Originally Posted by
JBord
I wasn't saying it was a new concept. Several people, including me, had raised the issue, in this thread, of ordering food without knowing the price, and how a value judgment can't be made in that situation. There are two data points in the value equation, product and price. If one data point is missing (in this thread, the price) I didn't think I would eat at that restaurant. But then I did exactly that, without knowing the product, I agreed to purchase a meal. Now, I'd suggest that price may be the more important data point, in the fact that you have to actually have the money to pay. But in reality, I took the same risk when ordering this blind tasting menu. I could have been very disappointed with 4 ham sandwiches and a cookie.
Part of this whole current exercise is one component of branding: Reputation. The chains (seems most of the cited references above apparently are) are counting on customers trusting their brand reputation enough to order food without knowing and making a decision to order or not based on price, trusting that the brand will supply them a product at a fair and acceptable price. With technology, one wonders whether the customer can be unknowingly identified by the chain with degree of acceptance of price when presented with bill post-consumption as a basis of pricing in the future (so basically a customer will be marked for how much they are willing to pay in the future after a few dining experiences).
As for the single-establishment restaurant, I imagine it must be both customers and proprietors counting on reputation of the establishment so that both expect that a fair meal will be served at a fair price, and that the customer will be impressed enough to come back. As a customer, I certainly wouldn't trust this model especially where the proprietors
know that you'll likely never ever return to the area (think remote one-visit check-list destinations).
Back to the lack of data points on price and product, I've certainly made a conscious decision when one of the two are lacking, and sometimes even both. One memorable instance was chancing upon a somewhat run-down country bar restaurant in a poor neighbouring village to Pomerol (FYI, th village of Pomerol is too small to have any visitor facilities). Ordered lunch (no menu/carte let alone price but everyone in the establishment appeared to be eating that) and when I asked for the bill at the end, the proprietor's accent let me to believe the meal was €27 p.p.which I thought was pricey but within range, but it turned out to be that much for 2. The other instances, as anyone who's been to Cyprus knows, are meze meals. Sit down, order your drinks, and the food keeps coming out....