The Genius Way Restaurant Menu Design Makes You Spend More Money

When you're first handed a restaurant menu, you likely read it top to bottom, right? If all of the entrees were at the top, you might not need to look at the appetizers — and that could mean skipping them altogether. It turns out restaurant menus are designed in ways to encourage customers to spend more money. This includes positioning certain categories and dishes before others, noting prices in a specific fashion, and using colors that encourage more eating.

There is psychology behind restaurant menus — and certain menu red flags to look for when dining. When you first pick up a menu, your eyes likely go right to the middle. As a result, the most important dishes are usually in the menu's center (the entrees) in a tactic known as the golden triangle: The most important items are positioned in the middle, and the next-most important ones are listed above to the right then left, respectively. Sometimes appetizers are next to the entrees, and other times they're above them, but hardly ever below. And in those appetizer and entree lists, one pricier menu item usually sits at the top. This sets the stage for your mind to believe the other menu items are a better deal, ultimately leading to less hesitation in ordering more food.

Restaurants often price their items $0.01 or $0.05 below the nearest dollar ($9.99 or $9.95 instead of $10). It's a tactic called charm pricing, and it tricks the mind into thinking you're spending substantially less than you really are. An item that costs $19.95 feels like more of a bargain than any price with a "2" in front of it; restaurants know this, and they price things that way on purpose. On the other hand, upscale restaurants might do the opposite, intentionally rounding to the nearest dollar and even removing the dollar sign altogether to convey a more sophisticated, elegant environment.

Your eyes perceive colors in certain ways, too, so if a menu uses a green font, your brain likens it to fresh food. Psychology suggests the color orange stimulates those hunger pangs, and the color red drives us to make a decision. When menus and items are printed in these colors, we're likely to spend more.

There are countless ways restaurants trick us into adding to that bill. Even simple descriptors like calling something a family recipe can trigger an emotional response that leads us to order the dish. The same goes for phrases like "catch of the day," which suggests a fresh, locally sourced, and likely costlier item, and "house-made," which implies that the recipe can't be found elsewhere. While none of these tactics are necessarily signs of a bad restaurant, it's important to know how your favorite food joint might be making you spend more money without you noticing.