Some fine-dining red flags include tasting menus with no clear theme or prices.
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A chef shared the red flags she looks out for when ordering a tasting menu at a high-end restaurant.It’s not a great sign if can’t find the price of the food or how long the meal will take.If the wine pairings cost as much as the food, it may signify that the meal isn’t a great value.
Many high-end restaurants offer curated multicourse tasting menus — elaborate, time-consuming, and often expensive ways of dining out that are about more than just food.
Telly Justice, executive chef and co-owner at fine-dining restaurant HAGS in Manhattan, told Business Insider she was skeptical going into her first tasting-menu experience at a three-star Michelin restaurant.
However, she had an incredible time and said the craftsmanship, care, and artistry were immediately apparent in every aspect of the menu.
Now, Justice holds that experience as a gold standard while both seeking out these experiences as a diner and creating them as a chef.
Here are a few red flags the chef keeps an eye out for when choosing to have a tasting menu at a fine-dining restaurant.
It’s unclear how much the meal costs
If you can’t find the prices listed for menu items, the restaurant is probably “a space for people that don’t need to know the prices,” Justice said.
It’s kind of a code to let you know that if you need to budget for this meal, it’s probably not for you.
The chef said the lack of prices could also mean the place is likely to take you and your wallet for a bit of a ride.
The menu feels overwhelmingly wordy
Complex dishes don’t always require complicated descriptions.
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“Menus that do too much talking and explaining tend to flag to me that this is somebody that has an insecurity with their cuisine that the food itself can’t speak and explain the concept on its own,” Justice said.
She prefers simple menus over ones packed with complex jargon, industry speak, or technical words.
“If you have to write a paragraph about a dish before I even enter the restaurant, I’m already exhausted,” she told BI.
No clear thread or theme connects the courses
Justice said it is “essential” that high-end tasting menus tie each course together somehow, whether through a vague theme or specific thread.
A lack of clear connection in the menu usually signals to her that the chef or investors are just scattering seeds to see what works.
“At that price point and for this kind of style of dining you want somebody that knows exactly what they’re good at,” she said.
You’re not clearly told how long of a time commitment your meal will be
Some tasting menus can take hours to serve.
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Restaurants should be able to clearly communicate how many courses a meal is or about how long you can expect to spend eating it.
If this isn’t clear, she said, the experience could be “all about the ego of the chef” and signify that diners’ time isn’t a priority.
If you do get an estimated timeframe, the eatery should stick to it.
“A restaurant should be able to keep a promise to its diners,” she added. “If you say dinner’s gonna be two hours, then I’m gonna plan my life around that.”
There’s a lot of pressure to pay for extras
Many tasting menus give diners the option to pay for extras like caviar courses, dish upgrades, or wine pairings.
Although these can be a lovely addition to your dining experience, Justice said, you shouldn’t feel pressured to pay for extras, and your meal shouldn’t feel less-than if you don’t.
Wine pairings cost the same as the food
Justice told BI “there should be a gap” between the cost of the wine pairings and the tasting menu itself.
When the two are close in cost, it signals to her that either the food is improperly priced or the wine is too expensive to be used reasonably in that pairing.
“If you want to showcase really boutique, expensive, collectible wines, then it’s awesome to have a higher-end tasting available for serious, serious drinkers,” she said. “But in reality, most people that go to tasting menus are not exclusively looking to spend $1,000 a meal.”
Rather, it’s a good sign when an eatery offers multiple tier options and price points for its wine pairings.
The space just doesn’t feel comfortable or warm
The physical comfort of the space is an essential part of a hospitable dining experience.
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Tasting menus “tend to be long experiences,” so Justice pays attention to whether the restaurant has created a generally comfortable and safe space.
She asks questions, like: “Do the chairs have backs? Do I feel like I can sit here for two to three hours and not leave feeling like I just got run over by a car?”
Justice also observes the vibe of the staff in the dining room, noting her interactions with servers and front-of-house workers. For example, they shouldn’t seem scared of their bosses or overly apologetic to diners.
Lastly, she checks to see if the restaurant is ADA-compliant — a diner in a wheelchair, for example, should be able to have as good of an experience as someone who isn’t.
Overall, Justice said, these sorts of things speak volumes about the type of hospitality she’s about to receive.
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