Originally Posted by BearX220

You're paying for a total experience; the piece of meat (or whatever) is just one component. If the total experience is poorly designed - bad or slow service, bad atmosphere, etc. -- then expectations aren't met and, voila, guests start to focus on the price of the thing.

The idea behind restaurant experience design is to force price into the background. I've had $50 steaks as part of such a nice evening, it never occurred to me to focus on price. And if you go to Tad's in NYC you can have a $10 steak that will make you think about offering $5 for it.

Only a rube complains about menu prices in a restaurant that has everything going right.