How to decide what to order at a restaurant
Narrow the menu before you choose: decide what kind of meal you want, rule out what does not fit, keep three dishes, then pick the one that suits your taste best. Choosing is hard because a long menu means too many options to compare; a short list and a clear reason make it easy.
Why choosing from a menu is so hard
Psychologists call it choice overload. In a well-known experiment, Sheena Iyengar and Mark Lepper set up a tasting stand in a supermarket: shoppers who saw 24 jams were far less likely to buy one than shoppers who saw 6. Later research found the effect is far from universal: across many studies it is small on average, and it shows up mainly when the options are hard to compare and people have no clear preference. That describes a long menu, or a menu from a cuisine you do not know, almost exactly.
7 ways to decide faster
- Decide the kind of meal first: light or filling, meat, fish or vegetables, something familiar or something new.
- Rule out instead of picking in. Crossing off whole sections is quicker than comparing forty dishes.
- Keep three. Three candidates can be compared; ten cannot.
- Ask what the kitchen is known for, or what the server would order.
- Look at what other tables are eating.
- Share. Two dishes for two people turns one decision into a tasting.
- Check your three against your own taste: which one fits what you like best?
When nothing on the menu appeals
The opposite problem has the same cure. Look for a familiar base, such as rice, noodles, bread or grilled meat, ask whether a dish can come with the sauce on the side, and start with a small plate. A guide to eating well as a picky eater has more ideas.
Where Taste10 fits
Photograph the menu and Taste10 ranks the dishes for your personal taste, best first, with the reason why. Steps 3 and 7 are done for you: you start from a short list that already fits you, and your mood decides the rest. It works with menus in your own language as well as foreign ones.
Order the dish you will enjoy most
Taste10 ranks a whole menu for your personal taste, with the reason why, so you know which dishes suit you before you order.
Taste10 is in testing. Want to try it early? Get in touch.
Questions and answers
Why is it so hard to decide what to eat?
Long menus with many similar options make it hard to compare, especially when you are not sure what you feel like. Narrowing the choice to three dishes helps most people decide quickly.
Is the most popular dish the best choice?
It is the dish most people liked, not necessarily the one you will like most. Taste differs from person to person, so it is worth checking against your own taste.
What should I order at a restaurant I have never been to?
Ask what the kitchen is known for, look at other tables, and choose between the dishes that sound closest to what you enjoy.
Does Taste10 work with menus in my own language?
Yes. It ranks any menu you photograph for your personal taste, in your language or a foreign one.
More about taste
- Why the same food can be a 9 for you and a 3 for someone else
- Reading a menu in a language you don't speak
- How to eat well abroad as a picky eater
Sources
- Iyengar, S. S. and Lepper, M. R. (2000). When choice is demotivating: can one desire too much of a good thing? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79(6), 995–1006. doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.79.6.995
- Scheibehenne, B., Greifeneder, R. and Todd, P. M. (2010). Can there ever be too many options? A meta-analytic review of choice overload. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(3), 409–425. doi.org/10.1086/651235