Originally Posted by dcpatti

The reason the room service menus look so much like Friday's is the same reason that the food is exactly the same in every Friday's. It's because the average American consumer does not like to take risks when dining, especially not when travelling. We're not the average travellers here--- some would call us spoiled and jaded (I know I am a very spoiled and jaded traveller) but we also have to travel, and sometimes we are going to be too tired/busy/lazy to dine anywhere but room service or hotel restaurant. Your more casual traveller, though, is not going to want to experiment with new, trendy or experimental cuisines. Maybe they have their kids with them, or maybe their Aunt Jane got food poisining at a pupusa stand in Mexico City in 1977 and they just haven't gotten over that story, or whatever the reason; what it comes down to is they want predictable comfort-type food. Some nicer restaurants will have some more unique offerings but you're always going to see the burger-steak-pasta routine. Personally, I don't understand it--- I love finding the hole-in-the-wall dive with the best Cuban sandwiches and so forth, and I can't understand why anyone would go to Friday's over and over again, let alone while travelling. But Friday's is always packed and you rarely see one go out of business. Face it. The general public has pretty unadventurous tastes and the hotels want their dining dollars. Why cater to their tastes and not to ours? Well, because we're going to order something off of the overpriced room service menu at some point in our stay, but Mr. and Mrs. Applebee's might get scared away if there's too many weird-sounding things on the menu.