Any menu item will have tons of added calories if it is:

• smothered in sauce
• covered or layered with cheese
• loaded with butter, oil, cream, mayonnaise, or dressing
• “sugared-up” even if it doesn’t taste sweet
  • made from a fatty cut of meat
  • made with hidden sugar or flour and/or some type of fat for thickening
  • a huge portion size

Green Light (Probably A Good Choice) words or phrases:

• Barbequed
• Blanched
• Boiled
• Grilled/Broiled/Charbroiled
• Fat free
• Garden fresh
• Poached
• Primavera
• Red sauce/ Marinara
• Roasted
• Seasoned
• Steamed

Quick hint:  Words ending in the letter “d” are frequently on the okay list, for instance: poached, boiled, grilled, and steamed.  Some notable exceptions are:  fried, and the “b-d” words:  buttered, battered, and breaded.

Yellow Light “Caution” Foods (Maybe Yes, Maybe No)

Words frequently used on menus to describe “yellow light foods,” should be chosen cautiously because they may or may not be healthy choices.

Yellow Light words or phrases:

• Baked
• BastedStir-Fried/Sauteed
• Vegetarian
• Vinaigrette
• High Fiber
• Light/Lite
• Reduced
• Marinated
• Stewed
• Panini
• Almandine/Almondine

Red Light (Once In A While) Foods

Really think hard before eating food described with these words and phrases:

• Au gratin/Cheesy/Parmigiana
• Aioli
• Alfredo
• Battered/Encrusted/Crusted
• Bearnaise/Hollandaise
• Bet you can’t finish it/ Bottomless/Value/Giant/Jumbo/Loaded
• Bisque
• Breaded
• Buttery / Buttered
• Carbonara
• Casserole
• Chicken fried/Pan fried
• Covered/Smothered
• Creamed/Creamy/White Sauce/Bechamel
• Crispy/Crunchy
• Deluxe
• Escalloped/Scalloped
• Fried/Deep fried
• Pesto
• Stroganoff
• Stuffed
• Twice baked

Quick hint:  Words ending in the letter “y” should usually send up red alerts, for instance:  cheesy, crispy, crunchy.

This post is part of the 500 calorie challenge:  lose 5 pounds in 5 weeks the healthy way.

The post Traffic Light Food Choices: Red (Once In A While), Yellow (Maybe Yes, Maybe No), And Green (Probably Good) appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

A menu is targeted not just at your stomach, but also to your mind.

Smart restaurant owners and chefs use menu psychology to suggestively sell from their menu pages. They use design, placement, and words to direct your attention to key items on their menus so it’s more likely that you’ll notice, remember, and order what they’ve pointed you toward.

There’s nothing wrong with ordering something that’s going to make money for a restaurant, but wouldn’t you like to feel that the selection is purely your choice rather than the restaurant nudging you in the direction of certain choices?

Here are 10 tips to help you make sure the choice is yours:

(These tips are a summary of the tips given in the seven preceeding blog posts in this series.)

1. A menu’s design should be in sync with the restaurant’s concept and image — the décor, service, food quality, and price range — and give you an idea about the overall dining experience you can expect.
2. You’ll likely find a restaurant’s most profitable items or specials — the things they want you to order — on the top right of the front page of a two-page menu or the top half of the page on a single page menu.
3. “Eye magnets” like colored boxes, larger fonts, and icons or symbols are used to help direct your gaze.
4. Where a menu item is positioned in a list could shout “order me” or “I’m just a complacent placeholder.”
5. High profile real estate is probably filled by high-margin items – the ones that make the most money – or signature dishes, specialty dishes that keep you coming back for more.
6. Descriptive menu labels, especially those that evoke nostalgia, yank your chain – and can boost sales by as much as 27%.
7. A menu can make you feel like you’d be crazy to pass up an item with a mouth-watering description by toning down the descriptions of competing choices. The competition still might be good — it just doesn’t sound as great as the dish the restaurant wants you to order.
8. Really expensive items act as decoys when they’re put next to others that are more reasonably priced – pushing you to order what then looks reasonably priced — but still may be expensive.
9. Don’t look for dollar signs on the menu. They’re not there because they act as a subconscious reminder that you’re about to part with your hard earned money. Restaurants don’t want you to think about money when you order.
10. Prices are usually listed right after a dish’s description rather than lined up in straight right-adjusted column.  This keeps you from scanning down the list to find the least expensive items. Remember – restaurants don’t want you to think about your wallet – so a menu will use ways to eliminate easy price comparison.

Do you eat out?  This is the eighth article in a series of consecutive posts about decoding restaurant menus. Keep checking back for more information that might help you with your restaurant choices.

Please share if you know anyone who wants to Eat Out and Eat Well!

