
Yeah, and they aren't even particularly high-quality or appetizing photos. I think it's because tourists unfamiliar with Thai cousine would be pretty confused without them. Some restaurants (e.g. in Japan) go even further and make actual-size, plastic models of the food. [1] [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_food#Use_by_Japanese_restaurants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fake_food#Use_by_Japanese_rest...

anewhnaccount2 9y ago

In Romania, many restaurants have weights next to every dish.

Erwin 9y ago

Or calories. It's not impossible, but I've seen just one non-fast-food restaurant do it: Gauthier Soho in London: http://www.gauthiersoho.co.uk/menu-1.php http://www.gauthiersoho.co.uk/menu-1.php The tasting menu is 1785 Calories -- excluding wine.

drdeadringer 9y ago

I am reminded of the scene from "Lost In Translation" where both main characters are comparing two menu-pictured dishes. It's remarked "they look exactly the same, what's the difference?". Comedy aside, similar might happen. I do still find this a good idea.