Comments on: One Restaurant, Two Menus

By: Jonny

Jonny — Sun, 23 Oct 2011 22:09:37 +0000

@Tim I actually used to frequent the restaurant the linked article mentions and they absolutely did not rip off anybody. I’ve ordered off both menus from there and the only difference is that one is a “covered rice plate” menu where you get a scoop of the dish layered on top of a plate of rice-essentially a lunch or individual sized portion, and the other menu is the dinner menu. There’s Chinese characters on the more expensive menu as well so it makes no sense that it’d just be for tourists, it’s just the nicer dinner/family style menu. At almost any Chinese restaurant I think there’s a little bit of a premium for ordering off the family style menu versus the lunch type menu, even at joints where all the menus are Chinese only.
I honestly felt really bad for that restaurant since they had to go hire a lawyer and got such hugely bad publicity over the whole thing when their only mistake was not putting English on the lunch menu. They never hid the other menu from anybody or anything-it was always sitting right up at the front when you walked in for people to place lunch orders and in fact that’s why they got in trouble-someone thought it was a cheaper menu for people who could read Chinese and didn’t realize it’s the menu for the smaller sized portions. I used to work near there so it was one of my favorite places to go and eat and I’d order off both menus all the time, usually the cheaper one for lunch or takeout.

By: Tim

Tim — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 21:33:40 +0000

I’m not so sure it’s OK to have two different prices in the U.S. See this article: http://card.wordpress.com/2007/02/27/restaurant-charging-extra-for-not-being-chinese/

And I don’t agree with giving people different food choices based on race or nationality as some Chinese restaurants in the States do.

If you are truly proud of what your kitchen has to offer, share it with me. Don’t put it on a separate menu and not tell me about it. You’ll get a lot more customers in the long run.

The places I go to that have interesting and varied menus don’t seem to suffer from a lack of laowai customers.

By: Kendra

Kendra — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 10:06:02 +0000

I may be a little hard-line on this one, but if this kind of thing happens to me, I start by trying to save them a little face and telling them “excuse me, but there’s definitely been a mistake on the bill. Please fix it.” If they don’t take the chance to have everything proceed peacefully, I then insist I won’t pay at all if they won’t correct this simple “mistake”.

If arguments continue, I bluff by asking that they call the police. Of course they never will, and the police likely wouldn’t give two craps, but it scares everyone enough that I can hand them a “fair price” for the meal and go home.

The key is not to yell too loudly or make a scene. If you do make a scene, then reputation is involved, and the manager will have to deny you in order to save face.

A little involved and over-the-top, maybe, but this kind of stuff really gets my goat, even after living here for a while.

On the other hand, when bartering at a shop, I expect to (and happily) pay a reasonable mark-up based on, sadly, my nationality.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 02:28:32 +0000

@SD: That’s milk-out-the-nose hilarious! I’m definitely going to start practicing it.

By: SD

SD — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 16:45:16 +0000

There is a similar trick that’s used in restaurants: it’s the “big plate”-”small plate” scheme. Here’s the rundown: you order from a menu. You get your food and eat it. Your bill comes arrives and is much higher than expected. When confronted with the price difference the staff/manager says they gave you the “big plate” and that the price indicated on the menu was for the “small plate”. Since you’ve already eaten, they explain, you have to pay the “big plate” price. Negotiations for how much to pay can then ensue depending on how much muscle they have and their mood.

I’ve developed a nearly fool-proof method for paying what I consider to be a fair price for such meals. It’s called the drop and run method. To succeed all members of your party must understand the plan. Make sure during all previous negotiations that no movements toward the door have been made (premature door movement may cause it to be blocked). Also keep previous negotiations civil. You may be mad as hell, but try to act with surprise and mild-anger. If your anger level rises above a certain threshold muscle will be called in. The method is simple. Count out the “fair value” of the meal; make haste to the door; drop money before reaching door. Run. Run. Run. They hardly ever follow.

By: vlameno

vlameno — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 15:23:54 +0000

Sounds like things haven’t changed since the 80s when I used to live there. Back then the two menu system was very much in use in several cities.

By: Twofish

Twofish — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 07:34:31 +0000

This is also pretty standard in Chinese restaurants in the United States, and it happens not to be illegal. I don’t know about Indian, Japanese, Korean, or Arab restaurants, but I suspect they do the same thing since I have seen list of prices with numbers next to them.

There’s no racial discrimination involved, and giving discounts or preferred treatment to someone because they can read the local language is not a crime in the United States.

By: Jack

Jack — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 06:52:12 +0000

I think this happens in some places and some restaurants in China only. I will forward this to related authorities who probably can make regulations for restaurants.

By: Chip

Chip — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 02:01:41 +0000

Know the restaurant’s real price, and just give them that price in exact yuan. And then walk out. Rinse, repeat.

By: Ryan

Ryan — Thu, 29 Nov 2007 01:29:42 +0000

I’ve heard of this as well, and it makes sense. There’s a lot of stuff on a Chinese menu that would turn white-bread westerners (like myself) off of a restaurant back home.

You just rarely see things like fish heads, chicken feet, pigs’ blood, and duck tongue on Western menus, and it has the potential for hurting your customer base.

However, if the 宫保鸡丁 and Kung Pao Chicken are different prices, that’s a whole other story.