# Do these types of restaurants exist?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-types-of-restaurants-exist/587092>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [June 28, 2011, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-types-of-restaurants-exist/587092 "2011-06-28T01:58:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-types-of-restaurants-exist/587092/41 "2011-07-05T04:04:42Z")

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> [@pulykamell](#):
>
> See, I kind of like the idea of a host menu and a guest menu. If I’m taking someone out and paying for it–male or female–it’d be nice to have the option of giving them a menu where they need not concern themselves over the price of individual dishes and just order what they like.

Host and guest, yes. But the waiter had no way to know whether the guy I was with was my date or not or which our financial arrangements were. He had no right to make my financial decisions.

I’ve got no problem with “don’t worry about the prices” (been both the person taking advantage of that and the person making the offer), but I do have a problem with _the waiter_ being the one who makes that decision and I’ve got a problem with it being made on the basis of who happens to have tits.

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**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-types-of-restaurants-exist/587092/42 "2011-07-05T04:20:28Z")

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ETA to the previous post: in that same restaurant, they did the same one time I was there as part of a group. The first menu (price-less) went to Sandy; the second one (priced) to her husbad Lew; by the time Anna opened her (price-less) menu and looked surprised, Sandy had opened her, looked surprised, looked at Lew’s, frowned, erased the frown and was requesting and requiring an “uncensored version, if you don’t mind” in the kind of voice which spells out “this is not a request”. So I know for sure that which menus to bring was completely a gender-based decision. Knowing what I do about the US service industry nowadays, now I’d speak with management - back then, it didn’t occur to us.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 4:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-types-of-restaurants-exist/587092/43 "2011-07-05T04:37:09Z")

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Yeah, I can understand being annoyed at the underlying sexist assumption to these priceless menus, because they do go to the women in the party, as far as I’ve ever seen… It’s not exclusively an American thing, though. I’ve also seen it in France, IIRC.

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**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\
**Post date:** [July 5, 2011, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-these-types-of-restaurants-exist/587092/44 "2011-07-05T04:43:06Z")

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[Actually, here’s a thread I found about them](http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/368716). Looks like France is a common place to see them, but they’re seen elsewhere on the Continent, too.

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