I ‘feel’ like it’s a pretentious thing. Like ‘we’re so wonderful you shouldn’t want to ask.’ I find it off-putting. And if they have an ingredient or two that may fluctuate wildly either build in a cushion or make it “MP.”
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When you’re running a restaurant, there’s not enough time to do everything that needs to be done.
Updating the menu online whenever you update the printed menu is ideal, but many people in the business don’t have a clue how to set that up to automate the process, and a lot of web designers don’t want to automate themselves out of the continuing work.
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I can’t believe we let @catholiver’s thread drift take us away from our very important Popcorn Chicken Schnitzel debate. (/s)
This is not about “we’re so wonderful you shouldn’t want to ask” AT ALL.
I believe that has ZERO influence in the decision not to post prices.
I agree that it is a business decision.
Updating menus is not a simple task.
Mistakes lead to guest dissatisfaction.
Would it be best for Nightshade to post menu prices online? Yes. I think the restaurant would agree.
Are they able to prioritize posting menu prices online at this time? Apparently not.
Is this a reason not to eat at Nightshade? For me, no. For you, I hope not.
I think a lot of the torches burning here are due to gourmet “foodie” culture and high expectations of service bumping up against the realities of operating a restaurant as a business.
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Honestly it depends on how your website is set up, if it’s as simple as uploading a pdf it’s easy. However many places I’ve worked the menu is not a pdf (to my chagrin) and requires you to send updates to the website team which is a pain and also they charge you every time you do it.
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And I totally respect how you feel. I just don’t.
Personally I would rather eat and try this Popcorn Schnitzel (which at least is a logical blend of two styles) if anything to judge for myself if it is delicious and if the cooking techniques and seasoning all made sense, than Robin San Francisco’s potato chip nigiri with creme fraiche and caviar on top… (and yes I have tried this since some friends were really curious about the place when they opened…and even now I feel rather ashamed)
If Nightshade tastes better than Mister Jiu’s then I’m all for it.
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Uploading menu via pdf is more convenient but leads to poorer SEO than updating the text.
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Interesting, never thought about that. Thanks!
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I’ve had some really good food at Mister Jiu’s.
Guessing someone’s motivation is really difficult and leads to more misunderstanding than anything else. I personally try to assume best intentions until it is very obvious to me otherwise.
Or if you prefer an Occam’s Razor approach then try this. What is the simplest explanation: we don’t want to deal with the task/cost of updating our website frequently and we want to avoid problems that inaccurate prices can create OR we want to seem fancy.
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Absolutely! This is where the whole “work smarter, not harder” thing comes into play. I’m sure this mindset is also why so many brilliant chefs with delicious food fail as restaurateurs: the food might be on-point, but the customer service and/or business management may not be strong enough. Creating delicious food is only part of the equation; history is littered with superior products that ultimately fail to catch-on and generate a sustainable profit due to reasons unrelated to the product itself. Since a restaurant is ultimately a business (an entity providing a product or service with the goal of making profit and deriving value for shareholders), a savvy restaurateur will consider these customer service aspects in selecting a website vendor.
Of course, in the age of social media, there’s always uploading to facebook and instagram, which costs nothing.
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or they can just not give a shit, upload a sample menu with no prices, and move on with their lives.
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Thank you for mentioning this, as this is also a very important point.
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Of course! There clearly is a contingent out there, though, who will feel alienated and take their money elsewhere. I personally think that’s a little extreme, but it’s a trade-off that should probably be considered.
I’ve seen loads of online menus with prices that have verbiage to the effect that prices may change.
And I just looked at yelp and had to chuckle. Of the menus I could actually read none had that had that popcorn pork chop 
What I learned from this thread - people won’t go to a restaurant if there are no published prices, but are totally okay with being bait/switched into paying a different amount than what was posted online as long as there is a disclaimer.
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That “disclaimer” lets you know that the price might change…but unlikely that it would double. As I said, if there’s a thought that a particular ingredient might great increase then either pad it somewhat or do the "disclaimer’ thing. I think it’s beyond odd that this is an issue with some people.
You’re the one who has an issue. I don’t judge a restaurant by its web site.
Well, I think it’s reasonable and fairly common sense that prices are only reflective as of the upload date. That’s why yelp, while often useful, is frustrating to use for this purpose because there is no sorting / filtering for recency. The 5-year-old menu picture isn’t something I find particularly useful.
That said, knowing the general price range of a restaurant is very useful information, as is the relative price variation between dishes. Even if a restaurant’s website is a year out of date, I can still reasonably ascertain that a menu will likely be within 5-10% of current pricing.
For fuck’s sake, we’re talking about restaurant food menus here; the vast majority of places don’t price their dishes by the second like the international commodities market 
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What you said! And quite well. Thanks.
@robert it’s not I that continues to whip this horse. There seems to be a lot of sensitivity on this issue. It’s likely that the people who have replied here already of a general idea of the prices. Most of you live in the area and likely read reviews when available.