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The post 10 Tips For Making Menu Choices That Are Easy On Your Wallet appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

That’s why – may restaurants, especially those at a higher price point — you won’t see a dollar sign next to the menu choices.  Dollar signs – or euro signs – or any money symbol — serves as a subconscious reminder that you’re about to part with your hard-earned money.

The “Pain Of Paying”

A study published by Cornell researchers found that customers spend less when prices are listed with dollar signs rather than without them. It seems that even the word or symbol for dollar can trigger “the pain of paying.”

The absence of dollar signs makes menu prices seem a bit friendlier, too — especially in higher-end restaurants. Many places will eliminate the numbers for cents, as well.

A shorter numerical price point is most appealing, so chicken that costs twelve dollars will mostly likely be shown as 12 instead of $12 or $12.00. Using a dash or period after the numbers is more of a design choice than a psychological one, but plain old numbers followed by nothing is most common.

Tip: Don’t look for dollar signs on the menu. They’re not there because they serve as a subconscious reminder that you’re about to part with your hard earned money. Restaurants don’t want you to think about money when you order.

The Numbers Aren’t In A Straight Line Either

On most menus the prices are usually right after the dish description rather than lined up like soldiers in a nice straight right-adjusted column. Why? So you won’t go looking for a cheaper dish.

When you see a chicken dish for $17 the restaurant doesn’t want you to easily scan a column of numbers and notice that the chicken tenders two lines down are $3 cheaper.

Amazingly, staggering prices rather that listing them in a nice straight column can lead to a 10% increase in sales for the restaurant.

Tip: Prices are usually listed right after a dish’s description rather than lined up in straight right-adjusted column.  This keeps you from scanning down the list to find the least expensive items. Remember – restaurants don’t want you to think about your wallet – so a menu will use ways to eliminate easy price comparison.

Decoys And Trickery

“Decoy pricing” is a favorite tactic of some restaurants, too. They’ll put really expensive dishes at the top of the list on the menu so the less expensive dishes that follow look more reasonably priced – even if they’re still expensive.

Some research has shown that people tend to order neither the most, nor the least expensive dishes. They go more for mid-zone pricing so tossing high-priced decoys into the equation makes everything else look a little more reasonable.

Tip: Really expensive menu items act as decoys when they’re put next to others that are more reasonably priced – pushing you to order what then looks reasonably priced — but still may be expensive.

Do you eat out?  This is the seventh article in a series of consecutive posts about decoding restaurant menus. Keep checking back for more information that might help you with your restaurant choices.

Please share if you know anyone who wants to Eat Out and Eat Well!

Remember to LIKE Eat Out Eat Well on Facebook (the LIKE button is under the five spoons).

The post How To Be Dollars And Cents Savvy When You Read A Menu appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Putting a dish with a really mouth-watering description — like the fluffy omelette — next to something that’s described in plain jane language — like bacon and eggs with hash browns – can make the omelette sound all the more appealing and a very attractive menu choice.

Menu Language

Menu language is an art unto itself. Descriptive menu labels, especially the ones that yank your nostalgia strings or offer clear explanations, might entice you to order something exotic or strange. For instance, you might take a leap and order branzino if you know it’s European sea bass or chanterelle if you know it’s a mushroom.

Artful adjectives, like “handcrafted, slow-cooked, or old-time flavor” can sway your choice and leave you more satisfied at the end of the meal. So can “crispy” rather than “fried” or “poached” instead of “boiled.”

For example, how could you not try the “Best Lemon Tart I Ever Had,” the next to the last selection shown above? The description grabs you and makes you feel as though you’d be a fool to pass it up. Once you taste it, If it proves to be as good as its description, it’s almost  guaranteed that a customer will order it again and again – and that the restaurant make a lot of money from selling their signature lemon tart.

Tip: Descriptive menu labels, especially those that evoke nostalgia, yank your chain – and can boost sales by as much as 27%.

Familiar Items Vs. Special Or Unique

As a general rule, restaurants leave familiar items alone. Roast beef is roast beef and a fancy description might be annoying. But elaborating on something special or unusual — like locally grown arugula with fresh garden herbs — makes a dish more intriguing and you won’t think you’re being ripped off for a bed of lettuce.

Restaurants can steer you toward high profit margin choices by making some descriptions more appealing than others. There’s a continuum of appeal — having everything sound equally delicious isn’t much different than having everything sound equally bland.

Tip: A menu can make you feel like you’d be crazy to pass up an item with a mouth-watering description by toning down the descriptions of competing choices. The competition still might be good — it just doesn’t sound as great as the dish the restaurant wants you to order.

Do you eat out?  This is the sixth article in a series of consecutive posts about decoding restaurant menus. Keep checking back for more information that might help you with your restaurant choices.

Please share if you know anyone who wants to Eat Out and Eat Well!

