Marina Del Rey was my choice location down there.

I remember when they first opened on Beverly Drive in Beverly Hills and their focus was cheesecakes. They also served salads, sandwiches and a few other savory dishes. However, over the years, their menu expanded; there are way too many items for them to be able to prepare any of them well. Their menu items are simplified, so that they can be quickly prepared by line cooks. The food has been dumbed down to appeal to the masses, for example, pasta puttanesca prepared without anchovies and Vietnamese summer rolls without mint.

The dish process simplification must be a reality if the food is supposedly all freshly prepared in house as the article claims. The number of line cooks they'd have to have who be impossible, but they seem to have the volume and the article claims they test every dish for reproducibility and probably ergonomics. Can't remember what I ate (Bellevue Mall) but it didn't leave any impression. As for leaving seemingly-essential ingredients out, I suspect it is because people don't care for it? Been a long time since I've had a Caesar salad anywhere that had any hint of anchovies.

We've found that in all cases, with only one exception, a paper menu was available upon request - at least post-COVID rules. To be fair, the one place that refused has a chalkboard menu, although we were seated outside and couldn't see it. So we used our phones that time.

I ordered from a McDonald's kiosk this summer and thought it was a perfectly fine experience. The kiosk had pictures, prices, descriptions, etc. I'm a huge fan of fast food automation so we can stop hearing the nonsense about how 15 years olds deserve a living wage :). I hope that trend catches on. When I'm at any type of restaurant where I don't order from the counter/kiosk, I want to see a real menu and interact with waitstaff. And above all that, there's no way my mother in her 70's is going to use a digital menu or order from a kiosk. She barely knows how to text.

My wife can not see the menu on her phone. Sometimes if she zooms and scrolls, which is an unpleasant experience for her. Otherwise, I literally have to read her the menu which is unpleasant for both of us. As I posted above, at least that hasn't been an issue as COVID restaurant practices have begun to peter out.

In general, and to your original post, at no time should a restaurant provide you a menu with no prices when you're receiving service. There are only a handful of situations where I'd agree to purchase something without knowing the price, typically a less expensive item from someone I trust - "Hey, I'll buy the first round of beers, you get the next one". It's an especially egregious practice in an airport where a $27 cocktail is not all that unusual.

At a time in the US where politicians are clamoring for pricing transparency in every facet of our lives, because of supposed hidden charges, this seems like a good next target, where the prices actually are completely hidden.

I used to get really annoyed at restaurants that had menus on their websites but no prices. At this point between inflation and supply chain shortages, I can at least understand why they wouldn't want to print prices online. Restaurants are truly stuck in a terrible position. If they print prices, they have to reprint every time the price of ground beef doubles overnight. If they use paper menus, people complain or even protest because they aren't environmentally friendly. Perhaps the answer for airports is digital menu boards (like the chalkboard) where they can simply update prices. A few of those in a restaurant/bar area could cover the food menu and maybe 80% of bar orders?

I completely agree with the above. Additionally, I can’t remember the last time that I bought food at an airport. I try to avoid going to national chain restaurants and pretty much only go to small, locally owned restaurants. Only thing I order to be delivered is pizza, again, local shop, and pay the delivery driver with cash.

Yours truly,
Curmudgeon

The only time I don't have a "real" menu are at buffets/AYCE places (assuming you don't count the tablets). But that's OK for me. Similar places where they don't use tablets usually screw up the order somehow (multiple times).. Oh... and dim sum places. But that's a different story altogether. (and they employ grouchy old ladies anyway)

I use the app or kiosks before the order taker at quickserve restaurants. Partly out of being impatient (there is always a lineup at the in-person order taker) but also it's faster (I can punch the stuff out as fast as the order takers). This isn't a knock on them, just that once I get used to the layout, it's all automatic for me.

I'd still prefer printed menus at a standalone restaurant. As I mentioned, the few pages that need reprinting would not be a big impact on the environment, certainly less than from the other wastes that are generated and in most cases, can be mitigated in other ways (eg, "firestarter" for those with real fires in their kitchens or scratch paper or depending on where the paper was used before, rodent bait). As I mentioned, some of the places which put less of an emphasis on the looks of the menu (eg, most chinese restaurants) often put a small sticker on their menu to cover the original price and put in a new price. So not quite a whole reprint, but a cheat of sorts.

As for airports, I can't speak for others right now, but YYZ has tablets fixed at the table where you order, then the wait staff brings the foods over. You can kinda use them for surfing at the same time (personally I would prefer my own tablet, but whatever works) The concept works (including the sticker shock from seeing airport pricing). I actually prefer it over the digital or chalk signboards... there's already enough distraction there.

I would love to do this at the airport (support small chains with interesting food), but most airports use a central service provider to manage all the tenant stalls. So it's harder to tell. But then you get the captive-audience pricing unless the chain is big enough to negotiate the pricing down...

I think I ate there once. Loved the brown bread. Discovered that those delicious rolls and sliced sandwich bread are now available in some supermarkets in the Los Angeles area. I always have some of the rolls in my freezer.

The original Caesar salad recipe, created by Caesar Cardini, does not have anchovies. It called for Worcestershire sauce, which is made with a small amount of anchovies.

Do you bring your own food or just not eat in airports/planes? My travel has gone way down since COVID started, but I still find myself with no other option than airport food at least a few times per year. The meal hierarchy during travel to me is: Anything else => Airport food => Airplane food :). I avoid the last unless I'm in F, and sometimes even then. But it seems I often get stuck with airport food on my way home from a business trip. You're lucky!

I don’t bring my own food. My travel is primarily international and this year I was fortunate enough to fly Polaris on all of my flights. I eat in airports, in a sense, but only in the lounge, this year, specifically, the Polaris Lounge. As I said upthread, I can’t remember the last time I bought food in an airport. With the exception of a croissant at ZRH. 😁

I do like the United Club at my home airport of MSY which serves gumbo and jambalaya. :tu: :tu:

On planes, I’ll eat a small amount of my meal, but only enough to tide me over until I get where I’m going.

I ask myself how people can make a value judgement on whether a menu item is worth what it's worth without seeing a price on the menu.

But then I remembered that that happens with healthcare so you're probably used to it.

Interestingly, last weekend, my wife and I made a value judgment based just on price without knowing the product!
At dinner, we were presented with a menu (no phone scan :)) and one of the options was a 5-course prix-fixe menu. We asked the waiter if there was a separate menu, and he said it's a "blind tasting". The chef selects 5 courses inspired by the ingredients used on the regular menu, but creates a different meal. For $80/person (+$45 for wine pairing), we took our chances and were very pleased. I don't recall taking that chance outside of a Michelin-starred restaurant ever before, but at the price point, we felt it was worth a try.

Was it at a restaurant you'd been to before or some place that you'd wanted to try? Did you add the wine paring as well?

David

Not too new. Over a dozen years ago, Cue at the Guthrie in MSP used to do this (as did the sister restaurant towards St. Paul). I think both dishes per course were different too. Another restaurant relatively close to my current location offers only such a menu on the first working day of the week (restaurant is only open 4 or 5 days a week, afforded by the fact it's in the middle of nowhere relatively speaking). Bargain at ~CAD 54 p.p. for 5 courses. Different dishes per course for a 4 person table too.

Back to no prices on (chain-wide) menus, I guess that is to allow for local pricing conditions. Very low-brow "dining" but some site I frequent has people complaining about different prices at McDonald's in the same metropolitan area.

I don't watch much commercial TV, but aren't national advertising campaigns (with prices) still a thing?