Menu Hacking – What it means for hospitality foodanddrinkguides.co.uk /blog/2016/06/19/menu-hacking-what-it-means-for-hospitality/

Stephanie Hall

In the past the British had the tendency to stay silent and dissatisfied. Everyone remembers getting THAT haircutand telling the hairdresser “ooh yes that’s lovely thanks” before heading home to cry into a bucket of ice cream allthe while dealing with the knowledge that you may never go out in public ever again. It was the same in restaurants,the scalding look from your mother If you dare say anything negative about the cold risotto you had just been served“Just eat your food, don’t embarrass me in front of everyone.” The British public over the years has begun to find it’svoice, there are still the odd true Brits who will tell you to your face the food was absolutely delicious before going tohome to write an incredibly scathing review on Tripadvisor about how terribly horrid the whole experience wasbecause if they said those things in public they would just seem like a horrible control freak with zero manners.

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Lately though, the inhabitants of this fair isle have adopted a somewhat American attitude towards dining out andhave adopted the idea that it’s their meal and that can have it any damn way they please, in fact 57% of diners nowsay they would be confident about customising their order ala When Harry Met Sally and 28% would ordersomething completely off menu. Research by restaurant booking service OpenTable found the principle motivationfor people removing items on restaurant menus was a dislike of particular ingredients and not actually due to anyallergy. You may have spent an excruciatingly long time choosing the ingredients of your dish to ensure it wasperfectly balanced and was encapsulated the vision you set out for it but that isn’t going to stop Joe Public fromremoving every second item from it.

Despite the idea of having to create a cream of tomato soup with no tomatoes or cream, if you are unwilling in anyway to accommodate your patrons this will be looked down upon with as many as 97% of restaurants now sayingthey would happily customize a meal to perfectly suit the customer. The main reason for this is allowing thecustomer control actually creates loyalty. Speaking to The Daily Telegraph Fred Sirieix, general manager atLondon’s Galvin at Windows said: “It happens very regularly, people have dietary requirements or things they don’twant to eat. It’s not a big deal; I think its good service and good manners. Long gone are the days when a chefwould cook something a certain way and there was no budging from that. The guest is king now and that isimportant.”

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The most frequently removed items on restaurant menus:

Sauce

Mushrooms

Meat

Seafood

Vegetables

Nuts

Tomatoes

Egg

Cheese

Potatoes

Stephanie Hall

Steph is a frustrated writer trapped in the body of an idle procrastinator. When she's not atwork he likes planning for the apocalypse and has a secret penchant for tinned meats.

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