The post Menu Descriptions That Make Your Mouth Water appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

People tend to remember the top two items and the one at the bottom of a list. So, the chef or restaurateur will make sure that certain dishes are not randomly placed in those spots. You’ll most likely find the highest profit items at the top and bottom of the menu sections because they sell 25% better than items in the middle.

Tip: Where a menu item is positioned in a list could shout “order me” or “I’m just a complacent placeholder.”

High Profit Margin And Signature Dishes

The high profile real estate on a menu is usually occupied by high-margin items – the ones that make the most money for the restaurant – or the restaurant’s signature dishes, the specialty dishes they can knock out of the park – and are the one’s that keep you coming back for more. Price and cost-margin don’t play major roles with signature dishes because the restaurant is sure they’re so good that you’ll keep coming back and spending money.

High-profit margin items are the dishes that are profitable — like pasta. Even if pasta comes with fancy sauce, meat, or seafood, unless it’s served with something like truffles, it’s usually inexpensive to make. That doesn’t mean it’s not good – it just means that it costs less money to make it so the restaurant ends up making more money on it than on some other menu items that contain ingredients that are more costly or are much more labor intensive to make.

Tip: High profile real estate is probably filled by high-margin items – the ones that make the most money – or signature dishes, specialty dishes that keep you coming back for more.

Do you eat out?  This is the fifth article in a series of consecutive posts about decoding restaurant menus. Keep checking back for more information that might help you with your restaurant choices.

Please share if you know anyone who wants to Eat Out and Eat Well!

The post On A Restaurant Menu, Position Is Everything appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Remember Paul Simon’s song, “Mother and Child Reunion”? According to Simon he “was eating in a Chinese restaurant downtown. There was a dish called Mother and Child Reunion. It’s chicken and eggs. And I said, I gotta use that one.”

Putting aside the popularity of the song, who would think to describe chicken and eggs as a Mother and Child Reunion?

Is What You Order Really Your Choice?

Smart restaurant owners and chefs use creative phrasing and mouthwatering descriptions to describe their food.  They’re using menu psychology to suggestively sell from their menu pages. They use design, placement, and words to direct your attention to key items on their menus so it’s more likely that you’ll notice, remember, and order what they’ve pointed you toward.

Sometimes they highlight their signature dishes, but mostly they want to get you to focus on their high profit margin items — the ones that make them the most money. They aren’t always the most expensive, but they are the most profitable.

There’s nothing wrong with ordering something that’s going to make money for a restaurant, but wouldn’t you like to feel that the selection is purely your choice rather than the restaurant’s?

Menus Target Both Your Stomach And Your Mind

A menu is targeted not just at your stomach, but also to your mind.

Gallup once reported that most people spend an average of 109 seconds reading a menu — a pretty short amount of time. Even if people take longer to really read it — after all, some menus are like encyclopedias — a menu’s design means more than a nice layout. It requires psychology and marketing, too.

It’s in the restaurant’s best interest to really pay attention to its menu – a redesign can improve sales by an average of 2 to 10% — which could mean a significant boost in income.

So, a descriptive phrase like “Mother and Child Reunion” is just one of many ways to influence your choice. The messages are often subliminal, but where menu items are placed, how graphics are used, the way the food and drink choices are described, and even the use of dollar signs — all send you directional signals.

The bottom line is that restaurants hope that their menus — a magical brew of prices; superlative or descriptive words; and varying fonts, sizes, and colors — will play with your brain cells and nudge you toward making the choices they would like you to make.

Do you eat out?  This is the second article in a series of consecutive posts about decoding restaurant menus. Keep checking back for more information that might help you with your restaurant choices.

The post Is What You Order In A Restaurant Really Your Choice? appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

We often overlook the fact that restaurants are businesses and their income comes from what they sell to you. The money they make needs to cover their costs including the food they purchase, laundry and utility bills, rent, cleaning supplies, salaries, glasses, dishes, and so much more.

The Menu And The Mark-Up

The menu is the restaurant’s calling card and its main selling tool – it’s used to convince you to buy what the restaurant has to sell. The way a menu is arranged and how it looks and is written can make or break a restaurant.

The mark-up on the items on the menu is often between 350 and 400%. If the ingredients for a dish cost $3, the dish will probably end up being priced at about $12 — so dishes made with pricier ingredients will, in most cases, cost more.

But most restaurateurs are savvy and will adjust prices to what customers will pay. Most customers, for instance, won’t plunk down $50 for a 10 ounce steak, so menu items are balanced for profit and loss. A restaurant might lose money on steak by pricing it at a lower mark-up, but then make up for it with the mark-up on popular items with less costly ingredients — like pasta and pizza.

