Blog

Are your diners a little lost?

A new poll finds there's a lot of confusion out in America's restaurant dining rooms about just what those menu items really are.

June 8, 2016 by S.A. Whitehead — Food Editor, Net World Media Group

There's a lot of confusion out there in your chain's dining rooms and drive-thru lanes — much of it around the issue of exactly what those complicated menu items are. That's the overall finding of a Harris Poll conducted this past March by OpenTable on menu jargon among Americans who eat out often. 

The results of the spring poll of adult diners show that nearly one third of all respondants (29 percent) think the descriptions on restaurant menus are a lot more confusing than they need to be, while more than half said they actually feared that ordering something with an unknown ingredient might "ruin their dining experience." Likewise, for nearly three-quarters of respondants, there was some trepidation about wasting their money at a restaurant if the meal they ordered really stinks. 

In short, diners are feeling a little cagey about all the unusual stuff that many restaurateurs put on their menus. Menu planners and chefs create these complicated dishes — often ethnic favorites — under the assumption that's what their guests are clamoring for. In fact, quite a few of them are being left in the dust, according to the survey, which found that more than half of diners have no idea what several of the popular current menu items actually are. 

"With chefs continuing to scour the globe for unique dish ingredients and cookbooks to revive forgotten techniques, it is understandable that many diners may be confounded by certain terms on a menu," said OpenTable Chief Dining Officer Caroline Potter.  "While two-thirds of diners aren't embarrassed by their confusion and are typically happy to ask their server for a little guidance, with all the passion and energy that chefs and restaurateurs put into the creation of their menus, they should be aware that one in five diners simply won't order a menu item with a description they don't understand."

Some good news though, for digital menus, came out of the survey, which found that more than half of respondants say menu items or a menu glossary would make them more likely to order an unfamiliar dish. Finally, if you're wondering what terms specifically threw off a lot of folks, here were the top 10 least understood menu items of those in the poll, according to OpenTable: 

1. Okonomiyaki 
2. Gochujang 
3. Piri piri 
4. Yuzu 
5. Bibimbap 
6. Gougere 
7. Guanciale 
8. Shiso 
9. En brodo 
10. Ballotine 

About S.A. Whitehead

---

Pizza Marketplace and QSRweb editor Shelly Whitehead is a former newspaper and TV reporter with an affinity for telling stories about the people and innovative thinking behind great brands.