Sneaky Restaurant Tricks
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Trimming Costs
In Troubled TimesSoaring food costs, rising gas prices and cash-strapped consumers mean one thing for restaurants: trouble. As restaurants struggle to stay afloat many are forced to swap ingredients, trim portion size and makeover their menus.
Click through our gallery as freelance writer Carol Vinzant shares the sneaky ways that restaurants are cutting costs and trying to get you to spend more.
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· Post: Have You Seen Any Tricks?
First Up: Restaurant Trick No. 1 -
Cutting Back on Portions
Restaurants normally spend between 25% and 40% of their budgets on food. So if they can make a smaller hamburger and still sell it for the same price, their profits go up. Milk shakes at family diners that could once be split three-ways may now truly be single serve. There are reports of some restaurants buying smaller plates so customers won't notice they have reduced portions and chefs won't be tempted to heap on food to make dishes look appealing.
Next: Restaurant Trick No. 2 -
Redesigning the Menu
The third item in a list is generally the most selected item. Owners are using this knowledge and professional menu design to steer eaters to the highest margin items. Profitable items may also get stars or boxes around them. You may see prices de-emphasized. Kristoff Creative, a design firm, steers restaurants away from the typical diner menu where all the prices line up in a column.
Next: Restaurant Trick No. 3 -
Swapping Key Ingredients
Managers may shift to dishes that call for less expensive ingredients, too -- for example, from beef to chicken or from chicken to pasta. Consumers may want these lower priced alternatives. And restaurants like them because they can often make a higher profit margin on them. If you see a menu item for some kind of marinated steak, it may be a flank steak, a cheap, tough, cut that has been marinated and pounded to submission, said one chef at a private club who asked not to be identified. You may see more items with ground chuck, otherwise known as hamburger.
Next: Restaurant Trick No. 4 -
Cutting Back on Freshness
Food distributors are charging restaurants fuel surcharges these days because of high gas prices. So, restaurants are trying to cut back on the number of deliveries they get. Instead of getting fresh produce every day, they get bigger quantities less frequently. Other kitchens may switch to frozen for items that they rarely use but want to keep on hand, such as avocados.
Next: Restaurant Trick No. 5 -
Using Up Everything
The chef may prefer to discard tomatoes that aren't the ripest red. But, these days, to make use of every last tomato ordered, you might see a few green slices make their way onto your hamburger. That new special soup? Could be just an excuse to use some meat and vegetables they got for another dish but didn't sell. See lots of chili? It may be a disguise for leftover hamburger. Bread pudding? That's yesterday's Danish. Homemade croutons? A great use of stale bread. Potato skins? A terrific way to use the leftover baked potatoes.
Next: Restaurant Trick No. 6 -
Pouring Weaker Drinks
Your favorite bartender is probably not stingy with portions. Bartenders have a way of pouring generous drinks and maybe even offering one on the house. But now his boss may be breathing down his neck to ensure he is not so glad-handed.
In the United Kingdom pubs must sell liquor in 25 ml or 35 ml servings and have bar gadgets that pour exactly that amount. Maybe they'll start becoming a common sight in the U.S., too.
Next: Restaurant Trick No. 7 -
Using Cheaper Ingredients
Restaurant owners have become compulsive shoppers. That's quite a change. Owners normally stick with the same supplier year after year, almost like baseball players stick with lucky socks. Now they're trying many suppliers and many brands. For restaurant owners who are less fastidious on quality, a switch to a cheaper supplier can mean lower quality. If your favorite grilled cheese doesn't taste quite as good as it used to, a change in suppliers could well be the reason.
Next: Restaurant Trick No. 8 -
Using Cheaper Disposables
From take-out containers to garbage bags to toilet paper, there are big bucks in paper and disposables. And owners can sometimes get the same items for less if they just spend more time shopping. Or, they may decide that food quality is sacrosanct but napkin quality is not.
