We most often go to the same place, and on the same day of the week so their daily specials are always the same. I don’t always order the same thing, but I usually do know which of a few dishes I’m in the mood for without looking at the menu. Occasionally I’m tired of all of those same few things, and look through the rest of the menu for inspiration.
Then there are places like the one in Sacramento where the menu is essentially a prop, with basic, boring and even yucky stuff on it (liver and onions), and the real choices are rattled off as “specials”… sometimes ten or more. Good food but I hated that gimmick.
In both Charlotte Amalie (USVI) and Ocho Rios (JAM) we ate at places where they let us look into the pots. In each case, the all-inclusive resorts we were staying at did not approve at all of our un-chaperoned excursions into the “local” zone. Still not sure if this was really dangerous or if they are just making even more in backhanders from the tour companies and shopping areas they take you to.
The resort in Jamaica could not serve us ackee & saltfish, Jamaican patties or goat curry! At $440/night you’d think they’d accommodate folks who don’t want filet mingon and lobster.
Last time we went to an all-inclusive anything.
Depends on the place. There are some places I go to for specific dishes; other places I simply enjoy overall and tend to pick off the specials menu. At a new place, I will generally peruse the specials menu and more often than not, order off it.
It’s not so much that a place does one thing well. It’s that when I go out to eat, I quite often have a taste for one specific dish and nothing else will do. For example, there’s a Laotian Thai place near me that has a very spicy turmeric beef stir-fry type dish on it that I just LOVE. Every time I go to that place, I have to order that dish. I’ll taste a little off my wife’s plate of whatever she’s having, but that dish will always be ordered. Their entire menu is pretty much fantastic, but that’s what I want when I go there. Meanwhile, there’s a Southern/Creole/Barbecue place that I go to where I just live for the specials. Their regular menu is solid, and I’ve eaten through most of it, but the specials are outstanding.
The kind in third world countries with low prices. If the restaurant is not overly large, the cooking is done within sight of the diners. In a larger restaurant, where a traveling diner doe snot understand the language or can’r read the menu, it is common to be invited into the kitchen to make a selection.
There is only one restaurant where I don’t bother looking at the menu, because if we are there it is likely because we’ve elected to eat light and are there for one particular dish. Otherwise I’ll at least glance at the menu because things change, and even if I’m ordering the same dish the wife likely isn’t.
Such things are almost always for the swaddled category of American who wants the same room, mattress, brand of bottled water and filet/lobster menu no matter where they go. Most would be happy in an enclosed “resort” with large video walls showing various locations. (Over the secure wall keeping the natives at bay.)
If the restaurant is serving doe snot, then I definitely want to read the menu closely before I start running in the opposite direction.
A friend took me to a restaurant in the San Francisco area which did not have a menu. You just ate whatever they decided to cook & put in front of you. My guess at the time was that it was meant to help avoid the language barrier. You were allowed to select which sort of beer you wanted with your meal. But, I am not a beer drinker… So, the language barrier needed to be overcome in any case.
The food was amazing. (Jade Princess ? It’s been too long.) I still use menus, but I learned a lesson about ordering the more unusual items. Sometimes, there’s real joy lurking within.
NM
Wow. Had I been anywhere near San Francisco, I would go there today.
The problem with menus is that they don’t really tell you what the items are. I read it all but still have no idea. Maybe I’ll just go wash my hands and inspect everyone’s plates on the way.
Huh? I think the problem now is reading comprehension. Most menus tell you everything you want to know (and more0 about the dish. What do you want, the cook’s phone number?
The above does not apply to Chinese restaurants.
Ok. I give. Owned by Sean Kelly’s what?
I always read the menu and listen closely to the specials, because I live in a city with a million restaurants and I enjoy going to new ones.
The exception is breakfast, where I’ll go into any NYC coffee shop or diner and ask for a cheese omelette, hash browns, rye toast with extra butter, no jam, tomato juice with lemon, and a side of sausage.
There’s a diner we go to about once a month; they have all their specials (typically five) on a blackboard and they’re always a better deal than offered on the menu. Although the last time we were there, the blackboard was blank.
Or dumpster diving, right?
Ew!
Most menus in foodie restaurants contain a number of ingredients, foreign words, and cooking techniques that I don’t recognize and which are absolutely new to menus in the past couple of years.
These are all real, cut and pasted from menus:
French-style omelet with Underpass & mustard croutons
Potato darphin, maine uni, jalapeno
Pork milanese, gribiche, mustard greens
Hamachi “Basquaise”, Sweet Pepper Bavarois, Basil Oil, Arugula Salad, White Sturgeon Caviar, Finger Lime
And The Guardian felt it had to put together a two part article on terms you might not know.
If you’re going to Red Lobster, you don’t need that. Walk into a higher-end restaurant and the menu may be simple and easy or it many be a final exam at the CIA.*
*Culinary Institute of America
Good lord, I’m a foodie and don’t recognize about a third to a half of those terms. (Underpass, darphin, gribiche, bavarois, Basquaise.)
I’m (nearly!) always willing to try something new, so, yes, I’ll look over the menu, searching for surprises.
I have, several times, chosen the Chef’s Treat or Chef’s Surprise, although usually the waiter will tell what it is in advance. (Takes some of the fun out of it, but it’s a sensible precaution.)
If I don’t know what something means – Milanese? – I can always ask, and they can almost always describe it well enough to let me decide. (And, again, i like almost everything, so, what the heck: bring it out!)