The Restaurant Menu Red Flag That's Pretty Clear To See

We've probably all had the slightly stressful experience of looking down at an extensive restaurant menu and not knowing where to start. Although having more choices is generally seen as a good thing, lengthy lists of soups, burgers, sandwiches, and more can simply be overwhelming. However, a multipage menu isn't just an indecisive diner's worst nightmare — it's a restaurant red flag. 

For Guy Vaknin, owner and chef at the New York City restaurant group City Roots Hospitality, a giant menu could indicate one of two very different things. He told us in an interview, "It tells me that either the kitchen has a high capacity for handling many different dishes, or that many of the dishes are not fresh." 

As Vaknin acknowledged, some restaurants try to cater to as many demographics and tastes as possible, but lengthy menus are often a bad sign. He explained why, saying, "It makes sense to aim to capture more customers this way, but what often happens is that the quality of food suffers." An overly complicated menu can also dilute a restaurant's concept, Vaknin noted. For example, it's pretty clear what the chain restaurant with just two items on the menu is known for, but when a menu includes tens or even hundreds of options the house specialty can easily get lost in the mix.

There are at least two types of very long restaurant menus, and one is a bigger red flag than the other. Some menus offer numerous varieties of one dish. For example, a restaurant might offer many burgers, each with a slightly different topping combination. Other restaurants, on the other hand, offer a plethora of dishes like burgers, sushi, omelets, tacos, and pasta, plus a dessert menu straight out of a child's sugar-induced fever dream. For Guy Vaknin, the latter is worse — menus with too many different types of dishes and cuisines are a clear red flag. (Let's be real, burgers and sushi should not be served at the same restaurant.)

"It's hard to perfect a certain set of dishes, or style of cuisine, in a restaurant environment," Vaknin told us, emphasizing that many factors go into consistently serving up perfect plates of food. "If you spread yourself too thin and don't focus on a core menu, it's easy to produce subpar food and [it] requires cutting corners to make service happen each day." In other words, a long menu is nearly always a bad sign.