Next: Restaurant Trick No. 9 -
Tweaking the Recipe
Maybe the recipe calls for five sticks of butter. In good times, the baker adds six because she thinks it tastes better. But in tough times, she'll stick to five (or worse, substitute a stick or two of margarine in the recipe). The chef may prefer to load up on shrimp when preparing his signature gumbo, but he knows his job depends on restricting the number to four or five per serving. Cooks may also be told to use 10% less chicken or chop off less of the head of strawberries when they make shortcake.
Next: Restaurant Trick No. 9 -
Slowly Raising Prices
Restaurants normally raises price only once or twice a year. Now you'll see many more increases along the way. That's because prices are moving as much in a month as they used to in a year. One restaurant owner now prints only 500 menus at a time instead of 5,000. He used to check his ingredient prices every couple months; now he makes sure to look every week.
Next: Restaurant Trick No. 10 -
Begging for Sympathy
You may start seeing signs about higher commodity prices. Or news articles pinned to the window. Or hear desperate justification of the higher prices in a conversation with the owner. They want to make sure you know they're not just being greedy.
· Post: Which Tricks Have You Seen?
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Recent Comments
GemStoneJewels 11:19:07 AM Jul 01 2008
YOU CAN THANK THE DEMOCRATS FOR THIS CURRENT STATE OF AFFAIRS, BECAUSE THEY CONTROL BOTH THE SENATE AND CONGRESS. GOD FORBID THAT IDIOT AMERICANS VOTE FOR OBAMBA. VOTE MCCAIN!!
GemStoneJewels 11:16:18 AM Jul 01 2008
IF A STEAKHOUSE THAT WE HAD BEEN GOING TO FOR YEARS EVER PULLED ANY OF THE UNDER-HANDED CRAP THAT THEY ARE TALKING ABOUT IN THE ARTICLE ABOVE, I WOULD NOT GO THERE AT ALL, AND I WOULD STRONG SUGGEST YOU DON'T EITHER IF IT SHOULD HAPPEN TO YOU WHERE YOU LIVE. LUCKILY, I HAVE NOT HAD ANY PROBLEMS WITH ANY OF THE RESTAURANTS WE FREQUENT, IN OUR NECK OF THE WOODS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!. WE ARE IN THE RESTAURANT REPAIR AND SERVICE INDUSTRY AND I CAN TELL YOU THAT THESE RESTAURANTS ARE BOOMING, SO IF THEY ARE SMART THEY WON'T CHANGE OR DEVIATE ANYTHING ON THEIR MENU'S HERE IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.
Albee 5 31 06:05:56 AM Jul 01 2008
No question about it, just about every other person you see anywhere is over weight. Not ecxatly huge, but for sure no thin. Check out the high schools, or any college campus. There is where it all begins. Kids grow up to become comfortable with their weight and as they age to be adults, very few will thin out.
clwnfshy 04:29:11 AM Jul 01 2008
**** THEM ALL COOK AT HOME, JUST NOT AS MUCH PUDDY HERE LOLOL
Happy34U 02:47:36 AM Jul 01 2008
We have noticed that the steaks at the Outback are smallerI love to cook, so it will not matter if I don't go to a restaurant.I made a vow with my bestest friend that we would be eating healthier,and we are.
Elan1126 01:11:33 AM Jul 01 2008
MAYBE THEY HIRED RUSSIANS BECAUSE THEY DO NOT WHINE AND COMPLAIN AND WORK HARDER?
Elan1126 01:10:47 AM Jul 01 2008
Type your own comment hereHiroller187 03:24:33 PM Jun 18 2008 Report This! I work at a Golden corral that is owned by Frisch's and they are horrible! They are currently trying to cut costs by having servers that make 3.50 an hour clean restrooms, wash dishes, scrub walls, seat customers, and more. They then tell us if we can't handle the work then we need more servers on the floor which means each server as less tables and therefore less money. This is illegal but if you object to it they threaten to fire you!Recently they hired several Russian students on a work visa for the summer because they have no idea what is usually required for the job and cut everyone elses hours! Severa