Think About What You Pay For Food In The Supermarket

To put things in perspective, think about how much you pay for food when you go grocery shopping. Pasta and rice cost very little, good steak and sushi grade fish cost a whole lot more. In a game of checks and balances that ultimately is reflected in the prices you see on the menu, good executive chefs monitor and leverage every product that comes through their doors.

Food that isn’t sold during earlier meals gets repurposed (ever wonder about the soup of the day, the stew, or the hash?). Good chefs can make those dishes sound delicious and taste wonderful – while, at the same time, marking them up and putting them on the menu as fabulous specials that sell out.

Do you eat out?  This is the first in a series of consecutive posts about decoding restaurant menus. Keep checking back for more information that might help you with your restaurant choices.

The post Some Good Things To Know About Restaurant Menus appeared first on Eat Out Eat Well.

Menus, both restaurant and take-out, are filled with descriptive and sometimes mouth-watering words.  They’re meant to:

• entice you to order certain items by making them sound scrumptious, or to
• make you think that a food, sauce, or dressing is lower in calories or an awesome health food.
  

Maybe Yes, Maybe No Adjectives

This is a list of words frequently used on menus to describe foods that can be considered “yellow light foods.” They are the foods you  should cautiously choose because they may or may not be healthy choices.

• Amandine/Almondine
• Baked
• Basted
• Light/Lite
• Marinated
• Panini
• Reduced
• Sauteed
• Stewed
• Stir-Fry
• Vegetarian
• Vinaigrette

 Why They’re Yellow Light Foods:

Amandine/Almondine:  Means food that is garnished with almonds. The caution: the ingredients (often green beans, fish, asparagus, potatoes) are usually cooked with butter and seasonings and sprinkled with whole or flaked toasted almonds. The butter makes them taste good and allows the nuts to stick to the main ingredient — but both add significant calories.

Baked:  Food that is cooked by using dry heat.  The caution light applies to the main ingredients. What is being baked – is it baked fish or a baked cookie?

Basted: Means that either the juices of the cooking meat, melted fat, or other liquids such as marinades – are poured over meat during the cooking process to keep it moist.  The caution is in determining what the basting liquid is:  fat or the juice of the meat?

Light or lite:  If 50% or more of the calories in a food come  from fat, the fat must be reduced by at least 50% per serving to be called light. If less than 50% of the calories come from fat, the fat must be reduced by at least 50% or the calories reduced by at least 1/3 per serving for the food to be called light. The caution:  food manufacturers determine these percentages through laboratory analysis – but how does your local diner determine what is “light or lite” even if there is a “light or lite” claim on their menu?

Marinated:  Means to soak or steep meat, fowl, fish, or vegetables in a liquid mixture — which is usually vinegar or wine and oil combined with various spices and herbs.  The caution:  how much oil or even sweetener is in the marinade that has permeated the meat, fowl, fish, or vegetables?

Panini:  A pressed and toasted sandwich.  The caution:  What are the sandwich ingredients — for instance are they heavy on vegetables or on salami — and how much oil is used on the grill? If the sandwich comes out nice and crunchy and crispy you can bet it was pressed on a grill loaded with grease.

Reduced:  To be called reduced in calories, a food must contain at least 25% fewer calories per serving than the reference food (the version of the food that is not lower in calories).  For meals and main dishes there must be at least 25% fewer calories per 100 grams of food.  The caution:  the “reference food” (the regular, not low in calories version) may be a very high calorie food to begin with – meaning that 25% less of very high calories is still a lot calories.  And who’s measuring in the kitchen of your local restaurant? Don’t be duped.

Sauteed:  Means food that is fried quickly in a little oil.  The caution is the same as with stir-fry (see below); the amount of oil and the temperature of the oil.

Stewed:  To cook by slowly boiling or simmering.  The caution:  what is the stewing liquid — is it tomato based or is there a lot of fat?

Stir-Fry:  Means to cook small pieces of vegetables, grains, or meat by quickly frying and stirring them in a small amount of oil over high heat (frequently in a wok).  The caution is the amount and temperature of the oil.  Oil at a lower temperature will lead to a longer cooking time and the ingredients absorbing more oil.

Vegetarian:  Refers to a dish made without meat, fish, or fowl.  The caution is that many vegetarian dishes are prepared with a lot of breading, cheese, and fat.

Vinaigrette: A common salad dressing made with olive or other oils and combined with vinegar and/or lemon juice (plus seasonings and herbs).  The caution is in the proportion of oil to the acidic vinegar or lemon juice.  Sometimes it might be as great as 4:1 oil to acid and sometimes it might be 1:1, or half oil and half acid.  A fifty-fifty mix will be lower in calories than a mix that is 75% oil.

Do you have any “yellow-light foods” to add to this list?

For more menu key words and menu hacks be sure to sign up for my newsletter, “Eat Out, Eat Well.”  Just enter your email address in the box on this page — and don’t forget to confirm when you’re prompted by email.

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