Is It Really A Bad Sign If A Restaurant Has Pictures On The Menu?

What's so wrong about pictures on a menu? Are we not visually-driven creatures who are moved by images and pretty things? Surely it makes sense that before one spends their hard-earned money at a restaurant, they'd want to see what exactly they're ordering. But in Western restaurant culture, at least, pictures on a menu can get a mixed reaction. Many people associate big glossy menus with mediocre food that's a far cry from fine dining. In reality, it's a complicated reaction of customer attitudes, purchase intentions, willingness to pay, and how individuals process information. The question is complicated enough that scholars at Durham University actually researched what effect pictures and food names have on menus.

The researchers began by pointing out that the language we use to market and describe food is always changing. Today, more items are being given descriptive or ambiguous names instead of regular names. Just think of the last time you went to a fast casual restaurant like Chili's or a fast food drive-thru like Taco Bell. Chances are, your chicken salad wasn't just called a "chicken salad," but rather a "Quesadilla Explosion Salad," and your soda was a "Mountain Dew Baja Blast." Because people process information differently (some visually, some verbally), there isn't a hard and fast conclusion to whether food photos on menus are good or bad — it just depends. In short, it comes down to cultural context and the individual customer's experience and expectations.

There's obviously pros and cons to unpack with either choice. Adding pictures of food can certainly provide clarity for the customers, which can be a benefit for international tourists or ethnic restaurants where the diner might be unfamiliar with the foods featured. Pictures can also appeal to casual diners who are eating at a chain or family-friendly restaurant and need to make a quick, confident decision. Especially if there are kids involved, pointing to a picture of chicken fingers is infinitely easier than describing "free-range hand-breaded poultry fun sticks" to a five-year-old. Perhaps another worthwhile reason to include an image is if the restaurant is known for a chef's specialty or signature dish. If you've spent any time traveling in Asia, you know that street food vendors will try to differentiate themselves with colorful photos of their food (like the perfect Hainanese chicken rice) to make them stand out.

However, if you're about to drop a full paycheck on a fancy three Michelin star restaurant, photos on a menu might clash with your expectations. If the photos are low-quality and poorly executed, you might question the restaurant's overall attention to detail. Then, of course, there are those situations where the photos are obviously unappealing stock food photography and don't remotely match the dish you ordered. While Western fine dining tends to go for a minimalist, text-only approach to their menus, for other restaurants around the world, even Michelin-starred ones, food pictures are both common and expected. In short, cultural context is everything.